Migration

When Arabic-speaking immigrants arrived in Canada in the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they were officially classified as “Syrians and Turks,” but in the five censuses from 1911 to 1951, Syrians were listed separately. The label Syrian was practical and useful because most Arabic-speaking people in Canada then came from the Greater Syria region, today the countries of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine. Immigrants themselves accepted Syrian as an appropriate name until Syria and Lebanon emerged as separate political entities. At this point, Arab immigrants began to identify with either Syria or Lebanon, depending on the location of their ancestral community of origin. Thus, in the 1961 Canadian census the designation was slightly modified to read “Syrian-Lebanese,” presumably in response to the political realities of the region.

Further changes in the census categorization of Arab-origin Canadians followed. For example, the figures reported in the 1971 Canadian census were based on “mother tongue” rather than “ethnic origin.” In 1981 the categories of single and multiple origins were introduced and in 1991 separate entries were provided for a number Arab-origin groups, namely, Lebanese, Syrians, Egyptians, Maghrebis, Somalis, Palestinians, and Iraqis.

Since the early 1960s, increasing numbers of Arab immigrants have come to Canada from countries other than Syria and Lebanon, notably Egypt and Morocco but also from the Gulf region and elsewhere. Official immigration statistics have grouped all the new arrivals, Arab or otherwise, under the country of birth or the country of last permanent residence. All of these entries represent politically independent states of the League of Arab States whose inhabitants, while not sharing a common citizenship, do share common ethnocultural origins. In general, they share an Arab identity that manifests itself in the Arabic language and cultural traditions which include myths and folklore, music, art forms, food, and customs. The similarities largely outweigh variations produced by factors like original citizenship, dialect, sectarian loyalty, and political affiliation.

In practice, it is not easy to draw sharp or definitive boundaries around the Arab-Canadian community, but it may be helpful to provide a definition. As used here, the term Arab Canadian refers to first-generation Christian or Muslim immigrants and their offspring who identify simply as Arabs. Arab Canadians have their origins directly or indirectly in the Arab states and their roots are in the Arabic language and culture. The term will also apply to the second and succeeding generations of individuals of Arab or of mixed Arab and non-Arab parentage, again regardless of religious affiliation or ancestral country of origin. It is recognized that some members of the second or later generations of Arab Canadians may have only a small portion of Arab ancestry, may have English or French as their mother tongue, and may be fully assimilated or acculturated as Canadians.