Arrival and Settlement

According to official statistics, between 1882 and 1992 a total of 215,331 immigrants from the Arab world arrived in Canada. Of these, only 14,510, almost 7 percent, arrived during the eighty years from 1882 to 1961. The remaining 200,821, or roughly 93 percent, arrived in large numbers over the thirty years between 1962 and 1992. These are the two distinctive periods of Arab immigration to Canada which are labelled as the “pioneer wave” and the “new wave” respectively. For example, the new wave of Arab immigration to Canada is different from the pioneer wave not only in terms of volume but also in terms of the countries of origin of the immigrants and these immigrants’ social, economic, political, and educational characteristics. Additionally, over the last ten to fifteen years new-wave Arab immigrants have included two types that did not figure prominently in the pioneer wave: refugees and investors/entrepreneurs.

It will be worthwhile to discuss these two waves of immigration separately, but first a word of caution regarding statistics on Arab immigration and on the size of the Arab-Canadian community is in order.

Canadian census data may not always be comparable. For example, in the 1971 Canadian census, the figure for Arabs (28,550) covers only those respondents who claimed Arabic as their mother tongue. This figure is a substantial underestimation of the actual size of the Arab group because it does not include those Arabs whose mother tongue was not Arabic or was not reported as such. Technically, the 1971 figure is not comparable to the figures given for the preceding and subsequent censuses; thus, researchers are often forced to rely on estimates.

A second important source of information on Arab Canadians is provided by Canadian government immigration statistics. Again, readers must be cautioned that changes in definitions and in the forms of reporting – for example, shifts in the way immigrants are grouped by “ethnic origin,” by “country of birth,” or by “country of last permanent residence” – render official statistics comparable only to a degree. Readers should note that there may be differences between the statistics cited in the present essay and those reported elsewhere in this encyclopedia for specific Arab-origin groups like the Lebanese, Syrians, Egyptians, and so on. Any differences encountered between any of these entries are due more to variations in the methodological procedures and definitions behind the statistics than to mathematical errors. Despite differences that may be encountered from one study to another, however, there are no serious distortions of the larger picture.

The distinction of being the first recorded Arab immigrant to set foot on Canadian soil goes to Abraham Bounadere, who arrived in 1882 from the country now known as Lebanon. During the period 1891–1900, an annual average of about 150 Arab immigrants arrived in Canada. In the first twelve years of the twentieth century, the annual average number of arrivals increased to about 450. Thus, while in 1901 there were an estimated 2,000 people of Arab origin in Canada, by 1911 the total had increased to 6,000 to 7,000. Over the following sixty years to 1961, however, relatively few Arab immigrants were admitted to Canada.

The decline in the immigration of Syrian- or Arab-origin people to Canada from 1911 to 1961 occurred for a number of reasons. First, the free movement of people was curtailed greatly because of World War I, the Great Depression of the 1930s, and World War II. During these difficult times, Canada adopted a restrictive immigration policy which affected all would-be immigrants, except those from Britain and the United States. The second and more crucial reason for the curbing of Arab-origin people to Canada during the period up to World War II was a 1908 order-in-council, that placed severe restrictions on the admission of all “Asiatic” immigrants. Syrian immigrants were included in this category, and, in addition, were confounded with Turks, who had been Canada’s enemies during World War I.

Although Canada began to relax restrictions on the admission of immigrants from Asiatic countries after World War II, for Syrian or Arab immigrants in general these restrictions were not reduced significantly until 1962. It was at this point that a new, more diverse immigration of Arabs to Canada began and it is this immigration that has since dominated the group’s settlement here.

Descriptive accounts of early Arab-Syrian immigrants to Canada characterize them as mostly single, relatively young males who were predominantly Eastern Christians (Maronite, Melkite, and Orthodox). It seems that, in the first few years of Syrian immigration to Canada, women were almost totally absent because of Middle Eastern cultural restrictions on their independent movement. In the late 1880s, however, some couples with children, as well as unattached women began to arrive. Also, as men became more established socially and economically, women immigrated as prospective marriage partners if a suitor was unable to go to the “old country” to marry and then accompany his bride to Canada. Hence, most women of the pioneer period entered Canada as relatives or under the sponsorship of Syrian males already resident in this country. In addition to their domestic responsibilities, these early immigrant women often worked alongside their male kin in business and related activities and they might also provide food and lodging for boarders as another way to supplement the family income.

Initially, Montreal was the most common destination for Arab immigrants. In Montreal many started as pedlars, ditch diggers, factory workers, or as unskilled labourers in a variety of service-related occupations. Of all the occupations in which the early Arab immigrants were involved, however, pedlary was to have the most profound effect not only on their economic well being but also on the group’s geographical distribution in Canada. At first, pedlars confined their activities to Montreal and its environs where they came to be supported by a yet more enterprising group of Arab immigrants, those who opened wholesale stores to replenish the pedlars’ merchandise.

The Montreal experience was encouraging, and energetic Arab entrepreneurs, driven by dreams of success, began to move to other cities and provinces in the late 1880s and 1890s. By the turn of the century, they had penetrated the Quebec-Ontario countryside and also established businesses in Trois-Rivières, Ottawa, Toronto, London, Windsor (Leamington), Sault Ste Marie, and North Bay. Syrian business ventures, which lasted for varying amounts of time, were also established in northern Ontario communities like Cobalt, Cochrane, Cowganda, Elk Lake, Matheson, and New Liskeard.

While some Arab Canadians settled permanently in smaller towns throughout the region, it was in larger cities like Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa that more substantive settlements and their accompanying support institutions were established. These settlements served dual purposes; they attracted new arrivals from the Arab east on the one hand, and on the other they functioned as staging posts for the creation of more Arab settlements throughout the region.

The next phase of settlement formation occurred in the first decade of this century when Arab immigrants spread into the Maritime provinces and to western Canada. In Atlantic Canada the largest Syrian settlement was established in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and in the Sydney-Glace Bay region of the same province. These settlements were followed by others in Saint John, Charlottetown, and St John’s, in that order. Formation of Arab settlements in western Canada occurred first in Winnipeg and Edmonton, while smaller groups were established also in Saskatoon, Calgary, and Vancouver.

A few Syrian-Arab families went into farming and homesteaded mainly around Saskatoon and Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and also in Manitoba and southern Alberta. Some Syrian immigrants settled in smaller centres throughout western Canada but, as a rule, supportive ethnic institutions were founded mainly in the larger urban settlements. The only exception is the small northern Alberta town of Lac La Biche, where the first Arab immigrant was recorded in 1904. After World War II, an identifiable Arab-Muslim community evolved in Lac La Biche, with a mosque and other distinctive ethnic organizations. Despite the relatively small number of Arab-origin residents in this northern Alberta community, their ethnic cohesion was due largely to their loyalty to their Lebanese ancestry, and to their success as fur traders, mink ranchers, and shopkeepers.

Before the end of World War II, 86 percent of all Syrian-born immigrants were classified as “urban.” The percentages varied by province, with New Brunswick, at 94 percent, being the highest and Ontario, at 64 percent, the lowest. Another indication of the urban nature of Syrian settlement is provided by the 1941 census, which reported that 83 percent of Syrians lived in places with populations of 1,000 and over, while 52 percent lived in cities of 30,000 or more.

During the period from 1911 to 1931, approximately 8 out of 10 Syrian-born immigrants lived in Quebec and Ontario. The province with the next highest density was Nova Scotia. By 1941 Quebec and Ontario accounted for two-thirds of this immigrant group and Quebec had an Arab community that was slightly larger than that of Ontario. Nova Scotia ranked third and it was followed in order by Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Alberta.

Some ten years later, in 1951, there was a change in the geographical distribution of Canada’s Arab population. While Quebec and Ontario continued to account for about two-thirds of the total number, Ontario’s Arab community exceeded Quebec’s by a significant margin. The Arab population of Nova Scotia ranked third, but it had declined from its 1941 total. The data for 1961 reflect essentially the same pattern of geographical distribution as that reported ten years earlier, but the size of Arab communities in almost all the provinces was on the increase.

Early Arab immigrants were relatively evenly spread throughout the inhabited areas of Canada and, within Canadian cities, they were also fairly well dispersed. Then as now, Arab-Canadian communities were more of a mental construct rather than physical reality. They were, above all, communities of interest, of social and kinship networks that transcended neighbourhood and municipal boundaries.

During the period 1962–92 the annual average of arrivals was 6,694, compared to the average of 181 per year recorded for the eighty years of the pioneer wave from 1882 to 1962.

In terms of volume, post-1962 immigration of Arabs to Canada has continued without interruption to the present. To be sure, the numbers have ebbed and flowed during this period but in general immigration has intensified. For example, in the period 1961–70, an average of about 2,884 Arab immigrants arrived every year. The comparable averages for the subsequent periods are: 3,986 per year for 1971–80; 8,319 per year for 1981–90; and 24,615 immigrants per year for 1991–92.

The substantial growth in Arab immigration to Canada is due largely to more permissive immigration regulations adopted by the Canadian government. Shortly after World War II, the Chinese Immigration Act was repealed and the continuous-journey regulation for Asians was rescinded. Also, residents of Canada were allowed to sponsor different classes of relatives, although the policy allowed more degrees of sponsorable relatives for citizens of European than Asiatic countries. For sponsorship purposes, however, citizens of many Middle Eastern countries came to be treated as Europeans rather than Asiatics. Finally and most important, regulations designed to reduce discrimination on the basis of race or national origin were passed in 1962 and 1967. Collectively, these regulations allowed Arab nationals, among others, to sponsor more degrees of relatives and also provided Arab nationals with more access as independent immigrants. Moreover, the admission of large numbers of refugees, investors, and entrepreneurs from the Arab world, particularly in the past two decades, has been a major factor for the more recent increase in size of the Arab community in Canada.

The large inflow of Arab immigrants since 1962 has radically altered the demographics of this community. For example, the 1991 Canadian census indicates that the immigrant or foreign-born population in the Arab community accounts for about 75 percent of the total, compared to only 16 percent foreign-born for the general Canadian population. In addition, the 1991 census records 16,460 Arab-origin, non-permanent residents, that is, persons who hold a student or employment authorization or a minister’s permit, or who are refugee claimants. This category of non-permanent residents was introduced for the first time in the 1991 census mainly because it represents a growing segment of the Canadian population. The Arab non-permanent residents account for over 7 percent of the Arab-Canadian population, while, for Canada at large, the non-perma-nent residents account for less than 1 percent of the total population.

Another notable feature of the new wave of Arab immigration to Canada is its diversity. For example, about four out of ten of these immigrants came from Lebanon; two out of ten came from Egypt; and the balance came from other Arab states. These included, in order, Morocco, Syria, and Somalia, with some also from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Algeria, and Tunisia. More than six out of ten of these immigrants arrived in 1981 or later.

The 1991 Canadian census provides useful data for the numbers of immigrants from Arab countries of birth, including their sex. In the Arab world, while country of birth does not necessarily denote citizenship, it is nevertheless a reasonably good indicator of citizenship status. According to the census, twenty Arab-state citizenships, twenty-one if Palestinians are included in the total, are represented in the Canadian population today, compared to a much smaller number of citizenships, mostly Syrian and Lebanese, for the pre-1962 period. Currently, the largest citizenship group among Arab immigrants by far is the Lebanese, who account for almost 40 percent of the total, followed by Egyptians at 20 percent, Moroccans at 12 percent, and Syrians at almost 8 percent. In combination, these four citizenship groups account for almost eight out of ten Arab Canadians or 78.7 percent of the total.

There are other important points to note about postwar Arab immigration to Canada. One of the most obvious is the significant increase in the number of immigrants from Lebanon that occurred during the fifteen-year civil war that began in 1976. Although the Lebanese have always led numerically in terms of Arab immigration to Canada, their lead has grown substantially in the past twenty or so years. Also, in the first six decades of this century, most Lebanese immigrants were Christians, but since 1962 Muslims have become a significant component of this stream.

The second-largest Arab-immigrant group, the Egyptians, arrived in relatively large numbers through most of the 1960s and then declined perceptibly from about the mid-1970s. However, their numbers began to rise again from 1987. Generally speaking, the number of immigrants from Egypt has been significantly lower than those from Lebanon, but Egyptians remain second to the Lebanese in the Arab-Canadian population. Like the Lebanese, Egyptian immigrants at first were largely Christian, that is, Coptic, but more recently an increasing number of this group have been Muslims.

Before 1989, there were relatively few Somali immigrants in Canada, but, from about 1989–90, large numbers of Somalis, fleeing the ravages of the civil war in Somalia, arrived in Canada as immigrants/refugees. The large majority of these immigrants are Muslims and most of them have settled either in Toronto or Ottawa.

Immigrants from the region of the Arabian Gulf were few in number in Canada before 1981, but, over the following decade, a total of 21,552 from countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council – namely, Bahrain (935), Kuwait (6,558), Oman (343), Qatar (818), Saudi Arabia (6,955), and United Arab Emirates (5,943) – immigrated to Canada. These immigrants represented 16.4 percent of the total immigration from the Arab world for that decade. As a group during this period they exceeded immigrants from Egypt, otherwise the second-largest single source of Arab immigration to Canada, by more than 61 percent. While some of these immigrants from the Gulf region may have travelled with the citizenship of their source country, it is believed that a large but undetermined number were sojourners in those countries, that is, non-natives of the region. Palestinian-ori-gin immigrants are reportedly an important component of this total.

Unlike their earlier counterparts, the new wave of Arab immigrants has included two new immigrant classifications, investors-entrepreneurs and refugees. According to immigration statistics derived on the basis of “country of last permanent residence,” the first of these two classifications for the ten-year period 1983–92 accounted for 12,774 entrepreneurs and 605 investors from countries of the Arab world. Most of these immigrants came primarily from Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, but there was also strong representation from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria.

For those immigrants classified as refugees, a total of 24,813 arrived from countries of the Arab world during the period 1983–92, a total that represents about 20 percent of the total volume of immigration from the Arab world for that period. About eight out of ten of these refugees, or 20,142, were landed between 1990 and 1992. The major sources of refugees from Arab states are Somalia (9,488), Lebanon (5,851), Iraq (5,042), and, to a much lesser extent, Sudan (795) and Kuwait (627). Taken together, these countries account for about 9 out of 10 refugee arrivals from the Arab region. The balance have arrived from virtually all of the remaining Arab countries.

The immigrants from the Arab world who arrived from 1962, like their earlier counterparts, were a youthful group. In the years 1981–92, for example, nearly 24 percent were less than 15 years of age; 20 percent were between 15 and 24; 42 percent were from 25 to 44; 12 percent were 45 to 64; and less than 3 percent were 65 or older. In comparison, those identified in the 1991 census as “English Canadians” showed a different age structure, with only 18 percent who were less than 15 years of age, for example, and 16 percent who were 65 years of age or older. In general, the contrast between Arab-origin immigrants and English Canadians is evident in all five age categories but is most pronounced in later years; 37 percent of English Canadians and only 14 percent of Arab-origin immigrants are 45 years of age or older.

Whereas the age distribution of recent immigrants from the Arab world favours younger age groups, their sex distribution is tilted in favour of males. Overall, there are about 127 males for every 100 females in this group of immigrants. Male to female percentages, however, have ranged widely even among the larger Arab-immigrant groups, from 107 for Syrians and 112 for Egyptians to 152 for Somalis.

According to official immigration statistics, for the period 1981–92, a total of 132,221 immigrants arrived, primarily from Lebanon but also from Egypt, Somalia, Morocco, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Jordan, Sudan, and Tunisia. The most popular destination for immigrants over this decade was Quebec, which accounts for over 51 percent of the total, followed by Ontario at 37 percent, Alberta at 5 percent, and British Columbia and Nova Scotia at 2 percent each. The vast majority of immigrants from three French-oriented Arab states – Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia – tended to gravitate towards Quebec. In comparison, immigrants from Iraq, Somalia, and Sudan tended to gravitate towards Ontario. The remaining Arab-ori-gin immigrants were divided more or less equally between Quebec on the one hand, and Ontario and the other English-speaking provinces on the other.

Again, considering only recent years in which immigration from the Arab world was heavy, official immigration statistics for the period 1985–92 indicate that nearly one-half of Arab-origin immigrants were destined to join the Canadian labour force while the balance were family dependants, essentially spouses and children, including students. This relatively low dependency ratio among Arab-origin immigrants underlines the group’s youthfulness as well as the large number of unattached immigrants.

The following figures describe the distribution of intended occupations of those who were destined for the labour force: 5.5 percent indicated intentions to work as entrepreneurs or investors; 8.6 percent intended to pursue managerial or administrative occupations; 16 percent intended to pursue a variety of professions (in science, engineering, medicine and health, teaching, and so on); 17.5 percent indicated an intention to work in serv-ice-sector occupations (clerical, sales, and other services); 15.1 percent intended to pursue careers in the processing, manufacturing, and construction industries; and only 0.8 percent intended to pursue occupations in the primary sector (farming, fishing, forestry, and mining). The occupational intentions of the remaining 36.6 percent were not recorded. These data suggest the relatively high occupational, and indirectly the high educational, qualifications of new-wave immigrants from the Arab world, particularly in comparison with those who arrived before 1962.

From the preceding information it is clear that the Arab-Canadian community grew slowly to a total of some 12,300 in 1951 but that in the second half of this century it has grown dramatically to 151,125 in 1991. This represents a twelvefold increase in the forty-year period 1951–91, and the increase has been due largely to immigration.

The growth of the Arab community is even more dramatic than it appears for the following reason. Both in the 1981 and 1991 census years, in answering the question on ethnic origin, respondents could give a single origin like Lebanese, Egyptian, or even Arab, for example, or multiple origin like Lebanese and Italian and so on. The census data are reported separately for single- and multiple-origins categories. The population figure for the Arab community in 1991 – 151,125 – is only the single-origins category. During the same year, 52,820 Canadians reported Arab multiple origins, thereby producing a total of 203,945 of Arab-origin Canadians. In addition, the non-permanent resident Arab population in Canada – which includes, among others, mostly refugee claimants and persons on ministerial permit – totals an additional 16,460. By our own estimate, based on immigration trends and a modest rate of natural increase, Arab-origin Canadians probably totalled between 275,000 and 300,000 by mid-1996.

Over 74 percent of respondents in the 1991 census reported single origins, while the balance reported multiple origins. Further, but not unexpectedly, the percentage of respondents who reported multiple origins ranges from a low of 21.9 percent for recent immigrants like the Somalis to a high of 45.7 percent for the more established subgroups of Arab immigrants like the Syrians. The high percentage of multiple origins among Syrians reflects the likely impact of intermarriage over several generations as well as the nature of their ethnic identity. Census data from 1991 also shows that the number of males per 100 females is significantly higher for single- (126.8) than multiple- (110.6) origins respondents. Again, this suggests that modern Arab immigrants are generally male and relatively young and unattached, and that traditional family life tends to be more stable among multiple- rather than single-origin respondents.

Arab-origin Canadians are settled predominantly in Quebec and Ontario, with these two provinces accounting for some 85 percent of the total. Today, Ontario’s Arab community is slightly larger than the one in Quebec. In Quebec the heaviest concentration of Arabs is in metropolitan Montreal; in Ontario they are to be found largely in Toronto and vicinity but also in Ottawa, Windsor, London, and Hamilton.

The Arab community of Alberta ranks third among the provinces, accounting for 8.5 percent of all Arab Canadians, concentrated largely in Edmonton and Calgary. Next, the Arab communities of British Columbia (largely in Vancouver) and Nova Scotia (largely in Halifax) account for 2.6 percent and 1.8 percent of Arab Canadians respectively.

As noted, in the early years of Arab immigration to Arabs Canada there was some settlement in Nova Scotia and the other maritime provinces. Indeed, before World War II, the Arab population in Nova Scotia was third in size behind Ontario and Quebec. However, in the post-war period, Nova Scotia lost ground to Alberta and British Columbia, and it now ranks a distant fifth.

The largest citizenship group among Arab Canadians are the Lebanese, who account for nearly one-half (49.1 percent) of the total, followed by Egyptians at 12.5 percent, Maghrebis at 5.9 percent, Syrians at 4.7 percent, Somalis at 4.7 percent, Palestinians 2.7 percent, and Iraqis at 2.3 percent. The remaining 18 percent includes individuals from different Arab countries who, for the purpose of the Canadian census of 1991, define their ethnic origin not by Arab-country origin or citizenship but rather by the generic label “Arab.” It is assumed that this generic category includes representatives of the seven aforementioned citizenship groups, as well as other groups – for example, Algerian, Jordanian-Pales-tinian, Tunisian – that are not indicated elsewhere. Knowledge of the country of origin of respondents choosing the Arab-ethnic category may change the percentage distribution of the citizenship groups represented in the community, but only slightly. Better categorization of this 18 percent of the total would probably increase the numbers of Syrians, Palestinians, Jordanians, and, to a lesser degree, Iraqis in Canada.

As a group, Arab-origin Canadians are younger than the general Canadian population. For example, according to the 1991 census, about 25 percent of Arab Canadians were less than 15 years of age; 15 percent were between 15 and 24; 38 percent were between 25 and 44; 17 percent were between 45 and 64; and less than 6 percent were 65 or older. Also, about one in four of this older age group were 75 years of age or older. As with the general Canadian population, there is a predominance of women in older age groups.