Intergroup Relations

In general, Czechs in Canada have shown a high degree of behavioural and institutional assimilation since the 1940s. As individuals they retain their Czech identity but they often do not act through ethnic institutions. This is in part because a large majority of Czechs have arrived in Canada fairly recently, and they have been able to draw upon non-ethnic organizations and churches as well as government agencies for support. Thus, many Czechs have been able to survive without belonging to ethnic organizations.

In Canada, Czechs have maintained strong ties with Slovaks, Germans, Poles, and Hungarians, groups with whom they shared common frontiers or proximity in Europe. This is reflected in the locations where they originally chose to settle in Canada, usually near or within largely German, Slovak, or Polish neighbourhoods. While their numbers were still small, many Czechs shared churches, unions, and fraternal benefit societies with these groups, and especially with the Slovaks. As the Czech community grew, it formed its own organizations, however, and also, as Czechs established themselves, they moved rather quickly out of the old neighbourhoods so that they were never ghettoized. Even while they were living near Slavic neighbours, they had a high rate of intermarriage, especially favouring those with Anglo-German roots. In essence, Czechs tended to favour rapid entry into Canadian institutions and society.

Politically and institutionally the most intensive relationship of the Czechs in Canada has been with the Slovaks. This is a natural outcome of their shared statehood, which lasted from 1918 to 1993. Prior to World War I, relations between the Czechs and Slovaks in the homeland were limited to contacts between the intellectual elites of both groups. During the war, however, political cooperation between the two peoples increased. Czechs in Canada and the United States as well as in Europe joined with Slovaks, and together they created a new and independent Czechoslovak state. But from the the moment of its inception, friction developed between Czechs and Slovaks, both at home and abroad. This led to the division of some “Czechoslovak” organizations into Czech and Slovak branches or to outright separation.

The events of World War II brought some Czechs and Slovaks together to oppose Nazi Germany’s domination of their homeland, although their attempts at cooperation also accentuated many internal political divisions between the two groups. After 1948 the common menace of Soviet communism again prompted some reconciliation, but relations never again achieved the consensus of 1914–18, so that some distinctly Czech and Slovak associations remained. After 1989 relations were further strained until the formation of the independent states of Slovakia and the Czech Republic finally affirmed the separation of the two peoples, both at home and abroad. Nevertheless, the present gulf between the Czechs and the Slovaks at the end of the twentieth century has not erased seventy-five years of shared history, nor has it fully eroded relations between the two groups in Canada. Many Czechs and Slovaks continue to take part in mutual organizations and churches, to publish joint periodicals, and to belong to the shared Czechoslovak National Association.