Migration

In the late 1960s to mid-1970s thousands of Ecuadorean immigrants came to Canada in search of a better life. Although there is little information available about the class and regional origins of those emigrating to Canada, most appear to have been from the Andean highlands, with a sizeable number from the coastal region, particularly its largest city, Guayaquil. Ecuadoreans came to Canada primarily for financial, rather than political, reasons, a fact that distinguishes them from many other recent Latin American arrivals.

During the earliest phase of migration, in the 1950s and 1960s, Ecuadorean immigrants had been from Azuay, a highland province that had experienced an economic crisis with the collapse of the straw (“Panama”) hat industry. These individuals were apparently drawn to Toronto by Italian contractors in the construction business who were looking for cheap labour. By contrast, although most of the Ecuadoreans who arrived in Canada in the 1970s were not from wealthy backgrounds, they did have sufficient means to be able to come voluntarily. Few economic opportunities were available to them if they stayed in Ecuador even if they had a fairly good education. Without contacts, it was difficult to obtain employment that would permit a family to do more than survive.

During what Fernando Mata has called the Andean wave of Latin American immigration to Canada between 1970 and 1975, some 20,000 Ecuadoreans were able to take advantage of a fairly open immigration policy. The highest volume (16.9 percent of all Hispanic newcomers to Canada) arrived in 1975; since then the number has tapered off considerably. In the 1970s Canada needed workers to boost its industrial development, particularly in Ontario and Quebec, and government policy allowed visitors to apply for landed status after their arrival in Canada. This wave followed a tightening of laws in the United States restricting Ecuadorean access to that country, where thousands had immigrated in the 1950s. Some Ecuadoreans came to Canada with the intention of joining family members in the United States, though many ultimately remained in this country. In contrast to the United States, where the rate of return to Ecuador has been high, there is no evidence of such a pattern among Ecuadoreans in Canada.

Estimates of the size of the Canadian community today vary greatly. The 1991 census on ethnic origins indicates the very low number of 3,360 (2,700 single and 660 multiple responses). This figure raises the question of whether Ecuadoreans still define themselves as such, given that most arrived in Canada more than twenty years ago and the community has dispersed somewhat, though the majority have remained in the province of Ontario. Official immigration estimates of around 10,000 of course exclude those Ecuadoreans who may be in the country illegally. Unofficial calculations have ranged from 20,000 to 30,000. A reasonable estimate would place the number of Ecuadoreans in Canada today at 18,000.