Migration

The Greek-Canadian journalist George Vlassis in The Greeks in Canada (1953) indicates that Greek seamen had visited Canadian shores prior to 1800. In 1592 Juan de Fuca (Yannis Phokas), a Greek mariner from Cephalonia, explored the coast of what is now British Columbia while navigating for the Spanish navy. The Greek revolution (1821–30) launched Greek immigration to Canada. The pioneers were mainly from the Aegean islands and the Peloponnesus, especially poor villages in Arcadia and Laconia. Next came villagers from the mainland. In 1871 only thirty-nine persons of Greek origin were known to be living in Canada; by 1900 there were about 290 – most of them young, single males who lived in boarding-houses and saw themselves as sojourners. Some of these men married non-Greeks.

After 1900 immigration increased considerably, spurred by growing poverty, oppressive taxation, and political persecution at home and attracted by Canada’s policy of importing cheap labour for development, especially in transportation. But Greeks, as well as others from eastern and southern Europe, were “non-preferred” immigrants. In 1912 there were 5,740 persons in Canada of Greek origin, and in 1931, 9,450.

To people with lives disrupted by Italian and German occupation of Greece (1941–44), civil war (1946–49), and high unemployment, Ottawa’s more liberal post-war immigration policy became attractive. New regulations emphasized sponsorship of relatives and friends and admission of agriculturalists, domestic servants, nurses’ aids, and other workers nominated by Canadian employers. Between 1945 and 1971 more than 107,000 Greeks immigrated to Canada, with about 80 percent being sponsored by relatives or co-villagers. Unskilled workers – the largest group – became factory workers, restaurant employees, cleaners, and janitors. From 1950 to 1970 more than 10,500 young women (13 percent of all Greek immigrants to Canada) arrived as domestic servants. Most were in their twenties, came from poor Greek families, and had little education. Some were refugees from Iron Curtain countries who entered Greece during the civil war of 1946–49. These women soon sponsored family members and found jobs in factories or restaurants. In time most married and raised children, many of whom received college or university degrees. Some, with their husbands, established businesses such as restaurants.

Greek immigration to Canada reached its peak in 1967 and then declined gradually, probably because of improvement in the Greek economy, temporary emigration to Germany, political stability in Greece after 1974, and restrictive Canadian immigration policies. Such a downward shift may have decreased the ethnic group’s social cohesion and its ability to maintain its identity. The sex ratio of Greek immigrants to Canada has also been changing since the early 1940s. In 1941 only 26 percent of the Greeks in Canada were females; by 1971, 47 percent.

After World War II there was also slow immigration of Greek Cypriots to Canada; they came from Cyprus itself as well as from other countries such as Greece and England. In 1963 an influx resulted from the uprising of the Turkish Cypriot minority and the bombings of towns and villages in southeastern Cyprus. Many Greek Cypriots, especially tradesmen and professionals, immigrated to Canada. The largest wave arrived in 1974 after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus; 200,000 Greeks were uprooted from northern Cyprus and became refugees in their homeland. Many immigrated to Canada as refugees or sponsored by relatives, and others, to study – almost all spoke English. Occupations represented included tradesmen, secretaries, nurses, bank managers and tellers, franchise store owners, chartered accountants, doctors, and professors; some Greek Cypriots obtained jobs in federal and provincial offices. Most settled in Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, and Kitchener. In 1997 Canada had over 25,000 people of Greek Cypriot descent, most of them in or near to Metro Toronto.

The 1991 census numbered Greek Canadians who provided only one ethnic origin at 151,150; multiple responses increased the figure to 191,480. Leaders of Greek-Canadian communities estimated that in 1997 there were over 250,000 people of Greek descent from various countries living in Canada.