Syrian Canadian
 
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 80,000 (2015 estimate) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Montreal, Greater Toronto Area | |
| Languages | |
| Canadian English, Canadian French, Arabic (Syrian Arabic), Armenian, Kurdish, Turkmen, Aramaic | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity, Islam, and Judaism |
Syrian Canadians refers to Canadians who can trace their ancestry back to Syria. According to the 2011 Census there were 40,840 Canadians who claimed Syrian ancestry, an increase compared to the 2006 Census.
Syrians started immigrating to the Americas in the early part of the 1880s, the vast majority made South America their permanent home, a small percentage made their way to US, and an even smaller percentage settled in Canada. The overwhelming majority of Syrians who settled in Canada from the 1880s until the 1960s were of the Christian faith. The so-called Shepard of the lost flock, Saint Raphael Hawaweeny of Brooklyn, New York, came to Montreal in 1896 to help establish a Christian association called the Syrian Benevolent Society and then later on an Orthodox church in Montreal for the newly arrived Syrian faithful.
The leading factor for the immigration of Syrians has been to find better jobs. The early immigrants found themselves engaging in basic commerce, with the term 'peddler' becoming almost synonymous with 'Syrian'. Most of these peddlers were successful, and, with time, and after raising enough capital, some became importers and wholesalers, recruiting newcomers and supplying them with merchandise. Others opened small businesses in urban centres all over the country. Later, these merchants would gravitate towards larger urban locations, where the economy was flourishing. Smaller number of Syrians worked as labourers in factories, miners, or as lumber workers. Also, some became pioneers in the southern prairie regions of western Canada, and worked in farming. These workers settled in communities such as Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and Lac La Biche, Alberta. Few reached the Northwest Territories, the best known being Peter Baker, author of the book An Arctic Arab, and later elected as a member of the legislative assembly of the Northwest Territories. By the 1930s, many towns in the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, and western Canada had one or more stores run by Syrian immigrants.
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Wikipedia