Discover Canada's Immigration History and How Newcomers Built a Nation

Immigration is when people move from one country to another country to live. Canada has a long history of people arriving from many parts of the world. When you study immigration history, you learn why people came to Canada and how their arrival changed the country.

You can connect this topic to what you already know about Migration Stories and Early Communities, which show how people have always moved to find better lives.

People immigrated to Canada for many different reasons throughout history. Some came looking for free land to farm. Others came to find jobs or escape danger in their home countries.

Here are some important examples you should know:

• 1840s Irish Immigration: A terrible disease destroyed Ireland's potato crops, causing a famine. Thousands of Irish families sailed to Canada to find food and work.
• 1880s Prairie Settlement: The Canadian government offered free land to settlers. Over three million people from Europe moved to Manitoba and Saskatchewan to farm wheat and start new towns.
• 1880s Chinese Railway Workers: Thousands of Chinese workers came to Canada to help build the Canadian Pacific Railway through the Rocky Mountains. Their arrival caused the population in British Columbia to grow rapidly.
• 1899 Doukhobors: The Doukhobors fled Russia because they were treated unfairly for their beliefs against war. They built peaceful farming communities in Saskatchewan and British Columbia.
• After World War II: Canada needed workers for its growing industries. The government welcomed immigrants, and cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal grew quickly.
• 1956 Hungarian Refugees: Over 37,000 Hungarian people came to Canada after a powerful army threatened their safety. Canada helped them find homes and jobs.
• 1967 Points-Based System: Canada created a new way to choose immigrants based on education, job skills, and language abilities to help the economy grow.
• Late 1970s1980s Vietnamese Boat People: Thousands of refugees from Vietnam came to Canada escaping war and persecution. Canada gave them safety and a new home.

Each wave of immigration caused Canada's population to grow. Small prairie towns that once had a few hundred people suddenly had thousands of new residents. Big cities grew larger and more diverse.

You can learn more about how people settled across the land by exploring Human Settlement Patterns and Distribution and how different groups interacted through Cultural Interactions.

Immigration: Immigration means moving from one country to another country to live there permanently. When someone immigrates, they leave their home country and start a new life somewhere else.

Immigrant: An immigrant is a person who leaves their home country to live in a new country. For example, Irish families who moved to Canada in the 1840s were immigrants.

Migration: Migration describes when people move from one place to another. This can mean moving between countries or between different parts of the same country.

Population: Population means the total number of people living in a place, like a town, city, or country. When many immigrants arrive, the population of a place increases.

Settlement: A settlement is a place where people start a new community. When immigrants arrived on the prairies, they built settlements new towns and farms.

Newcomer: A newcomer is someone who has just arrived in a new place or country. Many newcomers came to Canada looking for safety and better opportunities.

Refugee: A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their home country because of danger, war, or unfair treatment. The Vietnamese Boat People and Hungarian immigrants were refugees.

Census: A census is when the government counts all the people living in a country or area. Governments use a census to know how many people live in each place.

Frontier: The frontier was the edge of settled land, beyond which the land had not yet been developed into towns or farms. Early settlers pushed the frontier further as they built new communities.

Pioneers: Pioneers were among the first people to move into and settle a new area. Prairie settlers who built the first farms and towns were pioneers.

Gold Rush: The Gold Rush was a time when thousands of people rushed to a new area hoping to find gold and become wealthy. Gold rushes caused rapid population growth in those areas.

Persecution: Persecution means being treated very unfairly or dangerously because of who you are or what you believe. Many immigrants came to Canada to escape persecution in their home countries.

Points-Based Immigration System: This is a way of choosing immigrants by giving points for things like education, job skills, and language ability. Canada introduced this system in 1967.

You can practice by thinking about the reasons people came to Canada at different times. Ask yourself: Was it for land? For safety? For jobs? Connecting the reason to the time period will help you answer questions about immigration history.

You can also practice by learning the key vocabulary words above. Try using each word in a sentence about Canada's history to help you remember what it means.

Before exploring immigration history, you should be familiar with some important ideas. In Migration Stories, you learned how and why people move from place to place. In Early Communities, you discovered how the first communities were formed. You also explored Community Development to understand how communities grow and change, and Interaction Effects to see how different groups of people affect each other when they meet.

Immigration history connects to many other important topics you will explore. You already know about First Peoples and Newcomers, which helps you understand the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the immigrants who arrived in Canada. You can also connect immigration to Cultural Interactions, which shows how different cultures influence each other when people from different backgrounds live together.

What you learn here will prepare you for upcoming topics. In New Canadians, you will explore what it means to become a Canadian citizen today. In Population Growth, you will look more closely at how Canada's population has changed over time. You will also study Forming Canada to understand how immigration helped shape the country, and Traditional Territories to learn about the land where all of this history took place. Finally, Territorial Growth will show you how Canada's borders and regions expanded as more people arrived.