Arab Canadians

Last updated
Arab Canadians
Arabo-Canadiens
كنديون عرب
Arab Canadians by census division.svg
Arab Canadians as percent of population by census division (2021)
Total population
690,000

1.9% of the total Canadian population (2021)

(2021 Census) [1]
Regions with significant populations
Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Laval, Mississauga, Windsor, London, Edmonton
Languages
Religion
Related ethnic groups

Arab Canadians (French : Arabo-Canadiens) come from all of the countries of the Arab world. According to the 2021 Census, there were 690,000 Canadians, or 1.9%, who claimed Arab ancestry. [4] According to the 2011 census there were 380,620 Canadians who claimed full or partial ancestry from an Arabic-speaking country. [5] [ verify ] The large majority of the Canadians of Arab origin population live in either Ontario or Quebec. [6]

Contents

Demographics

The distribution of the Arab population of Canada according to the 2001, 2011, and 2016 Canadian censuses was as follows:[ verify ]

Province or territory Arabs 2001% 2001Arabs 2011% 2011Arabs 2016% 2016Arabs 2021% 2021
Flag of Quebec.svg  Québec 73,3451.0%166,2602.2%213,7402.7%280,0753.3%
Flag of Ontario.svg  Ontario 88,5450.8%151,6451.2%210,4351.6%284,2152.0%
Flag of Alberta.svg  Alberta 19,3200.7%34,9201.0%56,7001.4%69,5051.6%
Flag of British Columbia.svg  British Columbia 6,6050.2%14,0900.3%19,8400.4%28,0100.6%
Flag of Nova Scotia.svg  Nova Scotia 3,6100.4%6,2850.7%8,1100.9%10,6101.1%
Flag of Manitoba.svg  Manitoba 1,2300.1%3,2400.3%5,0300.4%7,8200.6%
Flag of Saskatchewan.svg  Saskatchewan 9000.1%2,0950.2%4,3000.4%5,5750.5%
Flag of New Brunswick.svg  New Brunswick 5800.1%1,3800.2%2,9600.4%5,0600.7%
Flag of Newfoundland and Labrador.svg  Newfoundland and Labrador 2700.1%3700.1%1,3750.3%1,7400.3%
Flag of Prince Edward Island.svg  Prince Edward Island 1750.0%2000.1%5850.4%1,1250.7%
Flag of the Northwest Territories.svg  Northwest Territories 800.2%1100.3%1000.2%2250.6%
Flag of Nunavut.svg  Nunavut 100.0%150.0%400.1%350.1%
Flag of Yukon.svg  Yukon 100.0%00.0%100.0%200.1
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 194,6850.7%380,620 [7] 1.2%523,235 [7] 1.5%694,015 [7] 1.9%

By Arabic-speaking country

Country [8] 2016 [5]
Flag of Lebanon.svg  Lebanon 219,555’´*
Flag of Algeria.svg  Algeria 104,395´’
Flag of Morocco.svg  Morocco 103,945’´*
Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg  Saudi Arabia 86,810’´*
Flag of Syria.svg  Syria 77,045’’
Flag of Egypt.svg  Egypt 73,250’´*
Flag of Palestine.svg  Palestine 50,245´*
Flag of Kuwait.svg  Kuwait 2,235´’
Flag of Tunisia.svg  Tunisia 25,645´’
Flag of Iraq.svg  Iraq 68,490´’
Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg  UAE 25,530´’
Flag of Sudan.svg  Sudan 19,960’´
Flag of Jordan.svg  Jordan 25,250’´
Flag of Mauritania.svg  Mauritania 9,325’´
Flag of Libya.svg  Libya 7,740’´
Flag of Yemen.svg  Yemen 6,645’´
Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada total756,455’´ [9]

Religion

The 2011 Canadian census shows that 55% from Arab Canadians reported belonging to a Muslim faith and 34% reported belonging to a Christian faith. These number differ measurably from the numbers reported in the 2001 Canadian census, which showed an even split in the Arab Canadian community between those who practiced the Muslim faith with 44% and those who practiced the Christian faith 44%, (where 28% as Catholic, 11% as Eastern Orthodox Church and 5% as Other Christian). In 2011, about 3% of Arab Canadians are Jewish. The largest Arab Jewish communities in Canada are Moroccan and Iraqi. Other Arabs Jews are of Egyptian, Syrian, Algerian, and Lebanese descent. [10]

The percentage of Arab Canadians were not affiliated with any religions only marginally increased from 6% in 2001 to 8% in 2011. [10]

The greatest percentage of Arab Christians in Canada come from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Iraq, where the highest rates of Muslims come from Algeria and Morocco. [10]

History

Raja G. Khouri, who has served as President of the Canadian Arab Federation, in 2003 described the interconnected perceptions of a Canadian national identity and Arab identity. [11] In 2009, University of Alberta professor Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar described the "double consciousness" of Arab Canadians, variously struggling with their Arab Canadian identity versus a sense of "being Canadian". [12] Abdul-Jabbar has proposed that citizens or residents of Arab descent have come to consider a cautious dual-identity approach as essential to social integration in the country. [13]

Presented at the 2009 annual American Sociological Association meeting, research from Madona Mokbel detailed the "Dichotomous Perceptions of the Arab Canadian Identity in Canada", particularly since the 2001 9/11 attacks. [14] [15] Shortly after the attacks, Canadian Museum of Civilization postponed an exhibit, The Lands within Me, displaying the diasporic-based works of thirty Arab-Canadian artists. Moral outrage at the short notice of the postponement, suspicion of its connection to the attacks and subsequent protest at the decision, has been described as an early centralizing medium for Arab Canadian identity. [16]

Dr Christina Civantos of Miami University, writing in Food for Our Grandmothers, has detailed the broad and sometimes conflicting elements that constitute the Arab world and which, therefore, do not always simply amalgamate into a coherent Arab Canadian identity. [17] The collection of writing by Arab-American and Arab-Canadian feminists, in analysis by Amaney Jamal, has been described as shifting the definition of Arab Canadian identity onwards from "essentializing categories" while still explicitly confronting the racial and cultural realities of Arabs in North America. [18]

In 2013, academic Paul Eid, a researcher at Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, has remarked that Canadians of a Coptic Egyptian background are the most likely to explicitly embrace an Arab-Canadian self-identification, due to the fact Copts were some of the earliest Arabic immigrants to Canada since the 1960s. [19] [20]

Identity

Arab Canadian identity is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as an Arab Canadian and as relating to being Arab Canadian. The expression of the identity has been widely analyzed and observed by academics as a culturally challenging self-identification in the context of elements of Western culture in the 21st-century.

A survey conducted in Edmonton, Alberta in the pre-2000, showed females 3 in 10, and 1 in 10 males, "tried to hide their Arab-Canadian identity". The research also significantly contrasted along lines of faith, with 44 percent of Arab Christians and 13 percent Arab Muslims also suppressing the identity. [21]

Research by academics Caitlin McDonald and Barbara Sellers-Young has also suggested that anti-Arabism and prejudice in North America can create a hostile environment for the expression of Arab Canadian identity. [22]

Notable individuals

Business

Politicians

Political activists

Filmmakers and writers

Singers

Athletes

Others

See also

Related Research Articles

Farid, also spelt Fareed or Ferid and accented Férid, is an Arabic masculine personal name or surname meaning "unique, singular, incomparable". For many communities, including in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa, and South East Asia, the name Fareed is common across generations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian emigration</span> Large-scale migration of Christians

The phenomenon of large-scale migration of Christians is the main reason why Christians' share of the population has been declining in many countries. Many Muslim countries have witnessed disproportionately high emigration rates among their Christian minorities for several generations. Today, most Middle Eastern people in the United States are Christians, and the majority of Arabs living outside the Arab World are Arab Christians.

Ayman is an Arabic masculine given name. It is derived from the Arabic Semitic root for right, and literally means righteous, on the right, right-handed, blessed or lucky.

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Saad is a common male Arabic given name. The name stems from the Arabic verb sa‘ada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Arabs</span> British citizens of Arab descent

British Arabs are British citizens of Arab descent. They share a common Arab ethnicity, culture, language and identity from different Arab countries. Arabs also come from non-Arab countries as ethnic minorities.

Arab Mexicans are Mexican citizens of Arab ethnic lineage, who identify themselves as Arab. Some of Mexico's Arabs are of Lebanese.

Arab immigration to the United States began before the United States achieved independence in 1776. Since the first major wave of Arab immigration in the late 19th century, the majority of Arab immigrants have settled in or near large cities. Roughly 94 percent of all Arab immigrants live in metropolitan areas, While most Arabic-speaking Americans have similarly settled in just a handful of major American cities, they form a fairly diverse population representing nearly every country and religion from the Arab world. These figures aside, recent demographics suggest a shift in immigration trends. While the earliest waves of Arab immigrants were predominantly Christian, since the late 1960s an increasing proportion of Arab immigrants are Muslim. Arab immigration has, historically, come in waves. Many came for entrepreneurial reasons, and during the latter waves some came as a result of struggles and hardships stemming from specific periods of war or discrimination in their respective mother countries.

Arabs in Berlin form the second-largest ethnic minority group in Berlin, after the Turkish, surpassing Polish and Russian community. As of December 2023, there are 182,635 people of any Arab origin residing in the city, which corresponds to 4.7% of the population, an increase of 1.2% from 2017 percentage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arabs in Germany</span> Ethnic Arabs living in Germany

Arab Germans, also referred to as German Arabs or Arabic Germans, are ethnic Arabs living in Germany. They form the second-largest predominantly Muslim immigrant group in Germany after the large Turkish German community.

Arabs in Romania are people from Arab countries who live in Romania. The first Fellah settlers came in 1831 - 1833 from Ottoman Syria to Dobruja. They assimilated in the Turkish-Tatarian Population. Some of them came to Romania during the Ceaușescu era, when many Arab students were granted scholarships to study in Romanian universities. Most of them were Algerians, Syrians, Palestinians, Iraqis, Libyans, Egyptians, and Yemenis. Most of these students returned to their countries of origin, but some remained in Romania starting families here. It is estimated that almost half a million Middle Eastern Arabs studied in Romania during the 1980s. A new wave of Arab immigration started after the Romanian Revolution. Many of the newly arrived Arabs came to Romania in the 1990s in order to develop businesses. In addition, Romania has people from Arab countries who have the status of refugees or illegal immigrants, primarily from North Africa, trying to immigrate to Western Europe. In particular, the European migrant crisis lead to Syrian people coming to Romania, although many Syrians were already living in Romania at the time of the crisis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arabs in Sweden</span> Ethnic group

Arabs in Sweden are citizens and residents of Sweden who emigrated from nations in the Arab world. They represent 5.3% of the total population of the country. About a quarter of Arabs in Sweden are Christians.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinian diaspora</span> Part of the Arab diaspora

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Arab Uruguayans are residents or citizens of Uruguay of Arab ethnicity, whose ancestry predominantly traces back to any of various waves of immigrants from the Arab world, especially Lebanon and Syria.

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References

  1. ↑ Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (26 October 2022). "The Daily — The Canadian census: A rich portrait of the country's religious and ethnocultural diversity". www150.statcan.gc.ca.
  2. ↑ "The Lebanese Community in Canada". Statistics Canada. 28 August 2007.
  3. ↑ Statistics Canada (October 26, 2022), Religion by visible minority and generation status: Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations with parts, doi:10.25318/9810034201-eng, Table: 98-10-0342-01, retrieved 10 May 2023
  4. ↑ Government of Canada, Statistics Canada (2022-02-09). "Profile table, Census Profile, 2016 Census of Population - Canada [Country]". www12.statcan.gc.ca. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  5. 1 2 Statistics Canada (8 May 2013). "2011 National Household Survey: Data tables" . Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  6. ↑ Mandil, Ghada (August 2019). "Insights into the Arab Population in Canada Based on the 2016 Census Data" (PDF). Square Space. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-05-24. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  7. 1 2 3 Statistics Canada. "2016 Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity Highlight Tables: Data tables" . Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  8. ↑ Including ethnic minorities.
  9. ↑ "Canadian Arab Institute :: 750,925 Canadians Hail from Arab Lands". www.canadianarabinstitute.org. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  10. 1 2 3 Dajjani, Ghina. "Religion and Marital Status in the Canadian Arab Community" (PDF).
  11. ↑ Raja G. Khouri (2003). Arabs in Canada: Post 9/11. G7 Books. p. 19. ISBN   978-1894611367. This dimension refers to the community's cultural affiliation and belonging; what its perceptions of the Canadian identity, the Arab identity and Arab Canadian identity are.
  12. ↑ Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar (8 May 2019). "Arab Muslim Canadian high school students call for globalized curriculum to change stereotypes". The Conversation. The students' responses demonstrated a sense of double consciousness: they felt perceived as being Canadian, and yet not quite. Both my interviews and surveys reveal a condition of the Arab-Canadian identity as one that must constantly defend or apologize for itself.
  13. ↑ Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar (2019). "Implications and Conclusions". Negotiating Diasporic Identity in Arab-Canadian Students: Double Consciousness, Belonging, and Radicalization. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 137. ISBN   978-3030162856. For Ibrahim, existing contentedly with a rather balanced image or perception of an Arab-Canadian identity is key to social integration
  14. ↑ Madona Mokbel (2009). "Either Arab or Canadian: Dichotomous Perceptions of the Arab Canadian Identity in Canada". American Sociological Association.
  15. ↑ Vic Satzewich; Lloyd Wong, eds. (2007). "Who's Transnationalism?". Transnational Identities and Practices in Canada. University of British Columbia Press. p. 223. ISBN   978-0774812849. Recent research shows that even through children of Arab Canadians born in Canada were "Americanized ... their Arab identity has been raised as a result of [the] events" of 11 September 2001.
  16. ↑ Elayne Oliphant (2005). "Paradoxes of Displaying Arab-Canadian Lands within the Canadian Museum of Civilization Following 9.11". Institute of Political Economy: Carleton University. pp. 86–87. However, although The Lands within Me was intended to be an exhibit about migration, movement and belonging in its broadest sense, it was through the restrictive framework of the Arab-Canadian identity that the artists were forced to demand the exhibit be displayed as planned.
  17. ↑ Christina Civantos (2017). "The Middle East in North America". In Joanna Kadi (ed.). Food for Our Grandmothers: Writings by Arab-American and Arab-Canadian Feminists. South End Press. ISBN   978-0896084902. Given the different ethnic and religious groups and colonial histories within the nineteen countries of the Arab world, the question arises, what constitutes an Arab-American or Arab-Canadian identity? What links exist between Arabs and other ethnic and national groups in the region designated the Middle or Near East and North Africa?
  18. ↑ Amaney Jamal (2008). "Grandmothers, Grape Leaves, and Kahlil Gibran". Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11: From Invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects. Syracuse University Press. p. 201. ISBN   978-0815631774. The introduction places an emphasis on culture and specific cultural production and couples it with an explicit discussion of race positionality of Arabs in North America. This discussion moves the definition[ sic?] of Arab American / Arab Canadian identity away from essentializing categories.
  19. ↑ Paul Eid (2007). Being Arab: Ethnic and Religious Identity Building among Second Generation Youth in Montreal. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 235. ISBN   978-0773532229. The preference of Egyptian-origin respondents for a hyphenated (Arab-Canadian) identity is probably attributable to the fact that this group comprises a majority of Copts
  20. ↑ Kathryn Carriere (2009), "Spring, Volume 1", SYMPOSIA: The Graduate Student Journal of the Centre for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, In his provision of countless sources, epistemological camps, and theories of ethnic identity, Eid deconstrcuts various debates to present his viewpoints on how Arab-Canadian identity is formed.
  21. ↑ Baha Abu-Laban; Sharon McIrvin Abu-Laban (1999). "Arab-Canadian Youth in Immigrant Family Life". In Michael Suleiman (ed.). Arabs in America: Building a New Future. Temple University Press. pp. 140–154. ISBN   978-1566397278. The extent to which Arab-Canadian ethnicity is perceived to be a liability is reflected by responses to the following question: "Are there times when you try to hide your Arab-Canadian origin?" The results show that more females (three of ten) than males (one of ten) tried to hide their ethnicity, and within the female group, more Christian (44 percent) than Muslim (13 percent) tried to hide their Arab-Canadian identity.
  22. ↑ Caitlin McDonald; Barbara Sellers-Young (2013). "Arab-Canadian Youth in Immigrant Family Life". Belly Dance Around the World: New Communities, Performance and Identity. McFarland & Company. p. 49. ISBN   978-0786473700. Fluctuating levels of anti—Arab prejudice in North America, linked with national and international politics, mean that claiming an Arab Canadian identity can be socially compromised and compromising
  23. ↑ "À voir à la télévision le samedi 24 mars". Le Devoir. 24 March 2007. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
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