Canadian Americans

Last updated
Canadian Americans
Canadiens américains (French)
Total population
1,062,640
0.33% of the American population
Regions with significant populations
Portland, MaineBostonConcordHartfordNew EnglandNew York CityWashingtonCaliforniaWashington, D.C.PhiladelphiaOrlandoAtlantaTexasCharlotteRaleighDetroitColumbusChicagoMilwaukeePhoenixLas Vegas • most urban areas
Languages
EnglishFrench
Religion
Roman CatholicismProtestantismIrreligion • Other
Related ethnic groups
Americans, American Canadians, Canadians

Canadian Americans are American citizens or in some uses residents whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country who hold dual citizenship. [1]

Contents

The term Canadian can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadians are considered North Americans due their residing in the North American continent. English-speaking Canadian immigrants easily integrate and assimilate into northern and western U.S. states as a result of many cultural similarities, and in the similar accent in spoken English. [2] French-speaking Canadians, because of language and culture, tend to take longer to assimilate. [3] However, by the 3rd generation, they are often fully culturally assimilated, and the Canadian identity is more or less folklore. [4] This took place, even though half of the population of the province of Quebec emigrated to the US between 1840 and 1930. [5] Many New England cities formed 'Little Canadas', but many of these have gradually disappeared.

This cultural "invisibility" within the larger US population is seen as creating stronger affinity among Canadians living in the US than might otherwise exist. [6] According to US Census estimates, the number of Canadian residents was around 640,000 in 2000. [7] Some sources have cited the number to possibly be over 1,000,000. [8] This number, though, is far smaller than the number of Americans who can trace part or the whole of their ancestry to Canada. The percentage of these in the New England states is almost 25% of the total population.

In some regions of the United States, especially New England or the Midwest, a Canadian American often means one whose ancestors came from Canada. [9]

American cities founded by or named after Canadians

Canadian American Day

The Connecticut State Senate unanimously passed a bill in 2009, making June 24 Canadian American Day in the state of Connecticut. The bill allows state officials to hold ceremonies at the capitol and other places each year to honor Americans of Canadian ancestry. [11]

Aboriginal Canadian Americans

As a consequence of Article 3 of the Jay Treaty of 1794, official First Nations status, or in the United States, Native American status, also confers the right to live and work on either side of the border. Unlike the U.S., Canada has not codified the Jay Treaty. Canadian courts readily reject the Jay Treaty free passage of goods right. [12]

Study

Some institutions in the United States focus on Canadian-American studies, including the Canadian-American Center at the University of Maine, [13] the Center for Canadian American studies at Western Washington University, [14] and the University at Buffalo Canadian-American Studies Committee. [15]

Notable people

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean François Hamtramck</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Franco-Americans</span> Aspect of history

The Franco-Americans, or French Americans, are a group of people of French and French-Canadian descent living in the United States. Today there are 11.8 million Franco-Americans in the US and 1.6 million Franco-Americans who speak French at home. There are also an additional 450,000 Americans who speak a French-based creole language, for example, Haitian Creole. Even though Franco-Americans are a substantial portion of the US population, they are generally less visible than other sizable ethnic groups. This is partly because of geographical dispersal, and partly because a large proportion of Franco-Americans have acculturated or assimilated.

Franco American literature is a body of work, in English and French, by French-Canadian American authors "who were born in New England...born in Canada, [and] spent most of their lives in New England...[, or] those who only traveled through New England and wrote of their experiences." "Franco-American literature" however, as a term, has also been characterized by novels written by the Great Lakes Region diaspora as well. In a broader sense the term is also used as a handle for those writers of Cajun or French descent, outside of the Quebec émigré literary tradition.

References

  1. Cain, Patrick (4 April 2014). "How to get rid of your U.S. citizenship". Global News Canada. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  2. "Veta: Good vocabulary - Accent training online - American Accent". veta.in. Archived from the original on November 29, 2011.
  3. l'Actualité économique, Vol. 59, No 3, (september 1983): 423-453 and Yolande LAVOIE, L'Émigration des Québécois aux États-Unis de 1840 à 1930, Québec, Conseil de la langue française, 1979.
  4. Barkan, Elliott Robert (1980). "French Canadians". In Thernstrom, Stephan; Orlov, Ann; Handlin, Oscar (eds.). Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. Cambridge, MA / London: Harvard University Press. p. 392. ISBN   0674375122. OCLC   1038430174.
  5. l'Actualité économique, Vol. 59, No. 3 (September 1983): 423–453 and Yolande LAVOIE, L'Émigration des Québécois aux États-Unis de 1840 à 1930, Québec, Conseil de la langue française, 1979.
  6. "Program No. 65 "Who's Canadian"". This American Life . Chicago Public Radio. May 30, 1997. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009. Retrieved March 2, 2009.
  7. "c2kbr01-2.qxd" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2004. Retrieved May 18, 2011.
  8. Stewart, Alice R. (1987), "The Franco-Americans of Maine: A Historiographical Essay", Maine Historical Society Quarterly, 26 (3): 160–179
  9. Mark Paul Richard, From 'Canadien' to American: The Acculturation of French-Canadian Descendants in Lewiston, Maine, 1860 to the Present, PhD dissertation, Duke University, 2002; Dissertation Abstracts International, 2002 62(10): 3540-A. DA3031009, 583p.
  10. "Chandler, Alexander J. (A.J.)". ChandlerpediA. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  11. Edmonton Sun, April 21, 2009
  12. Nickels, Bryan. "Native American Free Passage Rights Under the 1794 Jay Treaty: Survival Under United States Statutory Law and Canadian Common Law". Boston College. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved May 18, 2011.
  13. "Canadian-American Center". University of Maine. Retrieved May 18, 2011.
  14. "The Center For Canadian American Studies". WWU. Archived from the original on July 1, 2007.
  15. "Canadian American Studies Committee, University at Buffalo". buffalo.edu. Archived from the original on 2011-09-17.

Further reading