Serbian Canadians or Serb Canadians[a] are Canadians of ethnic Serb ancestry. In 2021, there were 93,360 Serbian Canadians, according to the Canadian census.[1]
A second wave of Serb emigration occurred from 1900 to 1914.[5] In both instances, the majority of these migrants came from territories controlled by Austria-Hungary for political and economic reasons, and only a small number came directly from the Kingdom of Serbia.[5] Those who settled were typically young single men and employed in mining or forestry near such towns as Phoenix, GoldenPrince Rupert, and Kamloops.[7] Fishing and the search for gold were also among the primary occupations of these early settlers.[8] In 1898, Black Mike Winage arrived in Yukon from Serbia near the end of the Klondike Gold Rush and became a pioneer.[9][10]
During the second wave of emigration, Serbs arrived in the prairies. In Saskatchewan, they took up farming.[5] In Alberta, coal mining and road construction was a source of employment. Many Serbs worked on the construction of railway lines that now extend from Edmonton to the Pacific coast.[11] Serb communities emerged in Regina, Lethbridge, Edmonton, and Calgary, while significant populations formed in Atlin, British Columbia and Dawson, Yukon.[12] In Ontario and Quebec, Serbs were drawn to work in the industry sector. By 1914, the Serbian community in Hamilton numbered around 1,000.[13] Further Serb settlement was established in Niagara Falls, London, and Windsor.[2] The first Serb immigrants to the city of Toronto arrived in 1903; by 1914 there were more than 200 Serbs.[2]
During the World War I, military-aged Serb males who hailed from Serbia or Montenegro were considered allies but those who were born in Austro-Hungarian territories were deemed enemy aliens by Canadian law, even though their sympathies tended to lie with the allied cause. The latter were restricted in their freedom of movements, had to wear special identity cards and had to identify themselves regularly at the police station.[13] Several hundred were interned in prison camps throughout the country under terrible conditions.[14] Physicist Mihajlo Pupin, Serbian consul in New York during the war, and Antun Seferović, the honorary consul of Serbia in Montreal, advocated for the rights of the classified aliens and internees through diplomacy via the Serbian National League of Canada (Srpska Narodna Odbrana u Kanadi) which resulted in exemption, compensation, and the release of many ethnic Serbs.[15] Another advocate for the rights of Serbs of Austro-Hungarian origin was Serbian-born court interpreter Bud Protich, who enlisted in the Canadian Army and was wounded in action in 1917.[16]
Prior to World War I, many arriving Serbs were variously categorized under related Balkan groups, making the exact number of Serb immigrants difficult to determine. After 1921, all immigrants from Yugoslavia, including Serbs, were designated as "Yugoslavs".[6] The interwar period saw a major increase in Serb immigration to Canada.[4] More than 30,000 Yugoslavs came to Canada between 1919 and 1939, including an estimated 10,000 Serbs. Many of these immigrants were single, working men who settled in the northern region of the province of Ontario.[2] During this time, ties to Europe were strong and pressure from Belgrade and Ottawa resulted in certain Serbian Canadian newspapers being banned due to their communist ideas. They were mostly written by pro-Russian Yugoslavs who were not necessarily of Serb origin.[17]
After the World War II, Serbian political émigrés who were opposed to the newly established Yugoslav communist government sought refuge in Canada.[4] Many of these were POWs and laborers from Austria and Germany who refused to return to their homeland. They settled in cities such as Toronto, Sudbury and Hamilton.[2] Between 1957 and 1971, some 23,000 Yugoslavs arrived in Canada, of whom 10-15% were Serbs. They established organizations, newspapers and cultural events.[2]
The Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Canada was established in 1983 as part of reorganization of the Serbian Orthodox eparchies (dioceses) in North America.[18]
In the late 1980s, Yugoslavia's communist government was on the verge of collapse. Shortly after the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, a new wave of Serb immigration occurred, concentrating mostly to Southern Ontario. This was a major brain drain, with highly-skilled Serb professionls fleeing economic problems and an undemocratic government in Serbia.[19] Other Serbs who came during the 1990s were refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, who fled the various Yugoslav Wars.[4]
According to data from the 2021 census 93,360 people stated that they had Serb ancestry (whether alone or in combination with another ancestry). However, this number may be higher as there are some 30,565 people who identify as Yugoslavs in Canada, many of whom are of ethnic Serb origin.[21] Serbian Canadians comprise 0.25% of total Canadian population.
Statistics Canada allows the provision of multiple ancestries in a multi-response question. In the 2021 census, 52% of Serbian Canadians declared full Serb ancestry, while some 42% declared Serb ancestry as one of two/multiple ancestries.[22]
The Serbian Canadian community is heavily concentrated (about two-thirds) in Ontario, with major hub in Greater Toronto Area where a third of all Serbian Canadians reside, while Niagara Falls has the highest share (1.5% of total population) of Serbian population of any Canadian city.[23]
Map of provinces and territories by Serbian Canadian population, 2021 census.
Language retention is relatively high: some 40% (i.e. 37,790) of Serbian Canadians declared Serbian as their mother tongue (including both single and multiple responses) while 60% declared English, although over 90% are proficient in English.[25]
Culture
Folk-dance group at the Serbian Festival in Ottawa, 2016Serbian Center in Mississauga
In 1954, the Serb Youth Club in Toronto was founded and its folk-dance group Stražilovo became one of the first folk dance groups in Canada.
From the early 1950s to 1984 the Serbian Cultural Club "Saint Sava" was active in Toronto, publishing eight volumes about Serb history.
In 1968, the Saint Michael the Archangel Serbian Orthodox Church hosted the "Belgrade" pavilion of the Toronto Caravan cultural festival, which displayed many Serbian cultural artifacts, showcased kolo dancing and other performance arts, and presented Toronto residents Serbian delicacies. The annual festival ran for over 30 years, winning, in 2001, the Zena Kossar "Best Pavilion Award".
The Serbian Heritage Academy of Canada, founded in Toronto in 1981, has organized academic conferences, exhibits, and lectures. In 1984 it installed a bronze plaque at the University of Toronto's Medical Sciences Building honouring Canadian doctors and nurses who had worked as volunteers in Serbia during the World War I.
The Serbian Cultural Association Oplenac was founded in 1987 in Mississauga. Serbian folk dancing has been a major activity in SCA Oplenac since its inception and itvis claimed to be the biggest Serbian folklore group in North America. All proceeds from its events go to the preservation and presentation of Serbian culture and traditions in Canada. In 2012, the company consisted of 8 large ensembles, a choir, an orchestra as well as a large recreational ensemble. It established a drama school for children that performs theatre plays in Serbian, as well as a Serbian-language school.[27]
Serbian Theatre Toronto was established in 2004 and is the oldest Serbian theatre in Canada and North America. In more than two decades of activity, the theatre has produced more than twenty plays by Serbian writers and has performed in many cities in Canada and the United States.[28]
Established in 2008, Toronto's Puls teatar ("Pulse Theatre") is the biggest drama club and theatre for children in Serbian in Canada.[29]
There are severial Serbian media in Canada such as the Serbian Toronto Television, a weekly 30-minute current affairs Serbian television show that is filmed throughout various locations across Canada and airs on multicultural channel Omni Television, and Novine Toronto, a newspaper.[30][31]
In 1991, a non-profit senior citizens apartment building in Windsor, Ontario, was named General Mihailovich Place in commemoration of saving the lives of hundreds of MIA airmen (including Canadians) who were forced to parachute after their bombers sustained damage from Nazi groundfire over Serbia.[32]
↑ The community is commonly known in English as Serbian Canadians, and scarcer as Serb Canadians. In Serbian, the community is known as Canadian Serbs (Канадски Срби, Kanadski Srbi), and scarcer as Serbs in Canada (Срби у Канади, Srbi u Kanadi).
↑ Religious breakdown proportions based on "Serbian" ethnic or cultural origin response on the 2021 census.[24]
↑ Tomović, Vladislav (1982). "Serbian press in Canada, 1916-82". Polyphony: The Bulletin of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario. 4 (1): 87. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
Mandres, Marinel (2020). "An Unprecedented Dichotomy: Impacts and Consequences of Serbian Internment in Canada during the Great War". In Hinther, Rhonda L.; Mochoruk, Jim (eds.). Civilian Internment in Canada: Histories and Legacies. University of Manitoba Press. pp.99–114. ISBN978-0-88755-845-0.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
