150 Years of Diversification

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One of the world’s most culturally diverse countries, Canada, has its 150th birthday this year. The Confederation of Canada was proclaimed in 1867, and to celebrate there are a lot of special events and activities.

Canada has changed a lot in the last 150 years, especially in its population’s proportion of various national origins. At the very beginning, were the indigenous peoples, the Inuit and First Nations. However, the depopulation of these indigenous people took place when Europeans arrived. In 1497, John Cabot claimed the “New World” territory (either Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island) for England. Later, the French established New France, comprised of Québec, Montréal and Trois-Rivières in 1608, threatening the aboriginal cultures. For this reason, most people settling in Canada over the next few centuries were European.

More recently though, most settlers in Canada are Asian. In 2011, Canada had a foreign-born population of about 6,775,800 people, representing 20.6% of the total.

Through the various changes of movement trends, Canada has a long history of immigration. In 2011, 13.7% of newcomers were born in Europe, while another 3.9% were born in the United States. The remaining 82.4% came  from other regions around the world. This immigration trend has an important influence on Canada’s population distribution. For example, 20–44-year-olds, the main group of the labour force, would decline without immigrants. Since the late 1960s, fertility decreased rapidly, resulting in the birth rate decline while the death rate increased during same period. Therefore, the natural population growth rate began to diminish. Now generations are largely contributing to economic growth by supply and demand and paying taxes. Without immigrants, it might be hard to sustain economic growth and the welfare of Canada, because its natural population growth is not enough.

When compared to Korea, one of the least culturally diverse countries in the world, you can easily see all of the benefits multiculturalism brings; different experiences, worldviews, and cultures helped to shape and mould Canada’s accepting culture. This is shown by the amount of pride foreign-born Canadians show in being Canadian. It’s hard to imagine their Korean immigrants coming together to celebrate National Foundation Day. Due to the development of modern communication and transportation technologies, the world is rapidly changing as it moves towards globalization. Countries are becoming less and less interdependent economically and culturally. Also, there are so many refugees suffering from wars and seeking refuge in other countries.

Canada has had a short but successful history, especially when it comes to their diversity and acceptance of foreigners. This is one of many reasons why, regardless of their ethnic origins, the residents of Canada are proud to celebrate their country’s 150th birthday this 1st of July.