Barbadian Canadian or Bajan Canadians are
Canadian citizens of Barbadian descent or
Barbados
Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...
-born people who reside in Canada. According to the
2016 Census 37,780 Canadians claimed full or partial Barbadian ancestry.
Barbadian Canadians have the highest median income and the lowest incidence of poverty among
Black Canadian
Black Canadians () are Canadians of full or partial Afro-Caribbean or sub-Saharan African descent.
Black Canadian settlement and immigration patterns can be categorized into two distinct groups. The majority of Black Canadians are descendants ...
groups.
Barbadians first start migrating to
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...
in the early 1900s settling largely in the neighbourhood of
Whitney Pier
Whitney Pier (2016 population: 4,612) is an urban neighbourhood in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada. Prior to the 20th century, this area was known as “Eastmount” or “South Sydney Harbour,” and had long been a fishing and farming district. It ...
in Sydney.
In Cape Breton, they established chapters of the
United Negro Improvement Association
The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) is a black nationalist fraternal organization founded by Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican immigrant to the United States, and his then-wife Amy Ashwood Garvey. ...
and the
African Orthodox Church
The African Orthodox Church (AOC) is a predominantly African-American Christian denomination which was founded in the United States in 1918 by the joint collaboration of its first patriarch, George Alexander McGuire, and Marcus M. Garvey.
The ...
.
As of 2016, over 70% of the Bajan population in Canada resides in Ontario.
History
The Immigration Act of 1952 in Canada had certain provisions that limited Black immigration. However, in 1955, a special initiative was implemented to promote the immigration of Barbadian and Jamaican domestic workers who were deemed to possess exceptional merit. Unmarried women without any dependents, in good health, and with at least an eighth-grade education were eligible for landed immigrant status upon committing to one year of domestic service. This program remained in effect until 1967, when the nonracial
Points-based immigration system
A points-based immigration system or merit-based immigration system is an immigration system where a noncitizen's eligibility to immigrate is (partly or wholly) determined by whether that noncitizen is able to score above a threshold number of poi ...
was introduced to determine immigrant qualifications. As a result of this program, approximately 1,000 Barbadian women were able to immigrate to Canada. Subsequently, over 2,000 Barbadian immigrants who were granted Canadian citizenship in the mid-70s were immigrants who entered Canada between 1966-1975.
During the period from 1973 to 1978, there was a significant increase in Caribbean immigration to Canada. West Indians accounted for over 10 percent of all immigrants during this time. Among them, a considerable portion were Barbadians who primarily sought economic prospects.
Barbadian Canadians by Canadian province or territory (
2016
2016 was designated as:
* International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
* International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
)
List of notable Barbadian Canadians
See also
*
List of Canadians by ethnicity
*
Barbados–Canada relations
Diplomatic relations between Canada and Barbados date back to 1907, when the Government of Canada opened a Trade Commissioner Service to the Caribbean region located in Bridgetown, Barbados. Following Barbadian independence from the United King ...
*
Caribbean Canadians
References
External links
Citizenship and Immigration Canada(CIC) - Government of Canada country profile on Barbados.
Canadian Factsheet on Barbados
{{Barbadian diaspora
Caribbean diaspora in Canada