Middle Eastern Canadians are

Canadians Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

who were either born in or can trace their

ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...

to the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

(

MENA region The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), also referred to as West Asia and North Africa (WANA) or South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), is a geographic region which comprises the Middle East (also called West Asia) and North Africa together ...

), which includes both

West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

and

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

History

Initial settlement

Individuals from the Middle East first arrived in Canada in 1882, when a group of

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

- Lebanese immigrants settled in Montreal. These early Arab immigrants were mostly Christian and arrived primarily from the

Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...

(modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Jordan). In 1901, approximately 2,000 immigrants from Greater Syria, encompassing modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, settled in Canada.

20th century

During World War I, Middle Eastern Canadians of Turkish origin were placed in "enemy alien" internment camps. The Middle Eastern Canadian population grew rapidly during the latter half of the 20th century; the 1979

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...

resulted in a spike of immigration to Canada from the West Asian country.

21st century

The Syrian refugee crisis during the 2010s fueled further growth to the already existing Syrian population; increased immigration from the West Asian country resulted in Syria becoming the third highest source country of

immigration to Canada According to the 2021 Canadian census, immigrants in Canada number 8.3 million persons and make up approximately 23 percent of Canada's total population. This represents the eighth-largest Immigration, immigrant population in the world, whi ...

adding 35,000 Syrians becoming permanent residents in 2016.

Demography

Ethnic and national origins

Language

The vast majority of Middle Eastern Canadians speak West Asian and North African languages as a mother tongue or second language. The top five Middle Eastern languages spoken in Canada include Arabic, Farsi, Armenian, Turkish, and Hebrew.

Religion

Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are the dominant religions among the Middle Eastern Canadian population.

Geographical distribution

Notes

References

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