Assyrian-Canadians

Assyrians in Canada
Total population
10,810 (by ancestry, 2011 Census)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Mainly Toronto
Some in Vancouver and London, Ontario
Languages
Neo-Aramaic, English, (some knowledge of Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Kurdish)
Religion
Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Ancient Church of the East, Assyrian Pentecostal Church, Assyrian Evangelical Church, Syriac Catholic Church

Assyrian Canadians are Canadian citizens of Assyrian ethnicity. According to the 2011 Census there were 10,810 Canadians who claimed Assyrian ancestry.[2]

They are the indigenous pre-Arab and pre-Turkic people of Iraq, south east Turkey and north east Syria, speak dialects of Eastern Aramaic and are Christians, with most following the Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Chaldean Catholic Church, Ancient Church of the East, Assyrian Pentecostal Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church, although some are irriligeous.

History

Most Assyrians arrived in Canada due to both ethnic persecution and religious persecution, mainly from their ancient ancestral homelands in northern Iraq, southeast Turkey, northeast Syria and northwest Iran. The migration to Canada may be broken up into a number of distinct periods: early settlement and the subsequent waves of migration sparked by the Assyrian genocide in present-day Turkey and Iran, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and, more recently, the Iraq War and Syrian Civil War. The last 2006 Census Canada counted 8,650[3]

Assyrians in the country. The first period of known mass-migration came just after the Assyrian Genocide in the dying days of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The second and perhaps largest wave of migration into came during the Iran–Iraq War. Under the shadow of war, Saddam Hussein's al-Anfal Campaign constituted a major force for migration for Iraq's Assyrian population.

Assyrian population in Canada by province and territory

Provinces and territories (2011) [4]
 Ontario9,420
 British Columbia445
 Alberta380
 Manitoba260
 Saskatchewan175

See also

References

  1. ↑ Statistics Canada. "2011 National Household Survey: Data tables". Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  2. ↑ Statistics Canada. "2011 National Household Survey: Data tables". Retrieved 11 February 2014.
  3. ↑ "Ethnic Origin (247), Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada,". Statistics Canada. 2006. Retrieved 2010-06-17.
  4. ↑ "2011 National Household Survey: Data tables". Statistics of Canada. Statistics of Canada. Retrieved 19 January 2013.
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