West Asian Canadians

People from what are now Lebanon and Syria started immigrating to Canada during the late 19th century; the Ottoman province of Syria at that time covered the entire Levant, so they were called either Turks or “Syrian−Lebanese” on census reports. Settling in the Montreal area of southern Quebec, they became the first West Asian group to immigrate to Canada.[8] The first Lebanese immigrant to Canada was Abraham Bounadere (Ibrahim Abu Nadir) from Zahlé in Lebanon who settled in Montreal in 1882.[9] Because of situations within Lebanon and restrictive Canadian laws these immigrants were 90% Christian. These immigrants were mostly economic migrants seeking greater prosperity in the New World.

Similar to late 19th century through early 20th century Lebanese immigration and settler patterns, while the vast majority of Syrians migrated to South America, a small percentage made their way to America, and an even smaller percentage settled in Canada. Once again, in a similar demographic to early Lebanese settlers to Canada, the overwhelming majority of Syrians who settled in Canada from the 1880s-1960s were of the Christian faith. The so-called Shepard of the lost flock, Saint Raphael Hawaweeny of Brooklyn, New York, came to Montreal in 1896 to help establish a Christian association called the Syrian Benevolent Society and then later on an Orthodox church in Montreal for the newly arrived Syrian faithful.[10]

West Asian settlement into Canada was also bolstered by early Armenian immigration during the late 19th century. The first Armenians migrated to Canada in the 1880s. The first recorded Armenian to settle in Canada was a man named Garabed Nergarian, who came to Port Hope, Ontario in 1887.[11][12] Some 37 Armenians settled in Canada in 1892 and 100 in 1895. Most early Armenian migrants to Canada were men who were seeking employment. After the Hamidian massacres of mid-1890s Armenian families from the Ottoman Empire began settling in Canada.

In 1901, Canada had between 300–400 Muslim residents, equally divided between Turks and Syrian Arabs.[13] Furthermore, the turn of the 20th century featured a small wave of Syrian−Lebanese settlement into the southern prairies including Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Contemporarily in Lebanon, many families were from what was western Syria at the time in particular settled in southern Saskatchewan.[14] A majority of the Syrian−Lebanese families settling in the prairies were of the Christian faith, with a minority adhering to Islam, mirroring earlier settler demographics in Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario. Prominent settlement occurred in communities such as Swift Current, Saskatchewan, and Lac La Biche, Alberta.[15][16][17] Few reached the Northwest Territories, the best known being Peter Baker, author of the book An Arctic Arab, and later elected as a member of the legislative assembly of the Northwest Territories.[18]

During the pre-World War I period, Turks were to be found in mining and logging camps across Canada.[19] However, due to bad relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies, further migration was made difficult for the Turks and the Canadian government discouraged "Asian" immigration.[19] With the Canadian Immigration Act of 1910, Turkish immigration to the Canada was banned.[20] With the onset of World War I, Turkish Canadians were placed in "enemy alien" internment camps.[21] Five days after the war began, on 10 November 1914, 98 Turks were deported and settled in Kingston and then in Kapuskasing. Their number increased over time.[22] They were not the only "enemy aliens" subjected to internment. More than 8,500 people were placed in 24 camps during the war. Of them, 205 were Turks.[23][24]

Before the Armenian genocide of 1915 some 1,800 Armenians already lived in Canada. They were overwhelmingly from the Armenian provinces of the Ottoman Empire and usually lived in industrial urban areas. The influx of Armenians to Canada was limited in the post-World War I era because Armenians were classified as Asians.[12] Nevertheless, some 1,500 genocide survivors—mostly women and children—came to Canada as refugees.[25] In 1923–1924, some 100 Armenians orphans aged 8–12, later known as the Georgetown Boys, were brought to Canada from Corfu, Greece by the Armenian Canadian Relief Fund to Georgetown, Ontario.[11] Dubbed "The Noble Experiment", it was Canada's first humanitarian act on an international scale.[12] The Georgetown Farmhouse (now the Cedarvale Community Centre) was designated historic and protected municipal site in 2010.[26] Overall, between 1900 and 1930 some 3,100 Armenians entered Canada, with 75% settling in Ontario and 20% in Quebec.[27] Some later moved to the United States; 1,577 Armenians entered the U.S. from Canada between 1899 and 1917.[12]

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 resulted in a spike of immigration to Canada from the West Asian country.[28] In the aftermath, many Iranian Canadians began to categorize themselves as "Persian" rather than "Iranian", mainly to dissociate themselves from the Islamic regime of Iran and the negativity associated with it, and also to distinguish themselves as being of Persian ethnicity.[29][30]