History of immigration to Canada

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The history of immigration to Canada details the movement of people to modern-day Canada. The modern Canadian legal regime was founded in 1867, but Canada also has legal and cultural continuity with French and British colonies in North America that go back to the 17th century, and during the colonial era, immigration was a major political and economic issue with Britain and France competing to fill their colonies with loyal settlers. Until then, the land that now makes up Canada was inhabited by many distinct Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Indigenous peoples contributed significantly to the culture and economy of the early European colonies to which was added several waves of European immigration. More recently, the source of migrants to Canada has shifted away from Europe and towards Asia and Africa. Canada's cultural identity has evolved constantly in tandem with changes in immigration patterns.

Statistics Canada has tabulated the effect of immigration on population growth in Canada from 1851 to 2001.^[1] On average, censuses are taken every ten years, which was how Canadian censuses were first incremented between 1871 and 1901. In 1901, the Dominion Government changed its policy so that census-taking occurred every five years subsequently to document the effects of the advertising campaign that was initiated by Clifford Sifton.

In 2018, Canada received 321,035 immigrants. The top ten countries of origin, which provided 61% of those, were India (69,973), the Philippines (35,046), China (29,709), Syria (12,046), the United States (10,907), Pakistan (9,488), France (6,175), Eritrea (5,689), and the United Kingdom and its overseas territories (5,663).^[2]