Portuguese Immigration to Canada Essay -- Immigration

The Portuguese immigrated to Canada around the 19th century. It all started in the year 1953, when a group of Portuguese pioneers immigrated to Canada (Moura, 2003). Once the first couple of Portuguese pioneers crossed the ocean to immigrate into Canada, others followed and sort of started a wave. However, in 1957 a volcano erupted, known as the Capelinhos, which end up making Portuguese families and pioneers move to North America (Morrison & James, 2009), because the living conditions had changed. Many Portuguese people immigrated to Canada in order to make a better living, looking for a job for them to survive and to not serve the war. This paper will discuss the Portuguese minority ethnic group in Canada, and to take a further look into details. It will discuss the Portuguese arrival into Canada, and the statistical characteristics of the Portuguese population in Canada. It will also mention the number of Portuguese that there are, where they settled when they first arrived into C anada, problems they encountered in regard to prejudice and lastly converse about whether or not they had any presence in the criminal justice system. Portuguese came to Canada for numerous of reasons. The first reason is for political factors such as the increase of fascism in Portugal. Secondly, for the economical factors such as â€Å"relocating for work such as whaling and fishing, and later farming, textile, and leather factory work† (Morrison & James, 2009). The intriguing aspect about Portuguese families immigrating to Canada is that most of the husbands immigrated firstly into Canada before their wives. The reason being why they immigrated to Canada before their wives was to help start a life in Canada for their own family. Towards the 1950’s and 1... ...tated that the Portuguese ethnicity students have definitely increased (Higgs, 1990). This comes to conclude that even though Portuguese people had a hard time when they first got to Canada, stuff have definitely changed now a days as they are living the life they imagined they would once they would leave Portugal. Works Cited Fagundes, F. (2007). Charles Reis Felix's "Through a Portagee Gate": Lives Parceled Out in Stories. Melus, 32(2), 151-163. Higgs, D. (1990). Portuguese migration in global perspective. Toronto: Multicultural History Society of Ontario. Morrison, M., & James, S. (2009). Portuguese Immigrant Families: The Impact of Acculturation. Family Process, 48(1), 151-166. doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.2009.01273.x Moura, M. d., & Soares, I. (2003). Pionniers: l'avant-garde de l'immigration portuguaise : Canada 1953. MontreÃÅ' al: M. de Almeida Moura.