Pakistani Canadian refers to people born in Canada of Pakistani descent or those who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan. Most Pakistani Canadians are Muslims by religion, but there are also sizable number of Christians and Parsis.
History in Canada
Pakistanis began migrating to Canada in small numbers in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Immigration regulations gave preference to those with advanced education and professional skills, and the Pakistanis who came during this period, and throughout the 1960s, generally had excellent credentials. Many of them considered themselves to be sojourners, who had come to earn but not to settle, or were students who intended to return home when their degree programs were completed. While some went back, others remained to become the founding members of the Pakistani-Canadian community.
Pakistani nationals were registered in undergraduate and graduate programs at McGill University in Montreal as early as 1949, and at the University of Toronto from 1958 on. By the mid-1950s, there were five or six Pakistani families living in Montreal in addition to the students. This was probably the largest concentration of Pakistanis in the country at the time. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, most of those who arrived were young men pursuing graduate or professional studies.
In 1976, Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau introduced the Immigration Act. Since then the number of Pakistani immigrants increased dramatically, with hundreds of Pakistanis entering Canada each year. Pakistani Canadians in the 1980s tended to be urban, well-educated, and professional and are more or less familiar with western culture and ways of living. However, the dependents and relatives that they have since sponsored for permanent residence and citizenship to Canada in the years after 1976 happen to be characterized by lower levels of education. Still most of the Pakistanis immigrating to the Canada are mainly students, professionals and economic migrants who do tend to have some sort of education.
Integrating into Canadian society
Pakistanis have integrated well into Canadian society. Generally speaking, they are known to assimilate into Canadian culture more easily than many other immigrant groups due to fewer language barriers; English is widely spoken in Pakistan among professional classes and is the official language of all state institutions. As well they usually have more educational credentials, and come from a similar diverse and tolerant society. They have brought to Canada Pakistani cuisine and it has been established as one of the most popular cuisines in the country with hundreds of Pakistani restaurants in all major city and similar eateries in smaller cities and towns.
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