An English Canadian is a Canadian of English-speaking cultural heritage; it is used primarily in contrast with French Canadian.^[3][4] Canada is an officially bilingual state, with English and French official language communities. Immigrant cultural groups ostensibly integrate into one or both of these communities, but often retaining elements of their original cultures. The term English-speaking Canadian is sometimes used interchangeably with English Canadian.

Although many English-speaking Canadians have strong historical roots traceable to the British Isles, they belong to a multitude of ethnic backgrounds. They or their ancestors came from various European, Asian, Caribbean, African, Latin American, and Pacific Island cultures, as well as French Canada and North American Aboriginal groups. As such, although the office of the Governor General is said to alternate between "French" and "English" persons, the two most recent Governors General (Adrienne Clarkson, an English-speaking Chinese Canadian; and Michaëlle Jean, a French-speaking Haitian Canadian) show that this refers to language and not culture or ethnicity.

In addition to the terms "English Canadian" and "Canadian", the terms "Anglophone Canadian" and "Anglo-Canadian" are also used.^[5][6][7][8]

Geographic distribution[link]

The following table shows the English-speaking population of Canada's provinces and territories. The data are from Statistics Canada.^[9][10] Figures are given for the number of single responses "English" to the mother tongue question, as well as a total including multiple responses one of which is English.

Notably, 46% of English-speaking Canadians live in Ontario, and 30% in the two western provinces of British Columbia and Alberta. English-speakers are in the minority only in Quebec and Nunavut. In the cases of Quebec and New Brunswick, the vast majority of the non-Anglophone population speaks French, in the case of Nunavut, the people speak a non-official language of Canada, Inuktitut.

History[link]

Newfoundland (and Labrador)[link]

English Canadian history starts with the attempts to establish English settlements in Newfoundland in the seventeenth century. The earliest of these was John Guy's failed settlement at Cuper's Cove on the Avalon Peninsula in 1610. Newfoundland's population was significantly influenced by Irish immigration, much of it as a result of the migratory fishery in the decades prior to the Irish Potato famine. Although the location of the earliest English settlement in what would eventually become Canada, Newfoundland itself (now called Newfoundland and Labrador) would be the last province to enter Confederation in 1949.

Nova Scotia[link]

The area that forms the present day province of Nova Scotia was contested by the British and French in the eighteenth century. French settlements at Port Royal, Louisbourg and what is now Prince Edward Island were seized by the British (or by American Colonists, as in the case of Louisbourg). After the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht ceded the French colony of Acadia (today's mainland Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) to Great Britain, efforts to colonize the province were limited to small settlements in Canso and Annapolis Royal. In 1749 Colonel Edward Cornwallis was given command of an expedition for the settlement of Chebucto by some three thousand persons, many of whom were Cockney. Cornwallis' settlement, Halifax, would become the provincial capital, the primary commercial centre for the Maritime provinces, a strategic British military and naval outpost and an important east coast cultural centre. To offset the Catholic presence of Acadians, foreign Protestants (mainly German) were given land and founded Lunenburg. Nova Scotia itself saw considerable immigration from Scotland, particularly to communities such as Pictou in the northern part of the province and to Cape Breton Island, but this began only with the arrival of the Hector in 1773.

Loyalists: New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario[link]

The history of English Canadians is bound to the history of English settlement of North America, and particularly New England, because of the resettlement of many Loyalists following the American Revolution in areas that would form part of Canada. Many of the fifty thousand Loyalists who were resettled to the north of the United States after 1783 came from families that had already been settled for several generations in North America and were from prominent families in Boston, New York and other east coast towns. Although largely of British ancestry, these settlers had also intermarried with Huguenot and Dutch colonists and were accompanied by Loyalists of African descent. Dispossessed of their property at the end of the Revolutionary War, the Loyalists arrived as refugees to settle primarily along the shores of southern Nova Scotia, the Bay of Fundy and the Saint John River and in Quebec to the east and southwest of Montreal.

The colony of New Brunswick was created from western part of Nova Scotia at the instigation of these new English-speaking settlers. The Loyalist settlements in southwestern Quebec formed the nucleus of what would become the province of Upper Canada and, after 1867, Ontario.

Ontario[link]

Upper Canada was a primary destination for English, Scottish and Scots-Irish settlers to Canada in the nineteenth century, and was on the front lines in the War of 1812 between the British Empire and the United States. The province also received immigrants from non English-speaking sources such as Germans, many of whom settled around Kitchener (formerly called Berlin).^[11] Ontario would become the most populous province in the Dominion of Canada at the time of Confederation, and, together with Montreal, formed the country's industrial heartland and emerged as an important cultural and media centre for English Canada. Toronto is today the largest city in Canada, and, largely as a result of changing immigration patterns since the 1960s, is also one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world.

Quebec[link]

After the fall of New France to the British in 1759, a colonial governing class established itself in Quebec City. Larger numbers of English-speaking settlers arrived in the Eastern Townships and Montreal after the American Revolution. English, Scottish, and Irish communities established themselves in Montreal in the 1800s. Montreal would become Canada's largest city and commercial hub in Canada. An Anglo-Scot business elite would control Canadian commerce up until the 1950s, founding a Protestant public school system and hospitals and universities such as McGill University. These immigrants were joined by other Europeans in the early 1900s, including Italians and Jews, who assimilated to a large degree into the anglophone community. Many English-speaking Quebeckers left Quebec following the election of the Parti Québécois in 1976 resulting^[12] in a steep decline in the anglophone population; many who have remained have learned French in order to function within the dominant Francophone society.

British Columbia[link]

As in much of western Canada, many of the earliest European communities in British Columbia began as outposts of the Hudson's Bay Company, founded in London in 1670 to carry on the fur trade via Hudson Bay. Broader settlement began in earnest with the founding of Fort Victoria in 1843 and the subsequent creation of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1849. The capital, Victoria developed during the height of the British Empire and long self-identified as being "more English than the English".

The Colony of British Columbia was established on the mainland in 1858 by Governor James Douglas as a means of asserting British sovereignty in the face of a massive influx of gold miners, many of whom were American. Despite the enormous distances that separated the Pacific colony from Central Canada, British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871, choosing to become Canadian partly as a means of resisting possible absorption into the United States. Chinese workers, brought in to labour on the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, established sizeable populations in many B.C. communities, particularly Vancouver which quickly became the province's economic and cultural centre after the railway's completion in 1886. Like Ontario, British Columbia has received immigrants from a broad range of countries including large numbers of Germans, Scandinavians, Italians, Sikhs from India and Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan and in more recent years, the People's Republic, and the ongoing influx of Europeans from Europe continues. However for many years British Columbia, in contrast to the Prairie Provinces, received a majority of immigrants from Great Britain: over half in 1911 and over 60 percent by 1921.^[13] Over half of people with British ancestry in British Columbia have direct family ties within two generations (i.e. grandparent or parent) to the British Isles, rather than via British ethnic stock from Central Canada or the Maritimes (unlike the Prairies where Canadian-British stock is more common). Europeans of non-British stock have been more common, also, in British Columbia than in any other part of Canada, although certain ethnicities such as Ukrainians and Scandinavians are more concentrated in the Prairies. Except for the Italians and more recent European immigrants, earlier waves of Europeans of all origins are near-entirely assimilated, although any number of accents are common in families and communities nearly anywhere in the province, as has also been the case since colonial times. Interethnic and interracial marriages and were also more common in British Columbia than in other provinces since colonial times .

Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta[link]

The French-English tensions that marked the establishment of the earliest English-speaking settlements in Nova Scotia were echoed on the Prairies in the late nineteenth century. The earliest British settlement in Assiniboia (part of present-day Manitoba) involved some 300 largely Scottish colonists under the sponsorship of Lord Selkirk in 1811. The early attempts at introducing English-speaking settlers into an area already occupied by French-speaking Métis sparked the Red River Rebellion and the later Northwest Rebellion.^{[citation needed]} These conflicts created a rift between Ontario, (English-speaking and at the time largely Protestant), and Quebec. The suppression of the rebellions allowed the government of Canada to proceed with a settlement of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta that was to create provinces that identified generally with English Canada in culture and outlook, although immigration included large numbers of people from non English-speaking European backgrounds, especially Scandinavians and Ukrainians.

Nunavut[link]

Twentieth century[link]

The sculpture of Canada Bereft at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, France.

Although Canada has long prided itself on its relatively peaceful history, war has played a significant role in the formation of an English Canadian identity. As part of the British Empire, Canada found itself at war against the Central Powers in 1914. In the main, English Canadians enlisted for service with an initial enthusiastic and genuine sense of loyalty and duty.^[14] The sacrifices and accomplishments of Canadians at battles such as Vimy Ridge and the Dieppe Raid in France are well known and respected among English Canadians and helped forge a more common sense of nationality.^[15] In World War II, Canada made its own separate declaration of war and played a critical role in supporting the Allied war effort. Again, support for the war effort to defend the United Kingdom and liberate continental Europe from Axis domination was particularly strong among English Canadians^{[citation needed]}. In the post war era, although Canada was committed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, English Canadians took considerable pride in the Nobel Prize for Peace awarded to Lester Pearson for his role in resolving the Suez Crisis and have been determined supporters of the peacekeeping activities of the United Nations.^[16][17]

In the late twentieth century, increasing American cultural influence combined with diminishing British influence, and political and constitutional crises driven by the exigencies of dealing with the Quebec sovereignty movement and Western alienation contributed to something of an identity crisis for English Canadians.^[18] George Grant's Lament for a Nation is still seen as an important work relating to the stresses and vulnerabilities affecting English Canada.^[19] However, the period of the 1960s through to the present have also seen tremendous accomplishments in English Canadian literature. Writers from English-speaking Canada such as Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, Margaret Laurence, Robertson Davies, Timothy Findley, and Carol Shields dissected the experience of English Canadians ^[20][21] (or of life in English Canadian society.^[22] and assumed a place among the world's best-known English-language literary figures. Journalist Pierre Berton wrote a number of books popularizing Canadian history which had a particular resonance among English-speaking Canadians, while critics and philosophers such as Northrop Frye and John Ralston Saul have attempted to analyze the Canadian experience. Still, particularly at the academic level, debate continues as to the nature of English Canada and the extent to which English Canadians exist as an identifiable identity.^[23]

Symbols[link]

The Canadian flag flying at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, located at Halifax, Nova Scotia

1957 version of the Canadian Red Ensign that had evolved as the de facto national flag until 1965.

English-speaking Canadians have not adopted symbols specific to themselves. Although English Canadians are attached to the Canadian Flag,^[24] it is the national flag and intended to be a symbol for all Canadians, regardless of ethnicity or language. The flag debate of 1965 revealed a strong attachment to the Canadian Red Ensign,^[25] previously flown as the flag of Canada prior to the adoption of the maple leaf in 1965. Even today, there is considerable support for use of the Red Ensign in certain specific circumstances, such as the commemoration ceremonies for the Battle of Vimy Ridge.^[26]

The maple leaf itself, as a symbol, was used as early as 1834 in what is now Quebec as a symbol of the Société St. Jean Baptiste but was adopted for use shortly afterwards by the English-speaking community in Canada. The Maple Leaf Forever, penned in 1867 at the time of Confederation was at one time regarded as an informal anthem for English Canadians,^[27] but reaction by English-speaking Canadians to a decision of a New Brunswick school to stop the singing of the anthem are attached to the official national anthem, O Canada, by Calixa Lavallée suggests that the official anthem enjoys considerable support.^[28]

The beaver is sometimes seen as another Canadian symbol, but is not necessarily specific to English Canadians. It too was used originally in connection with the Société St. Jean Baptiste before coming into currency as a more general Canadian symbol. In the 1973 political satire by Stanley Burke, Frog Fables & Beaver Tales, a spoof on Canadian politics of the Pierre Trudeau era, English Canadians are depicted in the main as well-meaning, but not terribly clever beavers (with other animals such as frogs, sea otters and gophers assigned to represent other linguistic and provincial populations). The historical relevance of the beaver stems from the early fur trade. It has been asserted that "[t]he fur trade in general and the Hudson's Bay Company in particular exercised a profound influence on the sculpting of the Canadian soul."^[29]

The Crown has historically been an intangible but significant symbol for many English Canadians. Loyalty to Great Britain created the initial fracture lines between the populations of the Thirteen Colonies and the populations of Nova Scotia and Quebec at the time of the American Revolution and forced the flight of the Loyalists after the end of the war. As such English Canada developed in the nineteenth century along lines that continued to emphasize this historical attachment, evident in the naming of cities, parks and even whole provinces after members of the royal family, the retention of flags, badges and provincial mottos expressive of loyalty, and enthusiastic responses to royal visits. While such loyalty is no longer as powerful a unifying force as it once was among English Canadians, it continues to exert a noticeable influence on English Canadian culture. According to the author and political commentator Richard Gwyn while "[t]he British connection has long vanished... it takes only a short dig down to the sedimentary layer once occupied by the Loyalists to locate the sources of a great many contemporary Canadian convictions and conventions."^[30] Gwyn considers that the modern equivalent of the once talismanic loyalty is "tolerance": "a quality now accepted almost universally as the feature that makes us a distinct people."^[31]

Ethnic composition[link]

The 2001 Census of Canada provides information about the ethnic composition of English-speaking Canadians. This "refers to the ethnic or cultural group(s) to which the respondent's ancestors belong".^[32] However, interpretation of data is complicated by two factors.

• Respondents were instructed to specify as many ethnic origins as applicable. Thus, if one has seven great-grandparents of English descent and one of Welsh descent, one will answer "English" and "Welsh" to this question, and in this example the representation of Welsh ancestry is exaggerated. This method is likely to lead to overrepresentation of smaller groups compared to the method in use until 1976, in which only paternal ancestry was reported.If on the other hand one restricts attention to single responses, groups which have arrived in Canada more recently will be overrepresented compared to groups which have been present longer.
• Non-Aboriginal respondents are not discouraged from providing responses denoting origins in North America. The most frequent of these is "Canadian". The response "Canadian" is in fact provided as an example in the census instructions, based on its frequency in past surveys.

See the definition of "ethnic origin" from the 2001 Census dictionary for further information.

The data in the following tables pertain to the population of Canada reporting English as its sole mother tongue, a total of 17,352,315 inhabitants out of 29,639,035. A figure for single ethnic origin responses is provide, as well as a total figure for ethnic origins appearing in single or multiple responses (for groups exceeding 2% of the total English-speaking population). The sum of the percentages for single responses is less than 100%, while the corresponding total for single or multiple responses is greater than 100%. The data are taken from the 2001 Census of Canada.^[33]

The remaining ethnic groups (single or multiple responses) forming at least 1% of the English-speaking population are Welsh (2.0%), Swedish (1.5%), Hungarian (1.5%), East Indian (1.4%), Métis (1.4%), Jewish (1.4%), Russian (1.4%), American (1.3%), Jamaican (1.2%) and Chinese (1.1%). The remaining ethnic groups (single response) forming at least 0.5% of the English-speaking population are East Indian (1.0%), Jamaican (0.8%) and Chinese (0.6%).

Depending on the principal period of immigration to Canada and other factors, ethnic groups (other than British Isles, French, and Aboriginal ones) vary in their percentage of native speakers of English. For example, while a roughly equal number of Canadians have at least partial Ukrainian and Chinese ancestry, 82% of Ukrainian Canadians speak English as their sole mother tongue, and only 17% of Chinese Canadians do (though this rises to 34% in the 0 to 14 age group).^[34] As the number of second and third-generation Chinese Canadians increases, their weight within the English-speaking population can also be expected to increase. It should also be borne in mind that some percentage of any minority ethnic group will adopt French, particularly in Quebec.

Culture[link]

Language[link]

In the 2001 Canadian census, 17,572,170 Canadians indicated that they were English-speaking. As discussed in the Introduction, however, this does not mean that 17.5 million people in Canada would necessarily self-identify as being 'English Canadian'.

Except in Newfoundland and the Maritime provinces, most Canadian English is only subtly different from English spoken in much of the mid-western and western United States. Spoken English in the Maritimes has some resemblance to English of some of the New England states. Newfoundland has the most distinct accent, with the spoken language influenced in particular by Irish immigration. There are a few pronunciations that are distinctive for most English Canadians, such as 'zed' for the last letter of the alphabet.

English Canadian spelling continues to favour most spellings of British English, including 'centre', 'theatre', 'colour' and 'labour', although usage is not universal. Other spellings, such as 'gaol' and 'programme', have disappeared entirely or are in retreat. The principal differences between British and Canadian spelling are twofold: '-ise' and '-yse' words ('organise/organize' and 'analyse' in Britain, 'organize' and 'analyze/analyse' in Canada), and '-e' words ('annexe' and 'grille' in Britain, 'annex' and 'grill' in Canada, but 'axe' in both, 'ax' in the USA). But '-ize' is becoming increasingly common in Britain, bringing British spelling closer to the Canadian standard.

Vocabulary of Canadian English contains a few distinctive words and phrases. In British Columbia, for example, the Chinook word 'skookum' for, variously, 'good' or 'great' or 'reliable' or 'durable', has passed into common use, and the French word 'tuque' for a particular type of winter head covering is in quite widespread use throughout the country.

Languages besides English are spoken extensively in provinces with English-speaking majorities. Besides French (which is an official language of the province of New Brunswick and in the three territories), indigenous languages, including Inuktitut and Cree are widely spoken and are in some instances influencing the language of English speakers, just as traditional First Nations art forms are influencing public art, architecture and symbology in English Canada. Immigrants to Canada from Asia and parts of Europe in particular have brought languages other than English and French to many communities, particularly Toronto, Vancouver and other larger centres. On the west coast, for example, Chinese and Punjabi are taught in some high schools; while on the east coast efforts have been made to preserve the Scots Gaelic language brought by early settlers to Nova Scotia. In the Prairie provinces, and to a lesser degree elsewhere, there are a large number of second-generation and more Ukrainian Canadians who have retained at least partial fluency in the Ukrainian language.

Religion[link]

Christ Church Cathedral, Fredericton, construction began in 1845

The population of the provinces other than Quebec in the 2001 Census is some 22,514,455. It is impossible to know with certainty how many of that number would self-identify as 'English Canadians' under the broadest interpretation of the term. Persons self-identifying with 'English' as their primary ethnic origin as part of the 2001 census - Quebec included - totaled slightly less than 6,000,000 persons. However, many Canadians who identify other ethnic origins for the purpose of the census might identify as 'English Canadian' in the broader sense of 'English-speaking Canadians' and possibly share some cultural affinities with the group identifying itself as 'English Canadian' in the more limited sense.

Of the total population of the provinces outside Quebec, the following numbers provide an approximation of the two largest religious groupings: *Protestant: 8,329,260; *Roman Catholic: 6,997,190.

It is fair to assume that persons identifying themselves as Roman Catholic outside Quebec would include many non-English ethnicities such as Francophone populations^{[citation needed]}, Irish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Hispanic, German, and many other origins.

Those claiming no religious affiliation in 2001 numbered 4,586,900.

For comparison purposes, other religious groups in the provinces other than Quebec in 2001:

• Orthodox Christian: 379,245
• Other Christian: 723,700
• Muslim: 471,620
• Jewish: 340,080
• Hindu: 272,675
• Sikh: 270,185
• Buddhist: 258,965

In sum, while the single largest religious affiliation of 'English Canadians' - in the Rest of Canada sense of the term - may for convenience be slotted under the different Christian religions called Protestantism, it still represents a minority of the population at less than 37%. So-called 'English Canadians' include a large segment who do not identify as Christian. Even with a clear majority of almost 73%, English Canadian Christians represent a large diversity of beliefs that makes it exceedingly difficult to accurately portray religion as a defining characteristic.

Literature[link]

Humour, often ironic and self-deprecating, played an important role particularly in early Canadian literature in English, such as Thomas Chandler Haliburton and Stephen Leacock.

In Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, Margaret Atwood's seminal book on Canadian Literature published in 1973, the author argues that much of Canadian literature in both English and French is linked thematically to the notion of personal and collective survival. This theme continues to reappear in more recent literary works, such as Yann Martel's Life of Pi, winner of the 2002 Booker Prize.

In the 1970s authors such as Margaret Laurence in The Stone Angel and Robertson Davies in Fifth Business explored the changing worlds of small town Manitoba and Ontario respectively. Works of fiction such as these gave an entire generation of Canadians access to literature about themselves and helped shape a more general appreciation of the experiences of English-speaking Canadians in that era.

Arts[link]

Jack Pine by Tom Thomson

In the early years of the twentieth century painters in both central Canada and the west coast began applying post-impressionist style to Canadian landscape paintings. Painters such as Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, which included painters such as A.Y. Jackson, captured images of the wilderness in ways that forced English Canadians to discard their conservative and traditional views of art. In British Columbia, Emily Carr, born in Victoria in 1871, spent much of her life painting. Her early paintings of northwest coast aboriginal villages were critical to creating awareness and appreciation of First Nations cultures among English Canadians. The Arctic paintings of Lawren Harris, another member of the Group of Seven, are also highly iconic for English Canadians.

Heroes, heroines and national myths[link]

Tommy Douglas (centre left).

Painting of Loyalist heroine Laura Secord by Mildred Peel

From colonial times the arrival and settlement of the first pioneers, the fur trade empire established by the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company - although the fur company histories are more relevant to French Canadians, Métis and Scottish Canadians. - and the mass resettlement of refugee Loyalists are important starting points for some English Canadians. Some have argued that the Loyalist myth, so often accepted without second thought, represents also a collective English Canadian myth-making enterprise^[35]

The War of 1812 produced one of the earliest national heroes, Laura Secord,^[36] who is credited with having made her way through American lines at night to carry a warning to British troops of impending American plans and contributing to the victory at the Battle of Beaver Dams, where the American advance into Upper Canada was turned back.

The War of 1812 also saw the capture and burning of Washington, D.C. by the British in August 1814, an event still remembered in English Canada. The War of 1812 itself, to which Canadian and aboriginal militia forces made important contributions, is viewed as the event that ensured the survival of the colonies that would become Canada, or, as termed by the critic Northrop Frye "in many respects a war of independence for Canada."^[37]

There is an element of the heroic that attaches to Sir John A. Macdonald, the Scottish lawyer from Kingston, Ontario who became Canada's first Prime Minister. His weaknesses (such as an alleged fondness for alcohol, and the multifaceted corruption inherent in the Pacific Scandal) and the controversial events surrounding the rebellions in the west have not erased admiration for his accomplishments in nation building for English Canadians. Macdonald's pragmatism laid the foundation of the national myth of the 'two founding nations' (English and French), which was to endure well into the twentieth century among a strong minority of English Canadians and was eventually reflected in the official government policy that flowed from the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism in the 1960s.

Macdonald was also instrumental in the founding of the North-West Mounted Police in 1875, forerunners of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Canada's iconic national police force. The RCMP itself, established to "subdue the West", i.e. the newly-acquired Northwest Territories, formerly the HBC's Rupert's Land, as declared in the preamble to its charter. The RCMP, long since eulogized into a moral, symbolic image of Canadian authority, far from its true nature as a paramilitary force commissioned with bringing First Nations and Métis to heel, plays a role in English Canada's perception of itself as a nation of essentially law abiding citizens that confederated in 1867 for the purposes of establishing peace, order and good government.

The Klondike Gold Rush of 1898 in the Yukon was another event that resonated in the English Canadian imagination, with its stories of adventure and struggle in a harsh northern environment. The myth of the North itself, the forbidding landscape and difficult climate, peopled by the hardy Inuit is of central importance to English Canadians, from Susanna Moodie (whose 'north' was the 'wilderness' of 1830s southern Ontario) to the present, as the myth of the north is reexamined, challenged and reinvented for an increasingly post-colonial culture.^[38]

In the twentieth century Tommy Douglas, the politician from Saskatchewan who is credited with the creation of Canada's programme of universal health care has been recognized as the greatest Canadian in a contest sponsored by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's national public broadcaster. Lester B. Pearson, winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace and Prime Minister of Canada responsible for the adoption of the maple leaf flag, is widely regarded as an English Canadian figure.

Another person who had an enormous impact on English Canadians was British Columbian Terry Fox^[39] whose 1981 attempt to run across Canada from St. John's, Newfoundland to the Pacific to raise money for cancer research. Although forced to discontinue the run near Thunder Bay due to a recurrence of his cancer, Terry Fox captured the imagination of millions of Canadians, particularly in the English-speaking provinces.^[40] This feat was followed by British Columbian Rick Hansen's successful Man in Motion tour shortly afterwards.^[41]

Sports heroes include, among many others, the legendary Wayne Gretzky^[42] from Ontario who led the Edmonton Oilers to successive Stanley Cup victories in the 1980s; the women's Olympic hockey team that won the Gold Medal in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and Team Canada that won the famed Canada-Russia hockey series in 1972.^[43]

Other significant figures include Nellie McClung^[44] (activist in politics and women's rights), Emily Carr (post-impressionist artist),^[45] Billy Bishop (World War I airman),^[46] Dr. Frederick Banting (co-discover of insulin)^[47] and Dr.Norman Bethune (doctor in China).^[48] Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, is often claimed by English Canada because of his residence on Cape Breton Island, although he was born in Scotland and later moved to the United States.^[49]

At the same time, historian and author Charlotte Gray has described Canadians as people who do not do heroes or hero-worship well, preferring instead to celebrate the collective rather than the individual: "[t]he qualities that are celebrated in our national life today are collective virtues - the bravery of our peace-keepers, the compassion of all Canadians for Manitoba's flood victims...individualism has never been celebrated in Canada. It is not a useful quality for a loose federation perched on a magnificent and inhospitable landscape..."^[50]

The contribution of French-speaking Canadians to the culture of English Canada is significant. Many popular Canadian symbols such as the maple leaf and the beaver were first adopted by Francophones. Francophone sports figures (particularly in hockey and figure-skating) have always been highly regarded. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister in the early 20th century, is viewed as an important statesman in English Canada. A more controversial figure is Pierre Trudeau, who is often praised for his handling of the October Crisis^[51] (also known as the FLQ Crisis) and the process of constitutional reform that implemented the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms but who also caused considerable Western Alienation and has been criticised for the critical failure to bring Quebec into the 1982 agreement on constitutional reform. Trudeau was nevertheless ranked 3rd in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's contest to choose The Greatest Canadian. Most recently, Haitian-born Francophone Michaëlle Jean, the current Governor-General, has overcome some initial misgivings regarding her appointment. The motto chosen for her arms, Briser les solitudes (break down the solitudes), echoes one of the significant works of early English Canadian fiction, Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes which describes the sometimes painful separateness dividing Canada's English and French-speaking populations.

Canada's role in the First^[52] and Second World Wars played a large part in the political evolution of Canada and the identity of English Canadians. After the fall of France in 1940 and prior to the entry of the United States into the war in 1942, Canada saw itself as Britain's principal ally against Adolf Hitler. The well-known poem In Flanders Fields, written during the First World War by John McCrae of Guelph, Ontario, is associated with Remembrance Day.

Popular culture[link]

The RCMP "Mountie" has become a figure associated with Canada in the popular imagination of not only Canada, but other countries as well. Although it has many Francophone officers, in popular culture the mountie has been typically represented by an anglophone, such as Dudley Do-Right, Benton Fraser or Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. The myth of the stalwart (if somewhat rustic) heroic Canadian also appeared in the form of Johnny Canuck, a comic book figure of the mid-twentieth century.

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery of Prince Edward Island is one of English Canada's best known contribution to general popular culture. The themes of gentle slapstick and ironic but affectionate observation of small-town Canadian life that appeared in the work of Stephen Leacock carried forward into the later part of the twentieth century to reappear in successful television sitcoms such as The Beachcombers, Corner Gas and Little Mosque on the Prairie.

Canadian humour took on an even broader form in the comedy of SCTV, in particular the Great White North sketches, The Red Green Show and more recently Trailer Park Boys.

Traditional music in much of English-speaking Canada has sources in the music of Scotland and Ireland, brought to Newfoundland and the Maritime provinces in the 19th century. In the late 20th Century, Maritime artists, particularly musicians from Cape Breton Island such as Rita MacNeil, the Rankin Family, Natalie MacMaster and Ashley MacIsaac and Great Big Sea from Newfoundland achieved substantial popularity and influence throughout English Canada. A Celtic influence is similarly felt in the work of musicians from other parts of Canada, such as Spirit of the West, from British Columbia, or Manitoba-born Loreena McKennitt.

See also[link]

	Canada portal
	England portal

	Book: Canada
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• English-speaking Quebecer
• English people
• England
• British North America
• French Canadian
• Culture of Canada
• English Canada
• List of Canadians of English descent

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Neil Sutherland, Cynthia Comacchio (2000) Children in English-Canadian society: framing the twentieth-century consensus Wilfrid Laurier University Press, ISBN 0-88920-351-2
• Richard Gwyn, (2007) John A: The Man Who Made Us Random House of Canada Ltd, ISBN 9780679314769
• Margaret A. Ormsby, (1958) British Columbia: a History, The MacMillan Company of Canada
• Thomas H. Raddall, (1973) Halifax: Warden of the North, McLelland and Stewart
• Terry Reksten, ( 1986) More English than the English: A Very Social History of Victoria, Orca Book Publishers

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Canadians of English descent

• Culture.ca by the Department of Canadian Heritage
• 2001 Census by Statistics Canada

v t e English diaspora Africa South Africa Asia Burma · India Americas Argentina · Brazil · Canada (Nova Scotia) · Chile · Jamaica · Paraguay · United States Europe Ireland (Old English · Anglo-Irish) · Byzantine Empire · Crimea Oceania Australia · New Zealand

v t e People of Canada Ethnic ancestry Canada Canadian  · Aboriginals - (First Nations · Inuit · Métis) Africa Black African (Igbo) · Cape Verdean · Egyptian · Moroccan · Somali Americas North America American Caribbean Barbadian · Guyanese · Haitian · Jamaican · Trinidadian/Tobagonian Latin America Brazilian · Mexican · Venezuelan Asia East Asia Chinese (Hong Kong) · Japanese · South Korean · Taiwanese · Tibetan South Asia Bangladeshi · Indian (Anglo-Indian · Tamil) · Nepali · Pakistani · Sri Lankan (Tamil) Southeast Asia Cambodian · Filipino · Indonesian · Laotian · Singaporean · Thai · Vietnamese West Asia Afghan · Arab · Armenian · Assyrian · Iranian · Iraqi · Jewish · Lebanese · Syrian · Turkish Europe Northern Europe English · Finnish · Icelandic · Swedish · Norwegian · Lithuanian · Latvian · Irish · Scottish · Welsh Western Europe French (Acadians  · Québécois)  · Dutch · Flemish  · Belgian Central Europe Czech · German · Hungarian (Magyar) · Polish Southern Europe Greek · Italian · Portuguese · Spanish Southeast Europe Albanian  · Bulgarian · Croatian · Macedonian · Montenegrin · Romanian · Serbian · Slovenian Eastern Europe Russian · Ukrainian Oceania Australian Demographics Languages · Religion · Population totals · 1666 census · 1911 Census · 1996 Census · 2001 Census · 2006 Census · 2011 Census By province & territory.. Alberta · British Columbia · Manitoba · New Brunswick · Newfoundland & Labrador · Nova Scotia · Ontario · Prince Edward Island · Quebec · Saskatchewan · Yukon · Northwest Territories · Nunavut By city.. Edmonton · Montreal · Ottawa · Toronto · Vancouver (Canadian cities by census) Culture & society Architecture · Art · Charter · Cinema · Citizenship · Crime · Cuisine  · Education · Government · Health · History · Identity · Immigration · Law Literature  · Media · Military · Multiculturalism · Music · Nationalism  · Politics · Poverty · Protection of · Social welfare · Sport · Symbols · Theatre list of Canadians Members of.. Canada's Walk of Fame · Fathers of Confederation · Historic significance · Order of Canada (Companions) · The Greatest Canadian · Victoria Cross Individuals by.. Aboriginals · Actors · Artists · Composers · Monarchs  · Musicians  · Painters · Prime Ministers Net worth  · Province and city · Radio personalities · Sports personalities  · TV personalities · Writers Orders, medals & decorations Order of Merit · Order of Canada · Order of Military Merit · Order of Merit of the Police Forces · Royal Victorian Order · Venerable Order of Saint John Orders, decorations, and medals of the Canadian provinces · Canadian order of precedence (decorations and medals) · Governor General's Awards Category  · Portal  · WikiProject

French people
Les Français

1st row: Joan of Arc • Jacques Cartier • René Descartes • Molière Blaise Pascal • Louis XIV • Voltaire • Diderot • Napoleon 2nd row: Victor Hugo • Alexandre Dumas • Évariste Galois Louis Pasteur • Jules Verne • Gustave Eiffel • Pierre de Coubertin Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec • Marie Curie 3rd row: Marcel Proust • Charles de Gaulle • Josephine Baker Jacques Cousteau • Albert Camus • Édith Piaf François Mitterrand • Brigitte Bardot • Zinedine Zidane
Total population
c. 110 million e
Regions with significant populations
France 64,300,000[1]
United States (French ancestry) 11,500,000a [2]  Canada 10,421,365b  Argentina 6,800,000 [3]  United Kingdom 6,200,000c [4]  Belgium 6,200,000 [5]  Brazil 1,000,000 [6]  Chile 700,000 .[7]  Italy 250,000 [8]  Australia 117,521c [9][10]  Germany 104,085 [11]  Spain 100,408 [12]  Switzerland 95,000 [13]  Israel 85,000 [14]  Mexico 60,000 [15]  Portugal 35,000 [16]  Luxembourg 25,200 [17]  Mauritius 24,000c  Cambodia 16,200b [18]  Lebanon 15,000 [18]  Syria 13,000 [18]  Ecuador 11,000. [18]  Monaco 9,800. [19]
Languages
French
Religion
Traditionally Roman Catholic, see religion in France
Related ethnic groups
Other Latin peoples: Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians Various Germanic peoples (due to Frankish ancestry) : Germans, Dutch, English Various Celtic peoples (due to Gallo-Roman ancestry) : Irish, Bretons, Welsh, Cornish Greek people (related to some French inhabitants of Provence due to Ancient Greek colonization)[20]
Footnotes
a including 2,080,000 of French Canadian ancestry b Including persons of partial French ancestry c Including ancestry and birth d French born people were residing in the during the 2001 Census e Including those with French ancestry

The French (French: Français) are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups. Within France, the French are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence.^[21]

However, the word can also refer to people of French descent who are found in other countries, with significant French-speaking population groups or not, such as Argentina (French Argentines), Brazil (French Brazilians), French West Indies (the French Caribbean people), Canada (French Canadians) and the United States (French Americans), and some of them have a French cultural identity. The United Kingdom also has a large French population, mainly in England, and due to historic relations and immigration.

Citizenship and legal residence[link]

To be French, according to the first article of the Constitution, is to be a citizen of France, regardless of one's origin, race, or religion (sans distinction d'origine, de race ou de religion).^[21] According to its principles, France has devoted herself to the destiny of a proposition nation, a generic territory where people are bounded only by the French language and the assumed willingness to live together, as defined by Ernest Renan's "plébiscite de tous les jours" ("daily referendum" on the willingness to live together, in Renan's 1882 essay "Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?").

The debate concerning the integration of this view with the principles underlying the European Community remains open.^[22]

A large number of foreigners^[23] have traditionally been permitted to live in France and succeeded in doing so.^[24] Indeed, the country has long valued its openness, tolerance and the quality of services available.^[25] Application for French citizenship is often interpreted as a renouncement of previous state allegiance unless a dual citizenship agreement exists between the two countries (for instance, this is the case with Switzerland: one can be both French and Swiss). The European treaties have formally permitted movement and European citizens enjoy formal rights to employment in the state sector (though not as trainees in reserved branches (e.g. as magistrates).

Seeing itself as an inclusive nation with universal values, France has always valued and strongly advocated assimilation. However, the success of such assimilation has recently been called into question. There is increasing dissatisfaction with, and within, growing ethno-cultural enclaves (communautarisme). The 2005 French riots in some troubled and impoverished suburbs (les quartiers sensibles) were an example of such tensions. However they should not be interpreted as ethnic conflicts (as appeared before in other countries like the USA and the UK) but as social conflicts born out of socioeconomic problems endangering proper integration.^[26]

History[link]

Most French people are the descendants of Gauls (a western European Celtic people), as well as Italic people, Sarmatian peoples (Alans, Taifals), Bretons, Belgae, Aquitanians (Basques), Iberians, Ligurians, Suebi, Saxons and Greeks in southern France,^[27][28] mixed with the Germanic people arriving at the end of the Roman Empire such as the Franks, the Visigoths and the Burgundians, and Vikings known as Normans, who settled mostly in Normandy in the 9th century.^[29][30]

The name "France" etymologically derives from the word Francia, the territory of the Franks. The Franks were a Germanic tribe that overran Roman Gaul at the end of the Roman Empire.

Some regions were immensely affected by mass migrations of different peoples: Celtics in Brittany, and Germanics in Alsatia (Alemanni) before the existence of the Frankish kingdoms, and the languages and culture of these regions continue through self-perpetuation until this day.

Gaul[link]

Gaul before complete Roman conquest circa 58 BCE:
- Gallia Narbonensis was influenced by Romans and Greeks.
- Aquitania was inhabited or influenced by Basques.
Gallia Belgica was influenced by Germanic tribes.

In the pre-Roman era, all of Gaul (an area of Western Europe that encompassed all of what is known today as France, Belgium, part of Germany and Switzerland, and Northern Italy) was inhabited by a variety of peoples who were known collectively as the Gaulish tribes. Their ancestors were Celtic immigrants who came from Central Europe in the 7th century BCE (and even before, according to new research^[31]), and dominated native peoples (which can't be clearly identified except the Ligures in south Provence, the Iberians at the eastern bottom of the Pyrenees and Aquitanic people (among them, the Basques) in Aquitaine. Some, particularly in the northern and eastern areas, had Germanic admixture. Many of these peoples had already spoken Celtic by the time of the Roman conquest, but others seem to have spoken a Celto-Germanic creole.

Gaul was militarily conquered in 58-51 BCE by the Roman legions under the command of General Julius Caesar (except the south-east which had already been conquered about one century earlier and which became the only place with Roman settlements). The area then became part of the Roman Empire. Over the next five centuries the two cultures intermingled, creating a hybridized Gallo-Roman culture. The Gaulish language came to be supplanted by Vulgar Latin, which would later split into dialects that would develop into the French language. Today, the last redoubt of Celtic culture and language in France can be found in the northwestern region of Brittany, although this is not the result of a survival of Gaulish language but of a 5th century A.D. migration of Brythonic speaking Celts from Britain.

The Franks[link]

With the decline of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, a federation of Germanic peoples entered the picture: the Franks, from which the word "French" derives. The Franks were Germanic pagans who began to settle in northern Gaul as laeti, already during the Roman era. They continued to filter across the Rhine River from present-day Netherlands and Germany between the third to the 7th century. At the beginning, they served in the Roman army and reached high commands. Their language is still spoken as a kind of Dutch (Flemish - Low Frankish) in northern France and Frankish (Central Franconian) in German speaking Lorraine. Another Germanic people immigrated massively to Alsace: the Alamans, which explains the Alemannic German spoken there. They were competitors of the Franks; that's why it became the word for German in French: Allemand.

By the early 6th century the Franks, led by the Merovingian king Clovis I and his sons, had consolidated their hold on much of modern-day France, the country to which they gave their name. The other major Germanic people to arrive in France (after the Franks and the Visigoths) were the Norsemen or Northmen, (which was shortened to Norman in France), Viking raiders from modern Denmark and Norway, who settled with Anglo-Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons from the Danelaw in the northern region known today as Normandy but also in western France in the 9th and 10th century. The Vikings eventually intermarried with the local people, converting to Christianity in the process. It was the Normans who, two centuries later, would go on to conquer England.

Eventually, though, the independent duchy of Normandy was incorporated back into the French kingdom in the Middle Ages. In the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, founded in 1099, at most 120 000 Franks (predominantly French-speaking Western Christians) ruled over 350,000 Muslims, Jews, and native Eastern Christians.^[32]

15th to 18th century: the kingdom of France[link]

Louis XIV of France "The Sun-King"

In the roughly 900 years after the Norman invasions France had a fairly settled population^{[citation needed]}. Unlike elsewhere in Europe, France experienced relatively low levels of emigration to the Americas, with the exception of the Huguenots. However, significant emigration of mainly Roman Catholic French populations led to the settlement of the Province of Acadia, Canada (New France) and Louisiana, all (at the time) French possessions, as well as colonies in the West Indies, Mascarene islands and Africa.

On 31 December 1687 a community of French Huguenots settled in South Africa. Most of these originally settled in the Cape Colony, but have since been quickly absorbed into the Afrikaner population. After Champlain's founding of Quebec City in 1608, it became the capital of New France. Encouraging settlement was difficult, and while some immigration did occur, by 1763 New France only had a population of some 65,000.^[33] From 1713 to 1787, 30,000 colonists immigrated from France to the St. Domingue. In 1805, when the French were forced out of St. Domingue (Haiti) 35,000 French settlers were given lands in Cuba.^[34]

By the beginning of the 17th century, some 20% of the total male population of Catalonia was made up of French immigrants.^[35] For the most part, the French were assimilated with relative ease into Catalan society.^[36]

In the 18th century and early 19th century, a small migration of French emigrated by official invitation of the Habsburgs to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now the nations of Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia and Romania.^[37] Some of them, coming from French-speaking communes in Lorraine and another wave are French Swiss Walsers from the Valais canton in Switzerland, they maintained for some generations the French language, and a specific ethnic identity, later labelled as Banat French, Français du Banat. By 1788 there were 8 villages populated by French colonists.^[38]

Creation of the French nation-state[link]

The French nation-state appeared following the 1789 French Revolution and Napoleon's empire. It replaced the ancient kingdom of France, ruled by the divine right of kings.

Hobsbawm highlighted the role of conscription, invented by Napoleon, and of the 1880s public instruction laws, which allowed mixing of the various groups of France into a nationalist mold which created the French citizen and his consciousness of membership to a common nation, while the various regional languages of France were progressively eradicated.

The 1870 Franco-Prussian War, which led to the short-lived Paris Commune of 1871, was instrumental in bolstering patriotic feelings; until World War I (1914–1918), French politicians never completely lost sight of the disputed Alsace-Lorraine region, which played a major role in the definition of the French nation, and therefore of the French people. During the Dreyfus Affair, anti-semitism became apparent. Charles Maurras, a royalist intellectual member of the far-right anti-parliamentarist Action Française party, invented the neologism of the anti-France, which was one of the first attempts at contesting the republican definition of the French people as composed of all French citizens regardless of their ethnic origins or religious beliefs. Charles Maurras' expression of the anti-France opposed the Catholic French people to four "confederate states" incarning the Other: Jews, Freemasons, Protestants and, last but not least, the métèques ("metics").

Later immigration[link]

As of 2008, the French national institute of statistics INSEE estimated that 11.8 million foreign-born immigrants and their direct descendants (born in France) lived in France representing 19% of the country's population. More than 5 million are of European origin and about 4 million of Maghrebi origin (20% of Algerian origin and 15% of Moroccan or Tunisian origin). Immigrants aged 18–50 count for 2.7 millions (10% of population aged 18–50) and 5 millions for all ages (8% of population). 2nd Generation aged 18–50 make up 3.1 millions (12% of 18-50) and 6.5 millions for all ages (11% of population)^[39][40]

French people in Paris, August 1944

Legally, the sovereign people of France are composed of all French citizens, regardless of ethnicity or religion.^[21] Citizens of any ethnicity are included in that definition. Successive waves of immigrants during the 19th and 20th centuries were thus rapidly assimilated into French culture.

The INSEE does not collect data about language, religion, or ethnicity – on the principle of the secular and unitary nature of the French Republic.^[41]

Nevertheless, there are some sources dealing with just such distinctions:

• The CIA World Factbook defines the ethnic groups of France as being "Celtic and Latin with Teutonic, Slavic, North African, Sub-Saharan African, Indochinese, and Basque minorities. Overseas departments: black, white, mulatto, East Indian, Chinese, Amerindian".^[42] Its definition is reproduced on several Web sites collecting or reporting demographic data.^[43]

• The U.S. Department of State goes into further detail: "Since prehistoric times, France has been a crossroads of trade, travel, and invasion. Three basic European ethnic stocks – Celtic, Latin, and Teutonic (Frankish) – have blended over the centuries to make up its present population. . . . Traditionally, France has had a high level of immigration. . . . In 2004, there were over 6 million Muslims, largely of North African descent, living in France. France is home to both the largest Muslim and Jewish populations in Europe."^[44]

• The Encyclopædia Britannica says that "the French . . . hardly constitute a unified ethnic group by any scientific gauge", and it mentions as part of the population of France, the Basques, the Celts (called Gauls by Romans) and the Germanic (Teutonic) peoples (including the Norsemen or Vikings). France also became "in the 19th and especially in the 20th century, the prime recipient of foreign immigration into Europe. . . ."^[45]

It is said by some^[who?] that France adheres to the ideal of a single, homogeneous national culture, supported by the absence of hyphenated identities and by avoidance of the very term "ethnicity" in French discourse.^[46]

The discussion about social discrimination has become more important, in particular concerning the so-called "second-generation immigrants"; that is, French citizens born in France to immigrant parents.^[47]

France has undergone a high rate of immigration from Europe, Africa, and Asia throughout the 20th century. Michèle Tribalat, researcher at INED, found it difficult to estimate the number of French immigrants or those born to immigrants because of the absence of official statistics. Only three previous attempts had been made: in 1927, 1942, and 1986. According to the 2004 Tribalat study, among about 14 million people of foreign ascendancy (immigrants or people with at least one parent or grandparent who was an immigrant) living in France in 1999, 5.2 million were from Southern European ascendancy (Italy, Spain, Portugal), and 3 million from the Maghreb.^[48] Thus it was found that 23 percent of French citizens had at least one immigrant parent or grandparent.

According to a recent genetic study in 2008, 28.45% of all newborns in mainland France in 2007 had at least one parent of immigrant origin from the following regions (Overseas departments and territories of France, Africa, America, Southern Europe : Portugal, Greece and South Italy, Near and Middle East and the Indian sub-continent). The Paris metropolitan district (Île-de-France) is the region that accounts for the largest number with nearly 56% of all newborns in this area in 2007 having at least one parent of immigrant origin. The second largest number is in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur at nearly 42% and the lowest number is in Brittany at 4.40%.^[49] Among the 802,000 newborns in metropolitan France in 2010, 27.3% had at least one foreign-born parent and about one quarter (23.9%) had at least one parent born outside of Europe.^[50][27] Including grandparents, about 40% of newborns in France between 2006 and 2008 had at least one foreign-born grandparent (11% born in another European country, 16% born in Maghreb and 12% born in another region of the world).^[51]

France's population dynamics began to change in the middle of the 19th century, as France joined the Industrial Revolution. The pace of industrial growth attracted millions of European immigrants over the next century, with especially large numbers arriving from Poland, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, and Spain.^[52] In the period from 1915 to 1950, just as many immigrants came from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Russia, Scandinavia and Yugoslavia. A small French descent group also subsequently arrived from Latin America (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay) in the 1970s. Small but significant numbers of Frenchmen in the North and Northeast regions have relatives in Germany and Great Britain. French law made it easy for thousands of colons, ethnic or national French from former colonies of North and East Africa, India and Indochina to live in mainland France. It is estimated that 20,000 colons were living in Saigon in 1945, and there were 68,430 European settlers living in Madagascar in 1958.^[53] 1.6 million European pieds noirs migrated from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.^[54] In just a few months in 1962, 900,000 French Algerians left Algeria in the most massive relocation of population in Europe since the World War II.^[55] In the 1970s, over 30,000 French colons left Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime as the Pol Pot government confiscated their farms and land properties.

In the 1960s, a second wave of immigration came to France, which was needed for reconstruction purposes and for cheaper labour after the devastation brought on by World War II. French entrepreneurs went to Maghreb countries looking for cheap labour, thus encouraging work-immigration to France. Their settlement was officialized with Jacques Chirac's family regrouping act of 1976 (regroupement familial). Since then, immigration has become more varied, although France stopped being a major immigration country compared to other European countries. The large impact of North African and Arab immigration is the greatest and has brought racial, socio-cultural and religious questions to a country seen as homogenously European, French and Christian for thousands of years. Nevertherless, according to Justin Vaïsse, professor at Sciences Po Paris, in spite of obstacles and spectacular failures like the riots in November 2005, integration of Muslim immigrants is happening as part of a background evolution^[56] and recent studies confirmed the results of their assimilation, showing that "North Africans seem to be characterized by a high degree of cultural integration reflected in a relatively high propensity to exogamy" with rates ranging from 20% to 50%.^[57] According to Emmanuel Todd the relatively high exogamy among French Algerians can be explained by the colonial link between France and Algeria.^[58]

Between 1956 and 1967, about 235.000 North African Jews from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco also immigrated to France due to the decline of the French empire and following the Six-Day War. Hence, by 1968, North African Jews were the majority in France. As these new immigrants were already culturally French they needed little time to adjust to French society.^[59]

In 2004, a total of 140,033 people immigrated to France. Of them, 90,250 were from Africa and 13,710 from Europe.^[60] In 2005, immigration level fell slightly to 135,890.^[61] The European Union allows free movement between the member states. While the UK and Ireland did not impose restrictions, France put in place controls to curb Central and Eastern European migration.

In November 2004, several thousand of the estimated 14,000 French nationals in Ivory Coast left the country after days of anti-white violence.^[62] There are 2.2 million French citizens, about 4 percent of the population, outside France.^[63]

Maghrebis[link]

French of Maghrebi origin in France form the largest ethnic group after French of European origin.

According to Michel Tribalat, a researcher at INED, there were 3.5 million people of Maghrebi origin (with at least one grandparent from Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia) living in France in 2005 corresponding to 5.8% of the total French metropolitan population (60.7 millions in 2005).^[64] Maghrebis have settled mainly in the industrial regions in France, especially in the Paris region. Many famous French people like Edith Piaf,^[65] Isabelle Adjani, Arnaud Montebourg, Alain Bashung, Dany Boon have Maghrebi ancestry.

According to INSEE (French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies), 16% of newborns in France between 2006 and 2008 have at least one grand-parent born in Maghreb.^[66]

Below is a table of population of Maghrebi origin in France, numbers are in thousands:

In 2005, the percentage of young people under 18 of maghrebi origin (at least one immigrant parent) were about 7% in Metropolitan France, 12% in Greater Paris, 13% in Lyon, 21% in Perpignan, 22% in French département of Seine-Saint-Denis, 37% in 18th arrondissement of Paris and 40% in several arrondissements of Marseilles.^[67][68]

According to other sources between 5 and 6 million people of Maghrebin origin live in France corresponding to about 7-9% of the total French metropolitan population.^[69]

Languages[link]

In France[link]

Most French people speak the French language as their mother tongue, but certain languages like Norman, Occitan, Corsican, Basque, French Flemish and Breton remain spoken in certain regions (see Language policy in France). There have also been periods of history when a majority of French people had other first languages (local languages such as Occitan, Catalan, Alsatian, West Flemish, Lorraine Franconian, Gallo, Picard or Ch'timi and Arpitan). Today, many immigrants speak another tongue at home.

According to historian Eric Hobsbawm, "the French language has been essential to the concept of 'France'", although in 1789, 50 percent of the French people did not speak it at all, and only 12 to 13 percent spoke it fairly well; even in oïl language zones, it was not usually used except in cities, and even there not always in the outlying districts.^[70]

Abroad[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom has two French mottos: Dieu et mon droit and Honi soit qui mal y pense.

Abroad, the French language is spoken in many different countries – in particular the former French colonies. Nevertheless, speaking French is distinct from being a French citizen. Thus, francophonie, or the speaking of French, must not be confused with French citizenship or ethnicity. For example, French speakers in Switzerland are not "French citizens".

Native English-speaking Blacks on the island of Saint-Martin hold French nationality even though they do not speak French as a first language, while their neighbouring French-speaking Haitian immigrants speak French créole yet remain foreigners. Large numbers of people of French ancestry outside Europe speak other first languages, particularly English, throughout most of North America (except French Canada), Spanish or Portuguese in southern South America, and Afrikaans in South Africa.

The adjective "French" can be used to mean either "French citizen" or "French-speaker", and usage varies depending on the context, with the former being common in France. The latter meaning is sometimes used in Canada, when discussing matters internal to Canada.

Nationality, citizenship, ethnicity[link]

The modern ethnic French are the descendants of Celts, Iberians, Ligurians and Greeks in southern France,^[27][28] mixed with Germanic peoples arriving at the end of the Roman Empire such as the Franks and the Burgundians, some Moors and Saracens,^{[71][72][73][74][75][76][77]} and some Vikings who mixed with the Normans and settled mostly in Normandy in the 9th century.^[29][30]