History
The first Serbs to arrive in Canada came to British Columbia between 1850 and 1870. Many were employed in mining or forestry near such towns as Phoenix, Golden, Prince Rupert and Kamloops.
By 1900, Serbs began to arrive in Alberta. Many of these early settlers had migrated north from the north-west region of the United States. Coal mining attracted them to Lethbridge, while road construction was a source of employment for those in Macleod and Cadomin. Many Serbs worked on the construction of railway lines that now extend from Edmonton to the Pacific coast.
The period between the two World Wars witnessed a major increase in Serbian immigration to Canada. As with other periods of immigration, however, the exact number arriving at this time is not known.
Over 30,000 Yugoslavs came to Canada between 1919 and 1939, this included an estimated 10,000 Serbs. Many of these immigrants were single, working men who had left families in their home country to seek work in Canada. The vast majority of Serbs arriving between the wars settled in Ontario or British Columbia.
Major changes occurred in Yugoslavia during World War II . The newly established independent communist government was opposed by some Yugoslavs. Many post war refugees refused to return to their homeland to live under a communist regime. The Serbs, emigrating to Canada at this time, came from a variety of occupational backgrounds, including military and academic professions and the skilled trades.
In the late 1980s, Yugoslavia's communist government was on the verge of collapse. Shortly after the sudden breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, a large group of Serbs moved to Canada, mostly to Southern Ontario, to cities including: Toronto, Kitchener, St. Catharines, Hamilton and Niagara Falls.
The 2001 census in Canada listed 55,540 Canadians of Serbian descent, although it is assumed that there are more due to the irregularities in the classification of Serbs. Approximately 2,420 live in Alberta, with Edmonton and Calgary being the major centres of settlement.
Read more about this topic: Serbian Canadians
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)
“All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and say, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“History, as an entirety, could only exist in the eyes of an observer outside it and outside the world. History only exists, in the final analysis, for God.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)