Canadian Americans

This article is about Americans of Canadian origin. For Americans of French-Canadian origin, see French-Canadian Americans. For Canadians of American origin, see American Canadians.
Canadian Americans
Américains canadiens (French)
Canada United States
Total population
1,062,640
0.33% of the American population
Regions with significant populations
Portland, Maine • Boston • Concord • Hartford • New England • New York City • Washington • California • Washington, D.C. • Philadelphia • Orlando • Atlanta • Texas • Charlotte • Raleigh • Detroit • Columbus • Chicago • Milwaukee • Phoenix • Las Vegas • most urban areas
Languages
English • French • Franglais
Religion
Roman Catholicism • Protestantism• Irreligion • Other
Related ethnic groups
Americans, American Canadians, Canadians
A French-Canadian family from Montréal in 1913

Canadian Americans (French: Américains canadiens) are American citizens or in some uses residents whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country who hold dual citizenship.[1]

The term Canadian can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadians are considered North Americans due their residing in the North American continent. English-speaking Canadian immigrants easily integrate and assimilate into northern and western U.S. states as a result of many cultural similarities, and in the similar accent in spoken English.[2] French-speaking Canadians, because of language and culture, tend to take longer to assimilate.[3] However, by the 3rd generation, they are often fully culturally assimilated, and the Canadian identity is more or less folklore.[4] This took place, even though half of the population of the province of Quebec emigrated to the US between 1840 and 1930.[5] Many New England cities formed 'Little Canadas', but many of these have gradually disappeared.

This cultural "invisibility" within the larger US population is seen as creating stronger affinity among Canadians living in the US than might otherwise exist.[6] According to US Census estimates, the number of Canadian residents was around 640,000 in 2000.[7] Some sources have cited the number to possibly be over 1,000,000.[8] This number, though, is far smaller than the number of Americans who can trace part or the whole of their ancestry to Canada. The percentage of these in the New England states is almost 25% of the total population.

In some regions of the United States, especially New England or the Midwest, a Canadian American often means one whose ancestors came from Canada.[9]

  1. ^ Cain, Patrick (4 April 2014). "How to get rid of your U.S. citizenship". Global News Canada. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  2. ^ "Veta: Good vocabulary - Accent training online - American Accent". veta.in. Archived from the original on November 29, 2011.
  3. ^ l'Actualité économique, Vol. 59, No 3, (september 1983): 423-453 and Yolande LAVOIE, L'Émigration des Québécois aux États-Unis de 1840 à 1930, Québec, Conseil de la langue française, 1979.
  4. ^ Barkan, Elliott Robert (1980). "French Canadians". In Thernstrom, Stephan; Orlov, Ann; Handlin, Oscar (eds.). Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. Cambridge, MA / London: Harvard University Press. p. 392. ISBN 0674375122. OCLC 1038430174.
  5. ^ l'Actualité économique, Vol. 59, No. 3 (September 1983): 423–453 and Yolande LAVOIE, L'Émigration des Québécois aux États-Unis de 1840 à 1930, Québec, Conseil de la langue française, 1979.
  6. ^ "Program No. 65 "Who's Canadian"". This American Life. Chicago Public Radio. May 30, 1997. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009. Retrieved March 2, 2009.
  7. ^ "c2kbr01-2.qxd" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2004. Retrieved May 18, 2011.
  8. ^ Stewart, Alice R. (1987), "The Franco-Americans of Maine: A Historiographical Essay", Maine Historical Society Quarterly, 26 (3): 160–179
  9. ^ Mark Paul Richard, From 'Canadien' to American: The Acculturation of French-Canadian Descendants in Lewiston, Maine, 1860 to the Present, PhD dissertation, Duke University, 2002; Dissertation Abstracts International, 2002 62(10): 3540-A. DA3031009, 583p.