The Great Migration of Canada (also known as the Great Migration from Britain) was a period of high immigration to Canada

Immigration to Canada

Immigration to Canada is the process by which people migrate to Canada to reside permanently in the country. The majority of these individuals become Canadian citizens. After 1947, domestic immigration law and policy went through major changes, most notably with the Immigration Act, 1976, and the...

 from 1815 to 1850, involving over 800,000 immigrants. Though Europe was becoming richer through the Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

, population growth

Population growth

Population growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....

 made the relative number of jobs low, forcing many to look to the New World

New World

The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...

 for economic success.

Background

In the late 18th and early 19th century, there occurred a transition in parts of Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

's previously manual-labor-based economy towards machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechanization of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Though the Revolution began an era of expanded economic growth

Economic growth

In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...

 and higher standards of living, it was at the same time met with rapid population explosion. A slow rise in quality of living standards throughout the past two hundred years allowed more children to survive and made child bearing more economic. As well, jobs that were previously done by poor peasants could now be done even more cheaply by machinery. This led to the loss of many jobs. The combined effects made it difficult for some to find jobs, leading them to look to the colonies

European colonization of the Americas

The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492. The first Europeans to reach the Americas were the Vikings during the 11th century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement in present day Newfoundland...

 in the Americas for work.

The migration

Because the Industrial Revolution began in Britain, the first (and therefore the majority of) settlers were English speaking British. Sixty percent of these immigrants to Canada were British. This made them the largest cultural group in Canada.

Other people from other countries migrated as well. Americans

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 went to look for new gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

, a material that was quickly evaporating from the American California gold rush

California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...

. Chinese

Chinese people

The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....

 came too for the same reason, and to escape war and famine in their own country. The Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 came to escape the Great Potato Famine.

Impact

The Great Migration had profound impacts on Canadian culture. At the beginning of the great Migration, the Canadians, Canadians of French descent, outnumbered those of British descent. By the end the British population was more than double that of the French. As they were coming, they were also expanding into French land, which caused problems. As they expanded into French territory, they also brought the fatal disease Cholera with them, which killed off many Canadians.