Sri Lankan Canadians

Canadians of Sri Lankan origin refers to people from Sri Lanka who have arrived and settled in Canada. Among these immigrants include members from the Tamil, Sinhalese, Moor, Malay and Burgher ethnicities. According to the 2009 census, there are 62,000 Canadians who claim Sri Lankan, but only 10,000 claimed sinhalese origin and 90 percent of SriLankan origin are Tamils ancestry, however this number is likely to be much higher since many Sri Lankan Tamils only report their ethnic heritage on the census which shows Tamil Canadians to be listed at 200,000.

In 2006, about 103 625 Canadians and residents of Canada were of Sri Lankan ethnic origin. Canada has admitted far more immigrants from Sri Lanka than the United States.

In the period of 1991 to 1995, Canada admitted 37 345 immigrants from Sri Lanka, while the United States admitted only 6 492. This means that Canada admitted about 475% more Sri Lankan immigrants than the United States during that period. While the total number of Sri Lankan immigrants in Canada is already several times greater than that of the United States, given that the total population of Canada is about one tenth the population of the United States, the number of Sri Lankan immigrants admitted to Canada per capita during that period would be about 58 times that of the United States.

Within Canada, about 138,675 people spoke Tamil, and 19,830 spoke Sinhalese in 2006. In Toronto of the same year, 110,450 people spoke Tamil, and 12,690 spoke Sinhalese.

A majority of the foreign-born South Asians came from countries in the Indian subcontinent, such as India (48.8%), Pakistan (14.6%), Sri Lanka (11.7%) and Bangladesh (3.6%). The other leading source countries of birth among the foreign-born South Asian visible minorities were Guyana (4.2%), Trinidad and Tobago (2.5%), Fiji (2.4%), the United Republic of Tanzania (1.9%), Kenya (1.8%) and the United Kingdom (1.6%).

One of Canada’s fastest growing communities, the Sri Lankan population has been one of the top ten sources of immigration to this country in through the late 1990’s and in the past few years. Indeed Canada is home to the largest Tamil community in the world outside of Sri Lanka. This
contrasts with the United States that has admitted far fewer immigrants from that country than its northern neighbor. Moreover while Canada admitted more than 2 000 refugees from Sri Lanka in 2003, the United States took in a mere 43. For its part, the US but has received considerably more immigrants from Indonesia than has Canada (admitting over 10 000 during the 1990’s which is nearly as much as the entire Canadian population from that part of the world).

According to the 2001 census, there are some 91 670 Sri Lankan born Canadians the vast majority-some 84%-in the province of Ontario with more than 10% in Quebec (on the basis of ethnic origin the numbers surpassed 100 000 with 61 315 Sri Lankan and 39 075 Tamil). Toronto is by far home to the largest Sri Lankan community on the continent with nearly 72 000 persons born in that country (on the basis of ethnic origins 45 240 reported Sri Lankan and 33 145 Tamil)
and Montreal with just over 10 000 persons born in that country (on the basis of ethnic origin 8 465 Sri Lankan and 2 920 Tamil). As such it would likely be those two cities most likely best situated to receive any immigrants from that country that would be admitted through the family
reunification program.

 

Colleges and Universities

The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), an organisation composed of Canadian universities, defines two distinct types of post-secondary institutions in Canada: universities and colleges. Universities grant university degrees, which include bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctoral degrees; and colleges, also known as community colleges, provide diplomas. In some cases, universities must be a member of AUCC to be able to grant university degrees.

There are 83 universities in Canada that are independent post-secondary education institutions with degree-granting authority. Seven of these universities are in Montreal, Quebec. Since 2008, there are also seven recognized universities within Metro Vancouver. Six are in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Five of these universities have campuses in Toronto, Ontario, the most populous city in the country. Three universities are in Ottawa , the country's capital city. The oldest university in Canada, Université Laval, was established in 1663. The Quest University is the smallest university in the country, with 80 students, and the University of Quebec is the largest, with 87,000 students.

Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in Western Canada and the third largest in the country. As of July 2009, the city's estimated population was 615,473 and that of the metropolitan area, 2,318,200. The two major public universities in the Lower Mainland, the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University (SFU), have campuses within the city, as does the British Columbia Institute of Technology, which provides polytechnic education and grants degrees in several fields. Vancouver Community College and Langara College are publicly-funded college-level institutions (there are several privately-owned ones), and are augmented by colleges in surrounding communities, provide career, trade, and university-transfer programs for Vancouver residents, notably Douglas College and Capilano University. Emily Carr University of Art and Design grants certificates, diplomas, and degrees in art and design. Vancouver Film School provides a one-year curriculum in film production.

Alberta has five universities, thirteen public colleges (one of which grants degrees), and seven private colleges (all of which grant degrees). Most private colleges refer to themselves as "university colleges", but are not legally universities, although they grant equivalent degrees. Post-secondary education in Alberta is regulated by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Technology. There are two universities in Calgary: University of Calgary and Mount Royal University. Edmonton, the province's capital city, is home to the University of Alberta, the province's oldest and largest university.

British Columbia has eleven public universities and four private universities. The oldest university in the province is the University of British Columbia, established in 1908. Five institutions in British Columbia were officially designated as universities on September 1, 2008: Capilano University, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the University of the Fraser Valley, and Vancouver Island University. University enrollment in British Columbia ranges from Quest University with 80 students to the University of British Columbia with 45,484 students.

 

Sri Lanka Associations in Canada

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