ADS 2019

Montreal (Canada)

Raffi Yeretsian | Montreal

Montreal, with its metropolitan region, is the economic capital of the Province of Quebec, Canada and has a population of a little over 4 million. Based on the 2016 Canadian Census, there are 26,100 Armenians in the Greater Montreal area, a number representing 41% of Canada’s total Armenian population. There is a consensus, however, that this number could be as high as 40,000. 

The first substantial wave of Armenian migrants to Canada’s French-speaking province arrived from the Ottoman Empire to work in the mines of Asbestos, 164 km south of Montreal. The arrival of the first Armenians to the city dates back to 1912. Immigration immediately following the genocide has been marginal. However, an estimated 1,000 immigrants from Turkey in the late 1940s constituted the first significant settlement of Armenians in Montreal. Another group of migrants arrived from Greece in the late 1950s. 

In the decade spanning 1955-1965, the Armenian immigrants from Egypt, a relatively wealthy and educated population known for their business acumen, came to dominate the community. It is this group that is thought to have imported the church-school-community centre configuration of communities in the Middle East, where the traditional Armenian political parties are featured prominently. The establishment of the community’s institutional framework is attributed to the dynamism of the Armenians from Egypt, who had come to Canada following the fall of the monarchy and subsequent upheaval in the country. Although some institutions had been established in the late 1950s, institutional development was consolidated in the 1970s with the establishment of community centres[Office1] , schools and churches. In the late 1970s some limited immigration from Armenia and later a much larger one from Lebanon, lasting well into the 1980s, revitalized the community. 

The size of the community doubled between 1981 and 2001. In the 1990s and 2000s, a migration wave from the Republic of Armenia settled in Montreal. Since 2009, approximately 3,000 Armenians from Iraq and Syria are reported to have settled in the area. According to the 2016 Census, 41% of Montreal Armenians are born in Canada. The majority (59%) is born abroad. Lebanon and Syria are the birthplaces of, respectively, 16% and 14% of community members. There are fewer individuals who were born in Egypt (7%), Armenia (5%) and Turkey (5%). 

Today, Montreal’s Armenian community has a solid institutional framework with seven churches (Apostolic, Catholic and Evangelical), three day schools, two Armenian-language weeklies, student associations in three universities, several community centres [Office2] and a variety of active cultural, youth, political, professional and philanthropic organizations. 

According to the 2016 Canadian Census, 95% of the Armenian population of Quebec is clustered in the Greater Montreal area. There is a near-equal distribution of males (49%) and females (51%). The age distribution of the population is as follows: 15 to 35 (26.5%); 35 to 54 (25.5%); 54 to 74 (21%); 75 and over (8%). With a quarter of Montreal Armenians with a university-level education (25%), the community is more educated in comparison with the general population of Montreal (21%) of the Province of Quebec (17%) and Canada (19%). 

In 2006, 45% of Armenians living in the Province of Quebec spoke Armenian most often at home; 62% considered Armenian their mother tongue and 76% reported to know Armenian. About three-quarters reported knowing both English and French, Canada’s two official languages.  

Raffi Yeretsian was the ADS Survey Manager in Montreal.

 *Viken Attarian contributed to this article.