In the last 40 years Christian immigration to Canada has dropped from 78% to 47.5%.
I haven’t had much time of late for reports on our “welcoming” Canadian neighbors or the Australian asylum seeker on-going crisis (there they are taking failed asylum seekers off public welfare while “humanitarians” howl), so here, in order to begin catching up, is a story about Canada’s changing demographics. I think that the reporter, Benjamin Shingler, is trying too hard to make a point that immigrants, passionate about their religion, will benefit Canada. I wouldn’t go that far when it comes to the growing Muslim population.
From Canadian Press/AP:
While the Christian faith continues to dominate Canada’s immigrant profile, its proportion has been steadily fading. Where more than 78 per cent of immigrants to Canada prior to 1971 identified themselves as Christians, that proportion has dropped to 47.5 per cent among those who arrived over the past five years, the survey found.
Meanwhile, the Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist faiths have been growing, claiming 33 per cent of those immigrants who arrived between 2001 and 2011. Among those who arrived before 1971, that share was just 2.9 per cent. All told, the four religions accounted for some 2.4 million people in Canada in 2011, about 7.2 per cent, compared with 4.9 per cent a decade earlier.
And then there’s the non-believers: nearly one-quarter of the Canadian population, some 7.8 million people, claimed no religious affiliation in 2011, up from 16.5 per cent in 2001.
The arrival of religious immigrants has worked to offset the country’s growing secular population, said Morton Weinfeld, a sociology professor at McGill University in Montreal.
“To a certain extent, this adds a level of traditionalism to Canadian society,” Weinfeld said. “There is probably a higher level of commitment (among immigrants) to their respective faiths.” [How does adding Muslims, Sikhs etc. add to “traditionalism” in Canada?—ed]
Unlike its predecessor, the cancelled mandatory long-form census, the results of the 2011 survey come with a caveat: because the NHS was voluntary, Statistics Canada warns that its findings carry a greater risk of “non-response error.” [The census will become useless as it becomes voluntary.—ed]
For many immigrant groups, religion plays a vital role as new arrivals to Canada contend with the often confounding challenges and difficulties that come with establishing a new home in a completely different country, he added.
“Churches or mosques or even some synagogues help in the adjustment and integration process.”
The Hijra continues unabated (read about it)!