History of Czechs in Canada (Part II) / Historie Cechu v Kanade (cast 2.)

When the W.W.I ended the Czech immigration became less attractive because the new Czechoslovak Republic had a stable and industrialized economy. Job offers become widely available and the standard of living improved drastically. However the agricultural field remained attractive. Lot of Czech farmers came to Canada to develop the Sugar Beet industry and that is how new Czech communities in southern Alberta were formed (especially in Lethbridge and Chatham).

The inner-war immigration changed the distribution of Czechs in Canada, where more of them settled in urban communities instead of the country. The biggest communities were created in Ontario and Quebec, where Montreal (3,700 Czechs in 1920′) and Toronto (2,500 in 1920′) became primary Czech centres. Other new Czech “homes” became cities like Hamilton, Kitchener, Ottawa and Calgary). In the year 1931 the census counted around 30,000 Czechoslovakians in Canada.

During the W.W.II the Nazis closed down the borders of the Czechoslovak Republic, hence direct emigration was virtually nonexistent. After 1945 Czech refugees were coming to Canada once again since the post-war economic situation was terrible, plus a lot of Czechs were “smelling” the upcoming Communist coup. That is why most of the post-World War II immigrants were mostly political refugees running away from potential or actual persecution since they did not agree with communism. In 1948 Canada accepted 1,400 out of 4,000 existing Czech refugees! In between 1948 and 1952 Canada accepted over 10,000 Czechoslovaks, where the 1951 Canadian census recorded 63,959 Czechs and Slovaks living in Canada. Most of these refugees were all relatively well educated, a lot of them being doctors,legal secretaries, lawyers, legislators and others. They had to accept the underemployment, where those with multiple university degrees became primary-school teachers or office clerks, for example. Others found themselves working as farmers, lumbermen or domestic servants.

Source: http://www.multiculturalcanada.ca/ecp/content/czechs.html