This thesis analyzes German immigration to Canada in the period following
the Second World War and primarily focuses on the settlement of these immigrants in
Vancouver. By examining residential patterns, economic experiences, the role of German
churches and Saturday schools, language retention, and the secular organizations
maintained by Vancouver's German population, it becomes apparent that Germans'
attempt to adjust to Canadian circumstances entailed two, seemingly contradictory
phenomena: speedy integration and assimilation into the mainstream of Canadian society
on one hand, and support for ethnic social, economic, religious, educational, and
cultural institutions on the other.
The study concludes that assimilation and ethnicity were thus not mutually
exclusive. Immigration gave individuals the opportunity to weigh alternatives with regard
to social form and institutions, personal values, and the role of their ethnicity in the
new life offered by Canada. Consequently, involvement in the local German community
may be attributed to as complex causes as the supersession of ethnic origin as a basis
of association by other sources of group identification. Yet, even though
German-Canadians were highly assimilated into Canadian society by the end of the
postwar period, they may have preserved a sense of ethnic identity that did not
manifest itself in any visible behaviour. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/42014 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Gumpp, Ruth |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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