The Social Integration and Adjustment of Post-War Immigrants in Montreal and Toronto

The author outlines his preliminary analysis of data collected in the 1960s concerning differences in the nature and rates of social integration and adjustment of immigrants in Montreal and Toronto. The data were obtained from questionnaires distributed to a sample of post-war immigrants throughout Canada by the Economic and Social Research Division of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. According to the Division the survey attempted to explore four major fields, namely, the future residence plans of immigrants, their attitude towards Canadian citizenship, their degree of satisfaction with their life in Canada, and a comparison of expectations prior to immigration. The author's research was prompted by curiosity about the extent to which the cultural characteristics of these two large metropolitan areas, particularly ethnic differences, affect the process of assimilation. Although there had been to that time a considerable number of studies dealing with immigrants in urban areas, the author argues that few attempts had been made to contrast the consequences of socio-economic differences for the adjustment and integration of immigrants.

Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie

Vol. 1

no. 4

202-214

November 1964

en