Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 16:05, 7 November 2006

Romanian-Canadians are Romanian immigrants who have come to Canada recently, or descendants of the Romanian immigrants, many of whom arrived in Canada and the United States between 1895 and 1920. Sources estimates that there are about 400,000 Romanians in Canada. ]

Romanian Canadian came to Canada in several periods. The first period was at the beginning of the century, between 1900-1918. The second period was between 1940-1950, when Romanians came after the World War II, at a time when Romania was in the worst and most difficult

financial period in its history. In this period, 460,000 Romanian citizens left their country. Another wave of Romanian emigration to Canada occurred after 1989 following the Romanian Revolution of 1989, when people obtained the right to leave Romania subsequent to the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. The wave intensified after the Mineriad of 13-15 June 1990. After 1998, for the fourth time, a large number of Romanians were leaving Europe to come to Canada.

In 2001, there were 131,830 Canadian residents who identified themselves as of Romanian origin, of which 53,320 were single-origin Romanians and 78,505 were of mixed Romanian and other origins. The largest concentrations of Romanian-Canadians are in the Greater Toronto Area (aprox. 75 000) and in the Greater Montreal Area (aprox. 40 000).

According to the 2001 Census, the number of people of Romanian mother tongue in Canada was 50,895 and 61,330 Canadians claimed to speak Romanian. The number of people born in Romania was 61,330 and 2,380 were born in Moldova.

Immigration from Romania had been increasing in recent years. Figures from Citizenship and Immigration Canada show that the annual number of new permanent residents from Romania increased from and average of over 3,700 per year in the late 1990s to an average of over 5,500 per year since 2001.

Source: Citizenship and Immigration Canada

Notable Romanian-Canadians

Arts

• Octavian Florescu - painter
• Traian Vasai - famous painter

Fashion

• Irina Lazareanu - supermodel

Literature

• Ernest Klein - linguist, author and rabbi; received the Order of Canada in 1978
• Irving Layton - poet

Music

• Uri Mayer - violist and conductor

Science

• Dan Hanganu - architect and businessman
• Grigore Moisil - mathematician
• Eduard Prugovečki - physicist and mathematician
• Mircea Steriade - professor of neuroscience at Laval University in Quebec

Politics

• Ovidiu Baciu - mayor of Roxboro
• Dinu Bumbaru - architect and mayor of Dorval
• Adrian Micu - former mayor of Roxboro and major leader of the anti-merger movement on the Island of Montreal in 2000-2001

Sports

• Lucian Bute - boxer
• Leonard Doroftei - boxer; lightweight world champion
• Joffrey Lupul - NHL player
• Gary Lupul - retired NHL player
• Daniel Negreanu - poker champion

Canadian general, diplomat and peacekeeper John de Chastelain was born in Bucharest to a Scottish father and an American mother.

See also

• Boian, Alberta
• Romanian-American

References

• 2001 Census numbers of people by ethnic origin.
• 2001 Census numbers of people by mother tongue
• 2001 Census numbers of immigrants by place of birth]
• Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Permanent Residents by Top Source Countries

• Ethnic groups in Canada
• Romanian Canadians
• Romanian people