More than three times as many Canadians are marrying or living with partners of different ethnicities, religions or visible minority groups compared with a decade ago, a study says.
About 3 per cent of the population, or 452,000 Canadians, were in a couple comprising visible minority and non-visible minority couples or two different visible minorities in 2001. Mixed union couples are more likely to be younger, foreign-born, living in urban areas and have a higher education. according to the Statistics Canada report released Tuesday.
This is a 35 per cent increase from 1991. The jump may be attributed to a larger pool of potential mates from visible minority groups in Canada, the report says.
"The 4 million visible minorities in Canada in 2001 accounted for more than 13 per cent of the population, more than twice the proportion of only 5 per cent in 1981," the report says. The increase may also be attributed to the wider societal acceptance of non-traditional behaviours such as same-sex or common-law unions.
Iranian-Canadian Nazaninam Afshari and Greek-Canadian Sotirios Stergiotoulos say being a mixed race couple means you get twice the festivities. 'I get to celebrate his traditions and he gets to celebrate mine,' Ms. Afshari says. The differences 'make our relationship more complete.' (Patti Gower/The Globe and Mail)
The younger generation is generally more accepting of mixed race and religion families, Ryerson University sociology professor Cheryl Teelucksingh said.
"The younger generation is a little bit more willing to go against their parents," she said, "You're going to marry the people you see around you."
If you're surrounded by diversity as you're growing up, "That's going to broaden the pool of people that you're going to potentially consider," Prof. Teelucksingh said.
Although the study warns that it may be difficult to compare these numbers internationally, data from the United States suggests that more Canadians, at 3.1 per cent, are forming mixed couples than Americans, at 2 per cent.
Americans of African-Caribbean background may have longer memories than their Canadian counterparts.
"We never went quite as far as the United States," Prof. Teelucksingh said, referring to the history of slavery in the United States.
Japanese people were most likely to be a part of mixed unions, followed by Latin Americans and black people.
"The long Canadian heritage of many Japanese may partially explain why they have the highest proportion of mixed unions," said the report, adding that in 2001, two-thirds of Japanese people were born in Canada and that similarly, 45 per cent of black people were born in Canada.
Often Canadians of Japanese descent are stereotyped as "the ideal immigrant", Prof. Teelucksingh said, because they have assimilated into Canadian society and they tend to be upwardly mobile.
More visible minorities marry outside of their own group if they are upper-middle-class, she said.
Those of South Asian or Chinese descent were least likely to be a part of mixed unions.
The study suggests Chinese people have a lower chance of forming mixed unions because they are the largest visible minority group and less inclined to develop outside relationships.
The highest rate of mixed unions was in Vancouver at 7 per cent, Toronto at 6 per cent, and Montreal at 3 per cent but these percentages almost doubled in the 20 to 29 age group. Mixed unions were more likely to be common-law relationships than marriages. More non-visible minority men were likely to be with visible minority women than the reverse.
Eventually hybrid cultures and traditions will develop through mixed unions, said Prof. Teelucksingh.
The Statscan report is based on data from the 1991 and 2001 censuses.
