Laotian Canadians are Canadian citizens of Laotian origin or descent. In the 2006 Census, 20,110 people indicated Laotian ancestry.[1]
[edit] Migration history
Mass migration from Laos to Cambodia peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s, consisting of both government-sponsored and privately-sponsored refugees from camps in Thailand, where they had fled due to the Laotian Civil War and the final victory of the Pathet Lao.[4] However, by the 1990s, most refugees in the camps were instead being repatriated to Laos. In total, Canada took in 12,793 Laotian refugees.[5]
[edit] Demography
Most migrants consisted of young families; there were very few elderly among them. A significant proportion were drawn from among the community of ethnic Chinese in Laos.[2]
[edit] Religion
Laotian migrants in Canada mostly follow Theravada Buddhism, though Mahayana Buddhists are also found among those of Chinese ethnicity.[3] There is also a small number of Christians, perhaps 500 people; most of those converted while living in refugee camps.[6] In 1990, British Columbia had no Laotian Buddhist temple; the nearest one was a Laotian American temple in Seattle.[3] Within Canada, Laotian Buddhist temples have also been opened in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg.[6]
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- Richardson, Elizabeth (1990), "The Cambodians and Laotians", Cross-cultural caring: a handbook for health professionals, University of British Columbia Press, pp. 11–35, ISBN 978-0-7748-0343-4
- Van Esterik, Penny (1999), "Laotians", in Magocsi, Paul R., Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples, University of Toronto Press, pp. 902–909, ISBN 0-8020-2938-8
- "Ethnic origins, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories - 20% sample data", Ethnocultural Portrait of Canada, Census 2006, Statistics Canada, http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/hlt/97-562/pages/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo=PR&Code=01&Data=Count&Table=2&StartRec=1&Sort=3&Display=All&CSDFilter=5000, retrieved 2010-01-27
[edit] Further reading
- Lerthirungwong-Diong, Mulai (1989), Problems of adjustment and attitudes of Indochinese refugees towards their language maintenance: a case study of the Lao community in Toronto, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Toronto, OCLC 224288222
- Dorais, Louis-Jacques (2000), The Cambodians, Laotians and Vietnamese in Canada, Canada's ethnic groups, 28, Canadian Historical Association, ISBN 978-0-88798-226-2
- Nontapattamadul, Kitipat (2000), The integration of Laotian refugees in Calgary, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Social Work, University of Calgary, http://dspace.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/40822, retrieved 2009-09-01
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