IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jechis/v65y2005i03p822-849_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conspicuous by their Absence: French Canadians and the Settlement of the Canadian West

Author

Listed:
  • GREEN, ALAN
  • MACKINNON, MARY
  • MINNS, CHRIS

Abstract

The failure of French Canadians to settle the Canadian west before 1900, when substantial numbers of anglophones and Europeans were migrating, is a long-standing puzzle. Historians have relied mainly on cultural explanations. Using new data, we demonstrate that anglophones and francophones had very different personal characteristics, so that movement to the west was rarely economically attractive for francophones. However, large-scale migration into New England fitted French Canadians' demographic and human capital profile. Even if the United States had imposed immigration restrictions by the 1880s, this would not likely have diverted many French Canadians westward.

Suggested Citation

  • Green, Alan & Mackinnon, Mary & Minns, Chris, 2005. "Conspicuous by their Absence: French Canadians and the Settlement of the Canadian West," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(3), pages 822-849, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:65:y:2005:i:03:p:822-849_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022050705000306/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. MacKinnon, Mary & Parent, Daniel, 2012. "Resisting the melting pot: The long term impact of maintaining identity for Franco-Americans in New England," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 30-59.
    2. Escamilla Guerrero, David & Lepistö, Miko & Minns, Chris, 2022. "Explaining gender differences in migrant sorting: evidence from Canada-US migration," Economic History Working Papers 117260, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    3. Kris Inwood & Chris Minns & Mary MacKinnon, 2010. "Labour market dynamics in Canada, 1891-1911: A first look from new census samples," Working Papers 1014, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    4. Johan Fourie & Dieter Fintel, 2014. "Settler skills and colonial development: the Huguenot wine-makers in eighteenth-century Dutch South Africa," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(4), pages 932-963, November.
    5. Antonie, Luiza & Inwood, Kris & Minns, Chris & Summerfield, Fraser, 2022. "Intergenerational Mobility in a Mid-Atlantic Economy: Canada, 1871–1901," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(4), pages 1003-1029, December.
    6. Antonie, Luiza & Inwood, Kris & Minns, Chris & Summerfield, Fraser, 2021. "Intergenerational mobility in a mid-Atlantic economy: Canada, 1871-1901," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108411, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:65:y:2005:i:03:p:822-849_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jeh .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.