Unlike the American Census, the Canadian census asks about religion, so it has some interesting statistics about the number marriages between people of different faiths. The most striking result is that between 1981 and 2001, the percentage of Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus who were married to somebody of a different religion declined. Muslims are down from 13% to 9%, Sikhs from 4% to 3%, and Hindus from 11% to 9%. Buddhists are stable at 19% and "other Eastern religions" up from 26% to 27%.
I, Ectomorph notes:
"Yet another phenomenon, I suspect, that wouldn't have been predicted by the authors of Canada's multiculturalism policy back in the late 60s and early 70s."
Immigration is making intermarriage less likely for minorities. Statistics Canada summarizes: "When co-religionists are scare, inter-religious unions are more likely."
Similarly, in the U.S. the highest proportion of blacks are in interracial marriages in states like Wyoming where there are very few blacks.
In contrast, in Canada, the percentage of Jews in mixed marriages climbed from 9% in 1981 to 17% in 2001. The Canadian government points out the assimilating effects of a low immigration rate: "Only 8% of those with a Jewish religion arrived in Canada between 1991 and 2001, so people who have the Jewish religion have a longer history in Canada than many other religious groups."
This is like the phenomenon of how the growth of interracial marriage in California is being slowed by immigration, as I pointed out in 2000. For example, several decades ago, Asian-Americans were widely scattered throughout suburban Southern California, so intermarriage for Asians was high. But recently they've clustered in the San Gabriel Valley east of downtown Los Angeles, which facilitates more Asian-Asian marriages.
As Lenin pointed out, it's useful to ask Who? Whom? A low rate of immigration leads to the assimilation of minorities into the majority through marriage. In contrast, a high rate of immigration helps preserve the cultural and genetic exclusivity of minorities while breaking down that of the majority.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
Really Interesting article, however I think we must SPLIT the religous groups and ethnic/racial groups into 1st (immigrant) / 2nd and 3rd+ Generation Categories, I think the VAST Majority of the IM/IR Relationships happen in the 2nd (US / Canada Born), Its actually very common in Texas / Toronto/ Vancouver and in my home state California. The issue is with Mass Immigration, is the Immigrants are more likely to stick to their own. However generally the 2nd Generation there is high inter-marriage, and higher in the 3rd Generation. I think the "Power that be" that opened up the Mass Immigration flood gates know deep down things are getting "screwy" and I believe in the Not so distant future, there will be large cuts/curtailments in Immigration.... I think Asians "South/Western/Arab Asian" (with maybe the exception of North-East Asians) Assimilate slower compared to Hispanics/North-East Asians, their culture and value/belief systems are just too different....
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