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| Format | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| Author, Analytic | Bassler, Gerhard P. |
| Title, Analytic | The problem of German-Canadian identity |
| Journal Title | Yearbook of German-American Studies |
| Date of Publication | 1998 |
| Volume ID | 33 |
| Location in Work | 157-165 |
| Abstract | The notion of a German-Canadian identity has come under attack from various quarters recently. No doubt, the 2.8 million Canadians reporting German ethnic origin in 1991 appear to have a questionable identity. Many critiques of German-Canadian identity focus on the present and the seemingly irreconcilable diversity and heterogeneity of the German-speaking immigants's origins--geographical, cultural, linguistic, political, and generational. However, as this essay submits, any study of the historical patterns of adaptation exhibited by German-speaking immigrants in Canada should reveal the existence of a German-Canadian identity, referring to the historically observable attributes and behavior patterns shared by immigrants of German-speaking background. German-Canadian identity in this sense may be observed in patterns of settlement, adaptation, socialization, and interaction among groups of the German-Canadian mosaic. The available evidence indicates that from the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century German-speakers from different geographic and cultural backgrounds tended to experience a process of identity homogenization wherever and whenever settlement and/or external pressures were conducive to it. |
| Call Number | MKI Periodicals |
| MKI Terms | German Canadians/ Ethnic identity/ Culture/ History/ Social life and customs |