The Boundaries of Ethnicity

German Immigration and the Language of Belonging in Ontario

Benjamin Bryce considers what it meant to be German in Ontario between 1880 and 1930. For the Germans who make up the core of this study, the distinction between insiders and outsiders was often unclear. The Boundaries of Ethnicity uncovers some of the origins of Canadian multiculturalism, and governments attempts to manage this diversity.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European settlers from diverse backgrounds transformed Ontario. By 1881, German speakers made up almost ten per cent of the provinces population and the German language was spoken in businesses, public schools, churches, and homes. German speakers in Ontario children, parents, teachers, and religious groups used their everyday practices and community institutions to claim a space for bilingualism and religious diversity within Canadian society.

In The Boundar