Perspective: Gender & Generation Gap

Tensions within immigrant communities increased as a result of the social changes within Canadian society itself. Post-Second World War immigrants often arrived with more technical and professional training, and sometimes more capital, than their predecessors before the war. They also often brought a political organization and sense of nationalism that old-timers within Canada could not express, given the earlier attitudes of the host society. Within the Canadian Hungarian community, for instance, post-war immigrants quickly organized themselves. More financially secure than their predecessors and having the advantage a social safety net and numerous government services, they looked to Hungarian organizations for political rather than economic support. Old style immigrant "self-help" societies, which once provided money, clothes, and other services to immigrants, fell in popularity within ethnic communities or transformed themselves into sophisticated, new credit unions operating within immigrant communities.

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