Subsequently, Canada imposed a ban on South Asian immigration that remained in place until after World War II.

Immigration regulations gave preference to those with advanced education and professional skills, and the Pakistanis who came during this period, and throughout the 1960s, generally had excellent credentials.

Many of them considered themselves to be sojourners, who had come to earn but not to settle or were students who intended to return home when their degree programs were completed.

[23] There were 162,710 Pakistani-Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area per the 2021 Census, making it home to one of the largest Pakistani diaspora communities in North America.

[24][25] Per the 2021 Census, there were 41,705 Pakistani-Canadians residing within the actual city of Toronto;[26] the majority of the community is concentrated throughout the suburbs of the GTA.

[29] Pakistani-Canadians made up 3.81% of the population of Milton in 2011,[30] per the 2021 census this number has tripled to 12.88%, making it one of the fastest growing Pakistani communities in the nation.

The old values and hierarchical decision-making patterns are generally respected, and traditional clothing, food, decorations, and language provide the warmth and reassurance of the familiar.

[36] An important aspect of Pakistani participation in the Canadian economy has been the increasing number of Pakistani-Canadian women who work outside the home.

[37] Young people who were born in Canada or brought as children share a particular set of issues and concerns with their parents and the wider Pakistani-Canadian community.

Their perspective regarding adaptation and integration is generally not informed by significant direct experience of the culture and values of the homeland, and, as a result, parents and grandparents take on a mediating role.

The family – even in its truncated form in the diaspora – is both the base for substantial cultural transfer and the source of intergenerational conflict.

Salma Ataullahjan,[44] a Toronto artist and community activist,[45] was named a Canadian Senator by Governor General Michaëlle Jean, on the advice of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on 9 July 2010, and will sit with the Conservative caucus.