Tamil Toronto History: Arrivals After 1983, Pongal, Scarborough

Most of Toronto’s Tamil community arrived after July 1983, when anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka began a conflict that Heritage Toronto says lasted nearly 26 years. Canada set up a special refugee program for Sri Lanka that year. Today most of Canada’s Tamils live in the Greater Toronto Area, with large communities in Scarborough and Markham. January is officially Tamil Heritage Month in Ontario and in Canada.

Before 1983

A small number of Tamils lived in Ontario well before the 1980s. The preamble of the Ontario law that proclaimed Tamil Heritage Month states that Tamils began migrating to the province as early as the 1940s. Heritage Toronto, in a digital tour published on December 1, 2022 and developed by historian Vanessa Vigneswaramoorthy, says that before 1983 most arrivals from Sri Lanka were students and immigrants looking for new opportunities.

The sources used for this article give no counts for those early years and do not say where in Toronto these first residents lived. It is safe to say only that the community was small until the summer of 1983.

July 1983 and the Canadian response

Heritage Mississauga dates the anti-Tamil violence known as Black July to July 24, 1983. NOW Magazine, in a feature of May 4, 2016, describes the riots as a pogrom in which homes were burned and thousands were killed, and says they sparked mass migration. Heritage Toronto states that the riots led into a war that lasted nearly 26 years. This article does not take a side in that conflict. It describes only how people reached Toronto and what they built here.

The Multicultural History Society of Ontario’s Safe Haven exhibit records that Canada created a special refugee program for Sri Lanka in 1983. It first applied to people fleeing Colombo and was later widened to include those fleeing northern Sri Lanka. The same exhibit shows the Tamil Eelam Society of Canada in Toronto expanding to meet newcomers’ needs, including language instruction, and describes Toronto’s Tamil community as one of the fastest-growing newcomer groups in the city. A 1993 photograph in the exhibit shows settlement worker Siva Segaran with S. Rajaratnam at the Society. The exhibit does not say how many people entered under the program.

The broader policy background is covered in the article on postwar immigration to Toronto.

Working in Toronto’s kitchens

Heritage Toronto explains why many early refugees found work in restaurants: kitchen jobs needed little English and no Canadian work history. The tour says Tamil cooks, managers and owners have shaped the city’s food scene since the 1980s and that Tamils staff about a third of Toronto’s restaurant kitchens. The source gives no method for that figure, so it should be read as an informed estimate. NOW Magazine quotes the food writer Corey Mintz calling Tamils the backbone of the region’s restaurant industry.

The same NOW feature adds that politicians who run for office in the region have to take the Tamil vote into account, a sign of how much the community has grown since the first refugee arrivals.

Scarborough, Markham and the wider region

The sources do not name the first Tamil neighbourhoods, but they place the community firmly in the eastern part of the region. NOW Magazine’s interviews are set largely in Scarborough, and the Canadian Tamil Congress held its eleventh Tamil Fest in Markham on August 22 and 23, 2026, on Birchmount Road, the first time the festival was held in that city. Heritage Toronto’s tour lists Scarborough as one of its four districts. For the borough’s earlier story, see the Scarborough article.

Size is harder to pin down. Heritage Mississauga says that, as of 2016, 80 per cent of Tamils lived in the Greater Toronto Area. NOW Magazine estimates that 200,000 to 300,000 Tamils live in Canada. That is an informal estimate, and counts differ depending on whether they are based on language, ethnic origin or self-description. The City of Toronto’s ward profile, adapted from the 2021 census, lists Tamil as the mother tongue of 53,550 people in the city, 1.9 per cent of the total and the seventh most common mother tongue. That counts people whose first language is Tamil and leaves out Canadian-born children who speak English first.

Community institutions

Beyond the Tamil Eelam Society of Canada, the sources name several organizations. The Canadian Tamil Congress, a non-profit, organizes Tamil Fest, which it describes as the largest Tamil street festival outside South Asia. That description comes from the organizer, so it is a claim and not an independent count. NOW Magazine notes the Federation of Tamil Sangams in North America, which holds an annual convention, and says the community has built its own cultural centre. It also names the South Asian Autism Awareness Centre, a non-profit that offers therapy and arts programs in families’ own languages.

A civic moment came on May 10, 2009, when protesters sat down on the Gardiner Expressway, according to CTV News. They chanted against the violence of the war in Sri Lanka. The road is described in the Gardiner Expressway article. Reports differ on the size of the crowd, so no number is given here.

Thai Pongal and Tamil Heritage Month

Thai Pongal is a harvest festival that marks the rice harvest and lasts four days. The Government of Canada’s 2025 statement on the festival explains that “Thai” is the Tamil name for January, and that “Pongal” comes from a Tamil verb meaning to boil and names the rice dish made during the festival. A traditional greeting asks whether the rice has boiled.

Governments have tied the month to the festival. Ontario’s Tamil Heritage Month Act, 2014, proclaims January each year as Tamil Heritage Month. According to the Legislative Assembly record, the bill passed third reading on March 17, 2014 and received Royal Assent on March 25, 2014. At the federal level, the House of Commons passed Motion M-24 on October 5, 2016 by a vote of 283 to 0. The motion was sponsored by Gary Anandasangaree, the member for Scarborough-Rouge Park, and called for January to be declared Tamil Heritage Month.

What the record does not show

Several details remain unconfirmed. The sources opened for this article do not give a count of Tamils by ethnic origin in Toronto, the year each Tamil temple or business district opened, or the names of the first neighbourhoods settled. A fuller history would need Statistics Canada’s census profiles for Scarborough and Markham and the records of the settlement agencies. For the wider story of communities from the Indian subcontinent, read the South Asian Toronto article.

Frequently asked questions

When did Tamils begin coming to Toronto in large numbers?

After July 1983. Heritage Toronto and NOW Magazine both tie the first large movement to the anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka that month. Before that, most arrivals from Sri Lanka were students and other immigrants.

What was the 1983 refugee program?

The Multicultural History Society of Ontario says Canada created a special refugee program for Sri Lanka in 1983, first for people fleeing Colombo and later for people fleeing northern Sri Lanka.

Why are Tamil workers linked to Toronto restaurants?

Heritage Toronto says kitchen work needed little English or Canadian experience, so it was open to early refugees. It reports that Tamils staff about a third of the city’s restaurant kitchens, without giving a method.

What is Thai Pongal?

It is a four-day Tamil harvest festival held after the winter solstice. The Government of Canada notes that “Thai” is the Tamil name for January.

Is January Tamil Heritage Month in Ontario and Canada?

Yes. Ontario’s Tamil Heritage Month Act received Royal Assent on March 25, 2014, and the House of Commons voted 283 to 0 for a federal motion on October 5, 2016.

Sources

Heritage Toronto, “New Places, New Palates: Tamil Cooks in Toronto’s Kitchens” (December 1, 2022)
Multicultural History Society of Ontario, Safe Haven exhibit, page on Canada’s refugee response (accessed October 2026)
Radheyan Simonpillai, “I am Tamil in Toronto,” NOW Magazine (May 4, 2016)
Heritage Mississauga, “A Tamil Experience – Black July 1983” event notice (May 12, 2022)
Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Bill 156, Tamil Heritage Month Act, 2014 (accessed October 2026)
House of Commons of Canada, Vote No. 121, Private Members’ Business M-24, Tamil Heritage Month (October 5, 2016)
Government of Canada, Statement by Minister Khera on Thai Pongal (January 14, 2025)
CTV News, “Tamil protesters leave Toronto highway” (May 11, 2009)
City of Toronto, Ward Profile: Toronto-Danforth, adapted from Statistics Canada, Census 2021 (2024), city-wide mother tongue table

Last verified: October 2026

Cite this page

APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 31). Tamil Toronto History: Arrivals After 1983 and Community Life. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/tamil-toronto-history

MLA: “Tamil Toronto History: Arrivals After 1983 and Community Life.” History of Toronto, 31 Oct 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/tamil-toronto-history. Accessed .

Chicago: History of Toronto. “Tamil Toronto History: Arrivals After 1983 and Community Life.” Last modified October 31, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/tamil-toronto-history.

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