In 1904 only a handful of Indians ashore in the city of Vancouver. Today, Indians form one of Canada's largest and most well-integrated diaspora communities, numbering around 1.85 million or 5.1 per cent of the country's population.

With Canada discontining its discriminatory immigration policies in the sixties to give way to a more multicultural society, Indians, with a sizable number from Punjab alone, began moving to Canada in pursuit of better economic prospects.

Today, the number of Indians immigrating to Canada has more than tripled, from 32,828 in 2013 to 118,095 in 2022 -- a 260 per cent increase, according to a National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) analysis.

The early Indian settlers, mostly concentrated in the British Columbia province, worked as labourers in railway and farming industries, and earned from $1 to $1.25 a day, with 20-50 of them living under the same roof in accommodation referred to as bunkhouses.

Rising through ranks, the Indians today occupy top positions in Canadian business, political, economic, educational, hospitality, healthcare, and other landscapes.

A 2022 Statistics Canada study shows that the median pay earned by immigrants who became permanent residents was CA$31,900 in 2019, the highest amount recorded among all groups of immigrants since 1981.

In the past 10 years, the complexion of the Indian community has undergone rapid changes with a significant influx of Indian students and the introduction of the Express Entry programme in 2015 to attract high-skilled professionals.

In 2022, Canada welcomed 2,26,450 Indian students, making the subcontinent the top source for international students, according to an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) data.

Thirty-four per cent of the international students in Canada from 2015 to 2019 came from India, providing a critical source of revenue for Canadian academic institutions, and by 2022, that share had grown to 40 per cent, a Wilson Center report said.

Indian students contributed $4.9 billion to the Canadian economy in 2021, according to the Canadian Bureau for International Education.

Between April 2022 and March 2023, numbering more than 15,000, Indians formed the largest cohort of global tech industry workers who flocked to Canada, the Technology Councils of North America reported.