145,198 German immigrants arrived in Canada between 1946 and 1955. Their presence in Canada, however, preceded the Second World War by approximately three hundred years, and their early history in Halifax and Ontario make them one of Canada's charter groups. German immigrants were amongst the 'preferred' immigrant groups, and only rarely experienced prejudice in Canada. During the First World War I, and to a lessor extent World War II, Germans were treated as enemy aliens by fellow Canadians. Unlike the Japanese, who experienced a lengthy internment during World War II, hostilities towards the Germans quickly subsided. By 1981 Germans became the third largest ethnic group in Canada.