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A hundred years of immigration to Canada 1900 - 1999 | Canadian Council for Refugees

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F.C. Blair, Director of Immigration Branch (an anti-Semite, who personally ensured that virtually no Jews were admitted to Canada during this period): "Ever since the war, efforts have been made by groups and individuals to get refugees into Canada but we have fought all along to protect ourselves against the admission of such stateless persons without passports, for the reason that coming out of the maelstrom of war, some of them are liable to go on the rocks and when they become public charges, we have to keep them for the balance of their lives".

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However, the number of people entering the country dropped dramatically during World War I, to fewer than 34,000 landed immigrants in 1915. The lowest numbers of landed immigrants were recorded during the Great Depression in the 1930s and during World War II. The return of peace fostered economic recovery and an immigration boom in Canada.

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30 Canadian Immigration Waves | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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History, politics, arts, science & more: the Canadian Encyclopedia is your reference on Canada. Articles, timelines & resources for teachers, students & public.

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Create a timeline of key events in the history of Canada / the world between 1900 and present.

Record notes split by decade in a Google doc (and then print off) or on a piece of paper. Try to find at least one event per decade.

Make sure to focus on major events that impacted Canada, its population, and migration.

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by Lindsay Van Dyk, Junior Researcher

What do immigration rules tell us about Canada?

Since 1869, Canada has had laws and regulations governing the admission of immigrants. Immigration legislation has evolved and changed over time, shaped by the shifting social, political and economic climate, as well as dominant beliefs about race, desirability and integration. The open-door approach of the late nineteenth century gradually gave way to more restrictive measures that discriminated on the basis of race, ethnicity and national origin. Overt discrimination remained a part of Canadian immigration policy until the latter half of the twentieth century, when skill and education became the main criteria for determining entrance into Canada. Since Canada's adoption of multiculturalism as an official policy in 1971, the cultural diversity of Canadian immigrants has been promoted as a key component of Canadian identity. Immigration legislation is ultimately a reflection of society's beliefs and attitudes, revealing Canada's history of inclusion and exclusion.

The Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 was the first piece of Canadian legislation to exclude immigrants on the basis of their ethnic origin. It imposed a duty of $50 on every Chinese person seeking entry into Canada. The implementation of the duty only temporarily reduced the number of Chinese immigrants arriving in Canada. In 1900, the duty increased to $100 per person, followed by an increase to $500 in 1903.

The Royal Commission on Italian Immigration was called in 1904 to investigate the exploitation of Italian labourers by employment brokers known as padroni. The padroni recruited Italian workers for Canadian companies and oversaw their transport and employment upon arriving in Canada. The system was rife with corruption as many padroni inflated fees for brokerage, transportation and food supply. The commission focused its investigation on prominent Montreal padrone Antonio Cordasco who primarily recruited labourers for the Canadian Pacific Railway.

In 1908, Canadian Minister of Labour Rodolphe Lemieux negotiated an agreement with Japanese Foreign Minister Tadasu Hayashi to restrict Japanese immigration to Canada. Restrictions on Japanese immigration were deemed necessary following a recent influx of Japanese labourers in British Columbia and a surge of anti-Asian sentiment in the province. Under the terms of the "gentlemen's agreement," the Japanese government voluntarily limited the number of Japanese immigrants annually arriving in Canada to 400.

The continuous journey regulation required prospective immigrants to travel to Canada by continuous journey from the country of which they were natives or citizens on a through ticket purchased in that country. Since there was no direct steamship service between India and Canada at this time, the regulation effectively blocked Indian immigration. It also led to a decline in Japanese immigration to Canada by closing off the primary immigration route through Hawaii.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Canadian immigration agents carried on a concerted campaign to block black settlement in Canada. Canadian officials claimed no colour bar existed in their policies, but they created numerous obstacles for immigrants of African descent. This discriminatory practice was driven by pervasive domestic racism, and reached its fullest expression in 1910-1911. In response to persecuted black farmers attempting to leave the United States in the hope of a more just life in Canada, Sir Wilfred Laurier's government used the pretext of their supposed climatic unsuitability to pass an Order-in-Council banning all "negro" immigration.

In 1925, the Canadian government formalized an agreement with the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian National Railway allowing the companies to control the recruitment and settlement of European agriculturalists in an effort to fulfill Canada's growing labour needs. Railway companies were permitted to recruit immigrants from countries that had previously been designated non-preferred nations, leading to an influx of immigrants from Central Europe. The agreement was cancelled in 1930, precipitated by a change in government and massive unemployment.

With the passage of order-in-council PC 695 on 21 March 1931, the government implemented the tightest immigration admissions policy in Canadian history. Further restrictions were deemed necessary after the onset of the Great Depression in order to combat soaring unemployment and further economic decline. Admissible immigrants were limited to American and British subjects with enough capital to maintain themselves, agriculturalists with sufficient means to farm in Canada and the wives and minor children of Canadian residents.

The new immigration regulations introduced in 1962 eliminated overt racial discrimination from Canadian immigration policy. Skill became the main criteria for determining admissibility rather than race or national origin. The classes of sponsored immigrants were expanded so that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents could sponsor relatives for immigration. However, an element of discrimination remained as only Canadian immigrants from preferred nations in Europe, the Americas and select countries in the Middle East were permitted to sponsor children over the age of 21, married children and other members of their extended family.

The immigration regulations introduced in 1967 established new standards for evaluating potential immigrants. To enhance the objectivity of admissions procedures, a system was set up in which independent immigrants were assessed points in specific categories relating to their education, occupational skills, employment prospects, age, proficiency in English and French and personal character. Individuals receiving 50 points or more out of a possible 100 were granted entry, regardless of their race, ethnicity or national origin.

In a statement to the House of Commons on 8 October 1971, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced multiculturalism as an official government policy. Multiculturalism was intended to preserve the cultural freedom of individuals and provide recognition of the cultural contributions of diverse ethnic groups to Canadian society. The government committed to support multiculturalism by assisting cultural groups in their development, assisting individuals in overcoming discriminatory barriers, encouraging intercultural exchange and assisting immigrants in learning French or English.

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Canadian Immigration Acts and Legislation

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by Lindsay Van Dyk, Junior Researcher Since 1869, Canada has had laws and regulations governing the admission of immigrants. Immigration legislation has evolved and changed over time, shaped by the shifting social, political and economic climate, as well as dominant beliefs about race, desirability and integration.

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Welcome to Canada: 150 years of immigration

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Canadian_internment

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Live & Learn: a project of English Online Inc.

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Canada has a colourful immigration history starting from the very first settlers from France and England. The country has been shaped by the contributions of many men and women who have traveled across the miles to settle in Canada, making it known as a "land of immigrants".

There were many ebbs and flows in this story, but here are eight major events that you may be interested to know about:

1. Canada's first Prime Minister was an immigrant
When Canada became a country in 1867, Sir John Alexander Macdonald became its first Prime Minister. He was born in Scotland in 1815 and came to Upper Canada as a child. At that time, Canada's first four provinces were Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec. The rest of the provinces and territories joined at later dates: Manitoba, Northwest Territories (1870); British Columbia (1871); Prince Edward Island (1873); Yukon Territory (1898); Alberta, Saskatchewan (1905); Newfoundland and Labrador (1949) and Nunavut (1999).

2. The Canadian West opened for mass settlement from 1867 to 1914
In these years, the Prairie provinces Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, grew rapidly as Canada's then Minister of Interior, Sir Clifford Sifton, promoted immigration to people with familiarity to agriculture and rural lifestyles. This began a Prairie immigration boom. Aside from Sifton's campaign, population growth was boosted by significant changes in Canada, such as the construction of the transcontinental railroad which made transportation and travel accessible to the Prairies.

3. There were no urban centres in the Prairies before 1911
Prior to the Prairie immigration boom, there were no urban centres. But by 1911, Winnipeg grew to a city of 20,000 to 150,000; Saskatchewan's population grew by 1,124.77%; and thirteen Prairie cities had populations of over 5,000. Thousands of diverse immigrants came in search for greater economic opportunities and improved quality of life, which included Hungarians, French, Icelanders, Romanians, Chinese, and Ukrainians.

4. Canada was not as "open" in the early 1900s
Before Canada became known for its open and welcoming stance to immigrants, especially refugees, there were a number of hiccups in Canada's immigration history. It had restrictive immigration policies especially during the Second World War. In 1939, the country turned away 930 Jewish refugees on board the St. Louis, so the ship was forced to return to Europe. Many on it died at the hands of Nazis. Prior to this, the country decided to imprison 23,000 Canadians of Japanese descent. Immigration policies also generally discriminated against such groups as the Chinese or African Americans. These are now bitter lessons from a time when xenophobia prevailed in most countries of the world.

5. Over one million immigrants came to Canada through Pier 21
Pier 21, regarded as Canada's Ellis Island, was a major port of entry for immigration from 1928 to 1971 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is the last surviving seaport immigration facility in Canada and is a National Historic Site. Today, you will find the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. It hosts thousands of books, films and archival images about Canada's immigration history, which you can also access online: Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21

6. Policy of multiculturalism was announced in 1971
In 1937, John Buchanan, The First Baron Tweedsmuir and Governor General of Canada, said that immigrants should "retain their individuality and each make its contribution to the national character". This philosophy has been carried forward in Canada's Multiculturalism Policy which was declared in 1971, the first country to do so. With this policy, Canada showed that it recognizes the value of diversity and affirmed the dignity of all Canadian citizens regardless of racial or ethnic origins, language, or religious affiliation.

7. The Five Year Plan for immigration was unveiled in 1990
The Five Year Plan proposed an increase in total immigration from 200,000 in 1990 to 250,000 in 1992. This was a landmark plan as it was a first in Canadian history. It signaled a long-term commitment to planned immigration.

8. Manitoba is allowed to administer its own settlement services (1998)
Following Quebec's lead through the Quebec-Canada Accord (1991), which gave the province sole responsibility for the selection of independent immigrants and the administration of all settlement services in the province, Manitoba (and British Columbia) followed suit and signed agreements with the federal government to do the same.

Immigration continues to play a central role in Canada's growth. Based on Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC, formerly CIC) data, the proportion of foreign-born Canadians was 19.8% of the total population in 2006. Today, most immigrants come from China, the Philippines, and India. This is reflected in the country's top immigrant home languages: Tagalog (Filipino), Chinese, and Punjabi. According to Statistics Canada, more than 200 languages were reported in the 2011 census as the home language or mother tongue.

Sources: A hundred years of immigration to Canada by Janet Dench, Executive Director, Canadian Council for Refugees; Settling the West: Immigration to the Prairies from 1867 to 1914, Erica Gagnon, Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21; Timeline - Immigration history (events from Pier 21 era), Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21; Backgrounder - Facts in Canada's immigration history, IRCC.

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Canada has a colourful immigration history starting from the very first settlers from France and England. The country has been shaped by the contributions of many men and women who have traveled across the miles to settle in Canada, making it known as a "land of immigrants".

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History of immigration to Canada - Wikipedia

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The history of immigration to Canada extends back thousands of years. Anthropologists continue to argue over various possible Models of migration to the New World to modern-day Canada, as well as their pre-contact populations. The Inuit are believed to have arrived entirely separately from other indigenous peoples around 1200 CE.

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What were the impacts on Canada? The world? Movement of people?