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History of Canadian Immigration

By: Ethan K.

1914

1976

1940

1869...

...2001

1885

1941

1985

Immigration Act, 1869

This is an ad advertising the extensive empty land in Canada to encourage immigration after the Immigration Act improved upon the system.

Immigration Act

Canada needed to define laws around immigration, they did so with the Immigration Act of 1869. The act didn’t create many restrictions since it was mainly made to encourage immigration from more countries. Seeking to increase the population for gathering natural resources of the country and creating a larger market for manufactured goods. The immigration Act focused on the safety of immigrants and ensuring they aren’t exploited upon arrival.

Impact

The Immigration Act still failed to fulfil its goal of creating more immigration than emigration for the first three decades of confederation, even though there were very few restrictions. Though it was helpful since after it was created it was difficult for other countries to send immigrants in a boat with bad conditions such as overcrowding or shortage of food. The resolution of these problems did increase the flow of immigrants to Canada as a result of the process being safer and more controlled. Although, after a while immigration to Canada did become more common, it just took longer than wanted.

Through the mid to late 1800s about 15 000 workers came from China to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway. They were often paid half as much as the other workers. Later the provincial legislature made an attempt to virtually stop Chinese immigration to Canada in 1878, but failed since it negatively impacted the federal jurisdiction over immigration. In 1885 “Chinese Head Tax” was implemented where all Chinese had to pay a $50 fee to enter Canada ($1 100+ in 2017). This fee increased up until 1901 where it was about $500 ($11 000+ in 2017). Only a few of the Chinese were exempt from this law (education, merchants, missionaries, diplomatic corps). The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, which stopped Chinese immigration completely, excluding business owners and some others.

Chinese Head Tax

During the existence of Chinese head tax approximately 15 000 Chinese workers came to Canada looking for jobs and ended up working on the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Chinese Head Tax, 1885

Impact

Chinese head tax caused chinese men to come to Canada without their wives and children, making the chinese community in Canada a “Bachelor Society”. So anybody the Chinese men married weren’t chinese, and eventually the chinese were assimilated. They were assimilated because the chinese heritage would dissipate with each generation, since the families would all be at least half-white. In the end, the Canadian Government collected about $33 million ($700+ million in 2017) from Chinese head tax. Canada still appeared ethnocentric, despite their efforts of being indirect, unlike the USA which just puts it plain and simple saying they don’t want certain ethnicities (like Donald Trump).

Impact

Komagata Maru Incident, 1914

The Komagata Maru was extremely overcrowded as shown in this picture, it really justifies their frustration from waiting in a boat like this, just to be rejected after a long journey.

Komagata Maru Incident

Komagata Maru was a ship that departed from Hong Kong, meant to depart in March, but the captain was arrested for selling tickets for an illegal voyage. Once he was bailed out of prison and given permission by the Governor of Hong Kong, to set sail on April 4. The ship left with 165 passengers, more joined along the way giving a total of 376 passengers. It sailed to a dock near Vancouver and arrived on May 23, they weren’t allowed to dock, and were disallowed several times after. They weren’t allowed to dock because Canada only allowed indians to enter if they sailed directly to Canada, no shipping line would offer a direct route to Canada from India, so no Indians were allowed. After waiting for too long the passengers mounted an attack and showered police with lumps of coal and bricks. Supporters of the Indians disembarking challenged this in court, but failed so in the end they were sent back to asia.

Impact

Canada may have thought this would look indirect enough, but it definitely wasn’t since the Indians still got frustrated as if the Canadian government was acting racist. They might have just said “No Indians” and the same thing would have happened — Indians try to dock, get rejected, protest, then get sent back. So this did make Canada look racist in some people’s eyes, and this caused protest groups to form in order to help the passengers of the Komagata Maru and immigrants in future cases of the like. Also it would have pushed Canada towards opening up their immigration policy.

During the first world war Canada did not want to risk anyone turning against them, so they created internment camps to keep certain citizens such as Ukrainians out of potential trouble. Canada didn’t listen to the British Empire telling them not to be so harsh and didn’t allow resident potential Ukrainians to leave when they created the 1914 War Measures Act. These Immigrants were treated as social outcasts and many lost their jobs. When trying to move to the USA looking for jobs many Ukrainians were interned, which accounted for most of 8 600 interned immigrants. Most of the interned were poor or unemployed, single men, although about 230 women and children were forced to join their menfolk. Many internees were used for forced labor in the camps and later used to fill a shortage of farm labor payed usual wages, others were sent to work on railways and mines. The interees had to give all their earned money to the authorities $329 000 in total, $298 000 of which was returned on release.

A memorial plaque in Edmonton showing locations of internment camps across Canada. It just shows how much people cared and how big of an impact Ukrainian Internment made.

Ukrainian Canadian Internment

Ukrainian Canadian Internment, 1914

In this event Canada was nicer in paying the internees for their labor, at least later on. Because of that they don’t look bad to people understanding how big the war was and how they don’t want an internal attack, which fortunately never happened. They also gained $31 000 ($362 000 in 2017) from the internees’ labor. There would have been a lot of innocent people in the internment camps and it would have trapped them in camps for about four years, but desperate times call for desperate measures and that was necessary to keep Canada safe. And it did in fact, keep Canada safe from any Ukrainian attacks.

Impact

Italian Canadian Internment, 1940

Italian Canadian Internment

This is a book about Canada's mistakes with Italian internment and how they righted some of their wrongs made in alien internment.

After the start of World War II, Italy declared war against the United Kingdom, so Canada took precautions and defined “enemy alien” status, anyone who is under this status will be sent to an internment camp. Non-resident Italians over the age of 16 were put under this status along with Italian Canadians be becames citizens after 1929. Later the category expanded to nationals of enemy states admitted into the county after 1922. Some Italian Canadian internees had ties to Italian fascist organisations, but most had no connection and were falsely accused or identified. They were released after the end of World War II.

Impact

Many innocent people were forced to leave home and were kept in internment camps for five years until the end of the World War. Some would see this as Canada being careless in how they interned many innocent Italians, when others might notice that in an emergency like that, the government doesn’t have the time to check everyone carefully. In doing this Canada did stay safe through the war as they meant to.

The Japanese attack in pearl harbor encouraged British Columbians to call for the internment of resident Japanese, under the Defence of Canada Regulations. There were fears that Japanese Canadians in the fishing industry were spies and could cause or support an attack on Canada. A total of 21 000 Japanese Canadians were interned in 1942 (14 000 born in Canada) despite the lack of evidence of any sabotage or espionage. The internees were removed from the coast and sent to road camps in BC or sugar beet projects on the prairies. Japanese-Canadian labourers were also sent to fields and orchards to fill a shortage of farm workers. When a group refused to be shipped out to labour camps they were instead sent to prisoner-of-war camps in Ontario.

Japanese Canadian Internment

Many innocent and random Japanese men were interned, purely based on ethicity such as the ones pictured above. They had no choice, but to sit and wait, or serve unnecesary labor and wait.

Japanese Canadian Internment, 1941

Japanese families were split apart, and this is something a child should never have to experience with this kind of force, every Japanese-Canadian was treated like an enemy. Many Japanese-Canadians Lost their houses and businesses, nearly all husbands were seperated from wives and children, and in some cases children were separated from both parents. Canada looked very bad because the Canadian government had no evidence that any Japanese Canadians were a threat, and this destroyed many families and communities beyond repair because of the loss of language and relation. Canada did not receive any attack from the Japanese, so their internment did work, if they ever were a threat in Canada. Although today it is a topic to bring up when talking about Canada and racism, so the impact still lingers around today.

Impact

Creation of Immigration Categories, 1976

This digram shows how many of each immigration category entered Canada in 2006. Economic/individual immigrants are easily the majority despite Canadian citizens claiming that refugees are taking many jobs, when they are a small portion of immigrants. When more skilled foreign workers and business people are getting good jobs here.

Creation of Immigration Categories

The immigration act of 1976 defined refugees as a class of immigrants and also divided usual immigrants in to two classes: independent immigrants and family. Independent are accepted based on a points system, while family immigrants were accepted if they were immediate members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents. Refugees though, were decided to be accepted or not by the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (long name). The creation of the act started in 1976 when the Minister of Manpower and Immigration made a major review of the current immigration policy. A special committee was instructed to examine the policy and take opinions across the country, they recommended 65 improvements to the structure of the policy most of which were incorporated by the government.

Impact

This immigration act would have made the immigration process more organized and therefore more painless for processed immigrants, including refugees since coordination with the United Nations helps make decisions on whether they should be accepted or not with multiple countries’ viewpoints and opinions. It is one of the few immigration events that gave Canada a better image because it improved the experience of the immigrants and it was said to receive a lot of support from parliamentary parties, interest groups, academics and the media. Moving forward Canada could better handle refugees in a small case or especially in a large event, due to the extra help from the United Nations and better organization. Also it would make regular immigration more accurate in handling who to let in, and the process would be more efficient making it less expensive.

Between 1977 and 1981 six citizens of India plus a person of Indian heritage made refugee claims in Canada and were not allowed to explain their cases orally. They were allowed to explain their cases in a written form, but were not allowed to hear and reply to any arguments against them. Although the Supreme court said that this was a violation of section seven of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person, and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.” this applied to anyone physically in Canada. This case caused six Supreme Court justices to allow the seven applicants a full oral hearing before being decided on; the immigration system violated section seven of the CCRF.

This is an image celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Singh Decision in 2010, which just shows what kind of interest groups were formed out of this case.

Singh Decision

Singh Decision, 1985

The Singh Decision gave many refugees an easier time and better chance immigrating, since they could make an oral appeal to adjudication panels and to hear and reply to arguments against them. It did expose a flaw in the immigration system although, Canada fixed the flaw, and interest groups admired this as well as people who would have experienced the flaw if it wasn’t for the decision. On from then, Canada’s immigration system became more personalized, although slower, but better for the immigrants which should be the priority for Canada.

Impact

Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, 2001

Even though 9/11 happened in the United States, it was still more than big enough to make the Canadian Government revise its immigration system to improve safety and prevent attacks like this to Canada.

Immigration and Refugee Protection Act

In 2001 the Canadian government aimed to further improve the immigration system with the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The objectives included, but were not limited to: respect for the bilingual and multicultural character of Canada, social, cultural and economic benefits for all Canadians, promoting successful integration of immigrants into Canada and especially better security. Security was noticed as a problem after 9/11 took place, so Canada wanted to try harder to prevent future attacks of the like. That, along with the Government noticing that the previous act was outdated in general, caused the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to be created.

Impact

So far (2018) Canada hasn’t seen any foreign terrorist attacks since the 2001 Immigration Act, which proves that security has been better so far. Canada has also taken in 240 000 immigrants a year on average since 2001 and had about 6 800 000 inhabitants who were born outside of the country. From 2006 to 2011, Canada has welcomed over 1 100 000 immigrants. In spite of new restrictions for safety, Canada is recognized now as one of the most open countries in terms of immigration.

Impact

Sources

Sources

https://www.pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/immigration-act-1869 (Immigration Act)

https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/immigrants/021017-6210-e.html (Immigration Act Image)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_head_tax_in_Canada (Chinese Head Tax)

https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/settlement/kids/021013-2031.3-e.html (Chinese Head Tax Image)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komagata_Maru_incident (Komagata Maru)

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/india-commemorating-100-years-of-komagata-maru/article6458812.ece (Komagata Maru Image)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Canadian_internment (Ukrainian Canadian Internment)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Canadian_internment (Italian Canadian Internment)

https://www.amazon.ca/Righting-Canadas-Wrongs-Canadian-Internment/dp/145940095X (Italian Canadian Internment Image)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Canadian_internment#Internment_camps (Japanese Canadian Internment)

http://www.hilltimes.com/2017/10/25/no-need-nanjing-massacre-commemorative-day-ontario/123321 (Japanese Canadian Internement Image)

https://www.pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/immigration-act-1976 (Creation of Immigration Categories)

https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/immigration-through-canada-s-history (Creation of Immigration Categories Image)

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/singh-case/ (Singh Decision)

http://ccrweb.ca/en/bulletin/10/04/01 (Singh Decision Image)

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/immigration/ (Immigration and Refugee Protection Act)

http://metro.co.uk/2017/11/22/airlines-to-pay-95m-to-settle-claims-security-lapses-led-to-9-11-attacks-7100915/ (Immigration and Refugee Protection Act Image)

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