CANADIAN IMMIGRATION
(1885 - 1914)
- describe key characteristics of Canada between 1885 and 1914, including social and economic conditions, the roles and contributions of various people and groups, internal and external pressures for change, and the political responses to these pressures;
- describe the factors contributing to change in Canadian society (e.g., immigration, technology, politics, globalization);
- outline the advantages and disadvantages of Clifford Sifton's immigration policy in the Laurier era;
- identify key events that illustrate Canada's role within the British Empire and explain their significance.
Above excerpted from The Ontario Curriculum: Social Studies, Grades 1-6; History and Geography Grades, 7-8, 2004 (e. and o. e.)
The 1901 census showed that 88 percent of Canadians were of British or French descent. Canadians with a British background were happy with Canada's mainly British-based culture. French-speaking Canadians were already worried about disappearing in a sea of English-speaking Canadians. They resisted the entry of any more cultures.
From 1867 to 1920 there were two ideas behind the Canadian Government's immigration policy: large numbers of immigrants were needed to develop the country, and preference would be given to immigrants who would be easily assimilated.
Like other policies of the day, the ideas behind the immigration policy allowed for people to be treated differently based on their race or sex.
Most actions to keep people out were directed at people who were not European, although non-Christians were not welcomed either. Jewish immigrants were often refused housing and jobs on the basis of their religion. Russian Doukhobors had half their lands in Saskatchewan taken from them in 1907, even though they had been farming there since 1899. Their religion would not allow them to swear loyalty to the British Crown or serve in the military. There was discrimination too. In the Canadian West there were signs in shop windows reading, "No British Need Apply." At the outbreak of World War I settlers from Germany and middle European countries were harassed, and some held in internment camps...
"...Some suffered from mental or physical disabilities; others were classified as criminals or as being so poor that they would be a burden to society. Between 1903 and 1920 nearly 14 000 people were not allowed entry into Canada after arriving here."
Some of the policies included in the Canadian Immigration Acts of 1906 and 1910 were to:
- accept European farmers;
- accept some highly educated people from the United States and the United kingdom;
- accept orphaned children (home children) from the United Kingdom who would work in Canadian homes and on Canadian farms;
- keep out non-Europeans;
- refuse all immigrants from Asia;
- refuse all people who were physically, morally, or mentally unfit;
- refuse all people who were unlikely to fit in or adjust to life in Canada;
- give preference to immigrants who could speak some English;
- refuse all people who were likely to move into already crowded urban centres.
Like other settlers, Asians came to Canada prepared to work hard to make a better life for themselves. Most met hostility and hardship. In almost every case, Asians were paid much less than European workers. Thousands of Chinese workers were lured to Canada to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway, where they earned low wages. Japanese immigrants, who started to enter Canada in 1877, worked in the fishing industry or farmed in the Fraser Valley. Like the Chinese, they were not allowed to vote or hold professional positions. The first South Asian immigrants were Sikhs from India, who arrived in British Columbia in 1903. As British subjects, these immigrants came with some advantages. Many could speak English and they understood English culture. Nonetheless, they, too, were discriminated against.
In time European workers wanted to keep out Asians who would accept the low wages and poor working conditions. In response, the Canadian government created policy barriers to stop these immigrants from entering Canada. The head tax, first imposed on Chinese immigrants in 1885, discouraged many who dreamed of bringing family members to Canada. By 1910 all Asians had to have $200 in their possession to enter Canada. For the Chinese, this would be in addition to the head tax.
A second hurdle was the "No Stoppage" rule, passed on January 8, 1908. At the time Britain would not allow Canada to collect a head tax on British subjects from India who wanted to come to Canada. The "no stoppage" rule said that immigrants had to travel without stopping from their country to Canada. For South Asians from India this was not possible.
A few South Asians immigrated to Canada by going to the United States first and then crossing the border. Many of the earlier immigrants left Canada for the united States or India to be with their families. In 1919 the Canadian government allowed wives and children to join South Asian men who had immigrated earlier. The South Asian population in Canada fell to barely 1 000 before the "no stoppage" rule was lifted in 1947.
"In
1914 Gurdit Singh, a Sikh leader, hired a ship, the
Komagata Maru,
to make a non-stop voyage from India to Vancouver. The ship arrived
with 376 potential immigrants. Canadian immigration officials would
not allow the men to get off the ship. After two months of
negotiations only 20 men were allowed to stay in Canada. The rest
had to remain on the ship, which was escorted back to sea to return to
India. This was the first official act of the recently formed Royal
Canadian Navy."
The above is excerpted from Deir, 2000 (e. and o. e.)
Discrimination Against Minorities
Like most countries of the world at that time, officially and unofficially, Canada was a racist society. Many minorities experienced discrimination because of their origins. Their access to housing, employment and services such as schools, theatres, hotels, and swimming pools was often limited. This was particularly true for visible minorities.
In 1911, people of German ancestry were the third largest ethnic group in Canada. During World War I, many felt the need to downplay their German roots. The Ontario city of Berlin rejected its German name in 1916. It was renamed Kitchener after a British military leader.
Today Canadian society recognizes the unfairness of racism. The government has officially apologized to Japanese-Canadians for internment during World War II and also to Chinese-Canadians for the head tax.
The above is excerpted from Arnold, 2000(e. and o. e.)
Best known for being the Minister of the Interior under Sir Wilfred Laurier, Sifton is responsible for creating the immigration policies that encouraged the massive influx in the early 20th Century.
In 1896, Sifton was elected a Member of Parliament and served as Minister of the Interior under Laurier. As Minister of the Interior he started a vigorous immigration policy to get people to settle and populate the West. Sifton established colonial offices in Europe and the United States. While many of the immigrants came from Britain and the United States, Canada also had a large influx of Ukrainians, Doukhobors, and other groups from the Austrian Empire. Between 1891 and 1914, more than three million people came to Canada, largely from continental Europe, following the path of the newly constructed continental railway. In the same period, mining operations were begun in the Klondike and the Canadian Shield.
The above is excerpted from Wikipedia, 2007 (e. and o. e.)
Clifford Sifton started an advertising campaign to attract people to Canada:
- Millions of posters and pamphlets were produced in many languages;
- Writers were paid to create romantic stories set in Western Canada;
- The government brought foreign journalists to Canada to tour the country and write articles about it when they returned home;
- Speakers travelled to other countries to give talks about the advantages of moving to Canada.
The campaign worked.
Was Canada's Door Open or Closed?
It was often said that Canada had an "open door" policy of immigration. This meant that the door was open to newcomers from anywhere in the world. In a speech Clifford Sifton stated:
"I do not care what language a man speaks, or what religion he professes... if he is honest and law-abiding, if he will go on that land and make a living for himself and his family, he is a desirable settler"
~Debates of the House of Commons, July 1899
Did Canada really have an open door policy? Sifton did most of his advertising in three main areas:
- The United States. American farmers had experience farming the prairies. By the 1890s, though, their own country was running out of good farmland. As well, Canada was cheaper.
- Great Britain. Most Canadians were of British origin. Some of them wanted other Britons to move to Canada. They thought this would strengthen the British character of the colony.
- Eastern Europe. Sifton described Eastern European farmers as, "Stalwart peasants in sheepskin coats." He thought they made ideal immigrants because they had experience farming and would put up with the hardships of pioneer life.
Many groups of people were not wanted in Canada. Asians, Jews, Italians, and city-dwellers in general were not encouraged to come to Canada during Sifton's campaign, because Sifton believed they would not make successful prairie farmers. This policy was known as Selective Immigration. It meant that some groups were encouraged to come to Canada, while others were discouraged or at least ignored.
African Americans were one of the groups that were not welcome. The government made no attempt to recruit Black farmers from the United States. In 1910, when a party of Black pioneers from the state of Oklahoma planned to move to Alberta, Edmonton City Council called on the federal government to stop them.
No laws were passed banning Blacks from Canada, but government officials used various regulations to try to keep them south of the border. Agents were sent to Oklahoma to tell Blacks there how cold the climate was in Canada and how poor the soil was for farming. Of course, this was exactly the opposite of what they were telling other immigrants!
Another area the government ignored was Quebec. Farmland was growing scarce there, so many Quebecers were moving south into the United States in search of jobs. Yet Sifton did not try to convince them to move west.
French-speaking fur traders had been among the first non-aboriginal people in Western Canada. Though the Métis kept up this Francophone tradition, French speakers quickly became outnumbered in the West with the arrival of so many English-speaking immigrants. Still, some Francophones were attracted to Western Canada. Catholic missionaries played an important role in convincing French-speaking settlers to form new communities there. French-speaking immigrants came from France and Belgium. By 1921, Francophones made up about seven percent of the population of the Prairie provinces.
Another group of immigrants that were not welcome were a group of Sikh men from India. Once again, regulations were put in place to stop immigration from South Asia. On May 23, 1914, a ship named the Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver Harbour carrying 376 passengers from India. They wanted to enter Canada, but the police did not allow anyone to leave the ship. Government officials ruled the passengers were not welcome.
As food and water ran low on the ship, people crowded the waterfront to see what would happen. At one point a police boat went out to the ship, planning to force it to leave the harbour. However, the people on the Komagata Maru would not let the police get on board. At the same time a group of 12 Indian-Canadian men created a "Shore Committee" to launch a court case against the government and allow the passengers of the Komagata Maru to stay in Canada. They gathered 500 supporters from the Indian community in Vancouver, 20 white supporters, and a number of reporters to raise money for the case. The community raised an amazing $70 000, but unfortunately it was not enough to win their case.
Finally, after two months, the government called in the naval vessel HMCS Rainbow to force the Komagata Maru to depart. The passengers were forced to return to India.
As with Chinese and Japanese newcomers, Canada was not open to immigrants from India. The white majority was prejudiced against people with different skin colours, religions and customs. They argued that the newcomers would work for lower wages and take jobs from white residents. It was many years before Asian immigrants were allowed to enter Canada freely and enjoy the same rights as Canadians.
Between 1885 and 1914, more than two million people came to settle in the Canadian West from Europe and other parts of North America. Sifton's advertising campaign was a success. Other factors also helped to make Canada's immigration plan work:
- The worldwide depression ended. In hard times, few families could afford to move. However, as things got better, families could think about taking up homesteads;
- Millions of Europeans left their homelands between 1900 and 1914 to look for new homes and better opportunities. Some were fleeing cruel treatment, compulsory service in the army, economic hardships, and overcrowding. Many chose Canada as their new home;
- There was a lack of good farmland left in the United States, while a great deal of good cheap land was available in Canada;
- In Europe, the demand for Canadian wheat increased, almost doubling the price of wheat. Growing wheat became more profitable for Canadian farmers, especially after new hardy strains of crops were developed;
- Canada had a transcontinental railway to ship grain to markets. Steam-powered ocean vessels transported wheat to Europe cheaply and quickly;
- New farm machines, such as ploughs and reapers, were invented. These helped to make farmers' work easier and more efficient.
Immigrants from Eastern Europe
Next to the British and the Americans, people from Eastern Europe formed the greatest number of newcomers to Western Canada. Between 1897 and 1912, 594 000 people crossed to Canada from Europe. Poles, Romanians, and Hungarians were among the people who came, but the largest group was from the Ukraine.
The Ukraine was at that time part of the Russian Empire. It was a wheat-farming area, but life there was very hard. There were few opportunities and the people had no voice in the running of the country. The Ukrainians longed for freedom and a better life for their children. For many, Canada promised such a life.
By 1912, there were more than 75 000 Ukrainians living in Western Canada. Most of them settled on farms. The land and the climate of the prairies were similar to back home. They had the skills and the knowledge to farm in the West. Others worked in the mines and logging camps or helped to build the railways. These were some of the ways in which Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans supported the economy that was growing in Western Canada.
Immigrant Workers (More Information)
The federal government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier launched policies to attract immigrants to Canada. Newcomers were needed from many place around the world to live on farms in the West, and also to work on railways and in the mines and lumber camps. The result was that Canada became a more diverse country during the industrial period. By 1912, almost one-fifth of the population was neither French, English, nor Aboriginal in origin.
The government did not want to encourage immigrants to come to the cities. Sifton tried to prevent the arrival of what he called, "labouring men and mechanics." But they came anyway, because employers needed them to fill the jobs in the factories and work camps.
One of the larger groups to come to Canada in the first decade of the twentieth century were the Italians. During the summers, many of these workers laboured on railway construction or clearing brush. In the off-season they settled in the cities. In time, they brought their families from Italy and created their own neighbourhoods, which became known as little Italys. In a city like Toronto, Italian workers found jobs building the streets railways and sewers.
British Columbia attracted many immigrants from Asia, including Chinese, Japanese, and Indians.
Like other immigrant groups, Asian newcomers wanted to live near families and friends. This provided a sense of security against the negative reaction toward them. As a result, they moved into neighbourhoods with people of the same culture, which came to be called Chinatowns or Japantowns. These were distinctive neighbourhoods with their own building styles and bustling streets.
Asians in B.C. became a target of prejudice. The non-Asian majority worried that workers from Asia were taking away their jobs because they were willing to work for lower wages. Non-Asians also believed that Asian immigrants stood apart because of their customs and appearance, and would never be able to become a part of British-Canadian society.
This prejudice welled up into violence in Vancouver in 1907, when a mob of people marched through the Chinatown and Japantown districts, smashing windows and attacking Asians they met on the street. The Asian residents fought back and later forced the government to repay them for damages they suffered in the riot.
Despite the prejudice they encounter, Asian communities in British Columbia continued to grow. Eventually, they won for themselves the same rights and opportunities as other Canadians.
The above is excerpted from Cruxton, 2008 (e. and o. e.)