Canada: immigration and settlement

Abstract

Immigration has long been central to Canada's economic development and nation‐building aspirations. During periods of economic growth, immigration policy, with its attendant legislation and regulations, has sought to regulate if not solicit the orderly inflow of labor to capital. Through the late 18th and well into the 19th centuries the majority of immigrants entering Canada were either farmers encouraged to settle the Canadian agricultural hinterland – including, after the completion of the first transcontinental railway, Canada's vast and fertile western plains – or wage laborers who worked on Canada's canal and railway networks or in labor‐intensive mining, forestry, and nascent manufacturing sectors. During periods of economic slowdown and shrinking employment markets, the Canadian welcome mat for immigrants was withdrawn and immigration policy redirected towards restricting the entry of jobseeking “foreigners.” The Canadian state's heavy‐handed use of deportation ensured that “unwanted” immigrants would not place undue demands on existing forms of social provision or threaten stability through the spread of “mutinous ideologies” (such as socialism) and practices (such as union organizing).

Moves - Spaces - Places

“…While immigration closed down during both Great Wars and the 1930s depression, a high level of immigration regained its strength after World War II. Since the late 1980s, most immigrants are coming from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean (Troper 2018). The earliest Jamaicans to arrive in Canada were small numbers of West Indian slaves imported into Nova Scotia and New France.…”

“…Many overseas workers from the British Commonwealth colonies, including Jamaicans, came to Canada to seek a better economic life. By 1960, Canada introduced its 'point system' under which each applicant was awarded points for their language, job and educational skills (Troper 2018). During this time, 21,500 immigrants from the Caribbean of which 33 percent were categorized under the 'ethnic origin' Black were granted a landed…”