3.2: Immigration Act 1910

2] In this lesson I say that it should be clear that the discourse on nationalism is also about ethnicity and ideologies of “race.” If you trace the historical overview of nationalism in Canada in the CanLit guide, you will find many examples of state legislation and policies that excluded and discriminated against certain peoples based on ideas about racial inferiority and capacities to assimilate. – and in turn, state legislation and policies that worked to try to rectify early policies of exclusion and racial discrimination. As the guide points out, the nation is an imagined community, whereas the state is a “governed group of people.” For this blog assignment, I would like you to research and summarize one of the state or governing activities, such as The Royal Proclamation 1763, the Indian Act 1876, Immigration Act 1910, or the Multiculturalism Act 1989 – you choose the legislation or policy or commission you find most interesting. Write a blog about your findings and in your conclusion comment on whether or not your findings support Coleman’s argument about the project of white civility.

As I have said in a previous blog, I moved to Canada in 2008 from England with my mother. My mother’s parents were Irish/English born and decided to move to Canada for a few years, in that time they had my mother, making her an official Canadian citizen although they later returned to the UK. This then made my four sisters and I very lucky as though we were all born in England, we now automatically had Canadian citizenship’s too making it very easy for my mother and I to move to Canada. I wanted to add this little bit of information because I am an immigrant who has moved across the world to a new land but during this move I did not think anything of it. I did not think of the rules and regulations that I was able to bypass because of being a Canadian/British Citizen. The same rules and regulations that hundreds of thousands of people unfortunately must face when moving countries. It is this reason that I wanted to look into Canada’s Immigration Act of 1910 to see what exactly it constituted of.

The Immigration Act of 1910 “further enhanced the discretionary powers of government to regulate the flow of immigrants into Canada, reinforcing and expanding the exclusionary provisions outlined in the Immigration Act of 1906″ (act). It took the provisions outlined in the 1906 Immigration Act and reinforced as well as expanded them. Within this new Immigration Act came a new list of prohibited immigrants, as well as giving more authority to the Federal Cabinet to choose who can enter the country and who shall be deported.  How immigrants were refused entry or later deported was based on the fact that they were “unsuited to the climate and requirements of Canada” (act).  This raises the question of what is defined as unsuitable or undesirable? This list includes: prostitutes, pimps, vagrants, inmates of jail, etc. Others that were included in the excluded list were those coming through a charitable organization. This condition was prompted by the immense amount of impoverish British immigrants that came in 1902 through the assistance of their charitable organization.

The Act also introduced permanent residency which was obtained after three years of living in Canada. However before this was introduced it meant that at any time one could be deported for being undesirable; one of those in the list above. The Federal Cabinet also easily deported those who wanted to overthrow the government or create public disorder, and even barred Judges and courts from reviewing the decisions made by the ministry in connection to deportation.

Finally I shall discuss the one rule that I found completely discriminating, racist and shocking. Orders-in-council passed the discriminating policy that anyone of Asiatic origin could only enter Canada if they had $200 in their possession, anyone else, either male or female only needed $25 in their possession.

This last rule intertwines with Daniel Coleman’s argument about the project of white civility. Daniel states that “whiteness has been naturalized as the norm for English Canadian cultural identity” and of course this is to be implemented if the country is creating easier access immigration for those of non-Asiatic origin, thus mostly the Caucasian population. Coleman also discusses the four fictive ethnicity literary personifications that are repeated through Canadian literary that ultimately “mediated and gradually reified the privileged, normative status of British whiteness in English Canada” (6-7). If we are not allowing other races but our own to enter Canada with as much as ease as anyone else then of course these fictive literary personifications will remain the same and will continue to enhance this sense of superiority that white civility holds.

Coleman also argues that “those denied familiarity with liberal democratic politics… cannot understand the meaning of liberty… they have an intense hatred for the law… ‘we’ must be patient…and translate such people in good, intelligent citizens” (12). This perspective held by the government is dehumanizing, degrading and patronizing. The use of ‘we’ angers me as it looks like the government is talking for the entire country which I completely disagree with. It is degrading as it states that we shall teach them our ways, and make them into good and intelligent people, as if they cannot in their own countries. It is offensive and racist to have this view and for a country that states it is multicultural, it is giving out a false sense of this. The Immigration Act supports Coleman’s research as ‘white civility’ is supported through solely serving the white population and forcing ‘others’ to climb over obstacles to gain this sense of civility, and push past the undesirable stage.

Works Cited

“A Hundred Years of Immigration to Canada 1900 – 1999.” Canadian Council for Refugees. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.

Canadian Museum of Immigration. Immigration Act, 1910. n.d. <http://www.pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/immigration-act-1910>. Web.

Cangiano, By Antonio Cangiano 81. “How to Get Your Canadian Citizenship.” Antonio Cangianos Blog. N.p., 2012. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.

CanLit Guides. “Reading and Writing in Canada, A Classroom Guide to Nationalism.” Canadian Literature. Web.

Coleman, Daniel. White Civility : The Literary Project of English Canada. Toronto, CA: University of Toronto Press, 2014. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 26 October 2016.