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.
For this assignment I have chosen to look more closely at the Immigration Act of 1910. I chose this mainly due to the fact that after researching all of the Acts and Proclamations at hand, the Immigration Act of 1910 had several extremely discriminatory things that immediately captured my attention. It is interesting to note that the Immigration Act of 1910 was released quite soon after the Immigration Act of 1906, and was more or less a revision of the Immigration Act of 1906 – adding several disturbing clarifications. The Immigration Act of 1906 was, put simply, a way in which the Department of Immigration could control the influx of undesirable immigrants (Canadian Council for Refugees, 2000). This Act gave the government full ability to refuse or deport immigrants through creating new, as well as reinforcing old, measures of restriction and enforcement, as well as widening the scope of ‘prohibited’ immigrants (Canadian Council for Refugees, 2000). Now comes the Immigration Act of 1910, which was set in place to ‘further enhance 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’ (Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, 2015). As I stated before, there were several discriminatory points outlined in the Immigration Act of 1910 that could my attention:
- The allowance for Cabinet to restrict ‘immigrants belonging to any race deemed unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada’ (North American Immigration, 2011)
- When reading through an actual photocopy of the Immigration Act of 1910, I found the term ‘alien’ defined as ‘a person who is not a British subject’ (Early Canadiana Online, 2015)
- Later in the year, several orders-to-council were passed to further enhance the governments discretionary power, including one that required ‘all immigrants of Asiatic origin were required to have $200 in their possession before being permitted entry’ (Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, 2015)
- Another disturbing point I found while reading the Immigration Act of 1910 was the fact that ‘Section 38 gave the government broad authority to change admission criteria without amending the Immigration Act’ (Kukushkin, 2006))
Although these are just the main points I found to catch my attention in the Immigration Act of 1910, there are more to be talked about. Due to the findings and conclusions I have drawn from the Immigration Act of 1910, I strongly believe that they coincide with, and support Coleman’s argument regarding the projection of ‘white civility’. I believe that if Canada was initially built on facts such as the Immigration Act of 1910, there is no denying that there is definitely ‘a specific form of [Canadian] whiteness based on the British model of civility’ (Paterson, 2015)
Works Cited
- Canadian Council for Refugees. 2000. A Hundred Years of Immigration to Canada 1900-1999. Web. Retrieved on March 12, 2015 from {http://ccrweb.ca/en/hundred-years-immigration-canada-1900-1999}
- Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. 2015. Immigration Act, 1910. Web. Retrieved on March 12, 2015 from {http://www.pier21.ca/research/immigration-history/immigration-act-1910}
- Early Canadiana Online. 2015. An Act Respecting Immigration (Immigration Act of 1910). Web. Retrieved on March 12, 2015 from {http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_07184/2?r=0&s=1}
- Early Canadiana Online. 2015. An Act Respecting Immigration and Immigrants (Immigration Act of 1906). Web. Retrieved on March 12,2015 from {http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_07188/2?r=0&s=1}
- Kukushkin, V. 2006. Radical Policies. Library and Archives Canada. Web. Retrieved on March 12, 2015 from {https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/immigrants/021017-2511.01-e.html}
- North American Immigration. 2011. Immigration Act (Canada) (1910). Web. Retrieved on March 12, 2015 from {http://northamericanimmigration.org/141-immigration-act-canada-1910.html}
- Paterson, Erika. 2015. Lesson 3:1 – Nationalism and Literature. Web. Retrieved on March 12, 2015 from {https://blogs.ubc.ca/courseblogsis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216-sis_ubc_engl_470a_99c_2014wc_44216_2517104_1/unit-3/lesson-3-1/}