{"id":45,"date":"2016-03-11T23:50:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-12T06:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ourstory\/?p=45"},"modified":"2016-03-11T23:52:58","modified_gmt":"2016-03-12T06:52:58","slug":"45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ourstory\/2016\/03\/11\/45\/","title":{"rendered":"The Immigration Act of 1910: a part of the project of white civility (3.2: Q2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Immigration Act of 1910<\/a> is a piece of legislation that formed the cornerstone of restrictive immigration policies in Canadian history. It reinforced and expanded on another legislation: the Immigration Act pf 1906. In its totality, this law was a guide of exclusionary powers granted to the Cabinet. It granted authority to:<\/p>\n

-exclude \u201cimmigrants belonging to any race deemed unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

-a 3 year \u2018probationary\u2019 period during which a person could be deported for moral or political unsuitability<\/p>\n

-a prevention of Courts from interfering or ruling in these cases<\/p>\n

-a head tax of $200 on all Asian immigrants<\/p>\n

-exclude immigrants sponsored by charitable organizations unless with explicit permission<\/p>\n

-a head tax of $25 on all immigrants arriving outside of winter<\/p>\n

Daniel Coleman, in his argument on the project of white civility, identifies an intentional move by nation-builders to \u201cformulate and elaborate a specific form of [Canadian] whiteness based on the British model of civility\u201d (5). And if ever there was a particular \u201cliterary endeavor\u201d in Canadian history to exemplify this, this Act fits that bill.<\/p>\n

The fictional story of the whiteness of the Canadian nation and its history was directly challenged by immigration and this law was meant to deal with that issue and circumvent it. (Ironic, considering the immigration of this same British \u201cwhiteness\u201d is what challenged and disturbed the indigenous nations of this land.)<\/p>\n

The \u201cwhiteness\u201d of Canada was being created by this legislation in its discrimination and exclusion of peoples of Asian descent. This extended to Japanese, Chinese, and Indians, amongst others. In one example, an Indian man named Munshi Singh fought his deportation in Court, ultimately losing. But the words that the Judge used in handing down his decision were more reflective of the systemic racism that pervaded Canadian institutions than of that case alone.<\/p>\n

The Judge said, \u201cthe better classes of the Asiatic races are\u2026undesirables in Canada.\u201d \u201cTheir ways and ideas may well be a menace to the wellbeing of the Canadian people.\u201d \u201cThe Parliament\u2026may well be said to be safeguarding the people of Canada from an influx which\u2026might annihilate the nation\u2026introduce Oriental ways as against European ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a fictive version of whiteness, being a brand of civilization free from whatever was deemed contrary, was also being created. The laws against charitable organization\u2019s sponsoring of immigrants specifically responded to an influx of poor British peoples in 1907 brought to Canada through charity. The $25 head tax depending on seasons also targeted undesirable European prospective immigrants by narrowing the scope to those with money: the rich and therefore of a particular class.<\/p>\n

The Immigration Act tried to create a Canada with a particular brand of British \u201cwhiteness\u201d, a fictive population that did not exist even in Britain. Is this fictive story a part of Canadian history? I would argue that the answer is no. The narrative is one that is still being perpetuated, that Canadians held a front-row seat to in recent months.<\/p>\n

Under the previous government<\/a>, Canada saw the creation of \u201csafe country\u201d lists which excluded many from immigrating as refugees including some of the most discriminated European groups like the Roma of Hungary. Former PM Harper\u2019s references to Muslims and Islam as a \u201cbarbaric culture\u201d climaxing in the creation of the Barbaric Cultural Practices Against Women and Girls perpetuated this story of the \u201cold stock Canadians\u201d being the desired bedrock of this country. It is interesting furthermore as we also saw the refusal to investigate let alone act on the entrench and longstanding issue of the horrible tragedy of abducted and murdered Aboriginal women in which the desired narrative would be implicated. The same arguments of incompatible lifestyles and a threat to Canada are still being used today in the attempted exclusion of Muslim immigrants. And even with the government change, the sentiments are still rumbling loudly in groups like JDL and Pegida Canada. <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

\u201cForging Our Legacy: Canadian Citizenship and Immigration, 1900\u20131977.\u201d Government of <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Canada<\/em>, 1 July, 2006. Web. Accessed on 11 March, 2016.<\/p>\n

Gagnon, E., Raska, J., Van Dyk, L., and Schwinhamer, S. \u201cImmigration Act, 1910.\u201d Canadian <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Museum of Immigration at Pier 21.<\/em> N.d. Web. Accessed on 11 March, 2016.<\/p>\n

Kanji. Azeezah. \u201cThe disturbing movement against Syrian refugees in Canada.\u201d Thestar.com.<\/em><\/p>\n

Toronto Star Newspapers. 10 March, 2016. Web. Accessed on 11 March, 2016.<\/p>\n

Keenan, Edward. \u201cWhen Stephen Harper refers to \u201cbarbaric culture,\u201d he means Islam \u2014 an anti-<\/p>\n

Muslim alarm that\u2019s ugly and effective because it gets votes.\u201d Thestar.com.<\/em> Toronto Star<\/p>\n

Newspapers. 5 October, 2015. Web. Accessed on 11 March, 2016.<\/p>\n

Lenard, P. T. \u201cStephen Harper’s abhorrent record on refugees and immigration.\u201d The Broadbent Blog. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Broadbent Institute. 12 September, 2015. Web. Accessed on 11 March, 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Immigration Act of 1910 is a piece of legislation that formed the cornerstone of restrictive immigration policies in Canadian history. It reinforced and expanded on another legislation: the Immigration Act pf 1906. In its totality, this law was a guide of exclusionary powers granted to the Cabinet. It granted authority to: -exclude \u201cimmigrants belonging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38420"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/ourstory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}