The Immigration Act of 1910 was basically an extension of a similar legislation passed in 1906 which aimed to “sift the wheat from the chaff” (cic.gc.ca), so to speak, in regards to multi-ethnic immigration into Canada. Around the turn of the 20th century, the Canadian government was making a concerted effort to populate the Western provinces, and the prairies in particular. They were quite successful in doing this, perhaps too much so. Within a few years the population of the Western provinces had become increasingly non Anglo Saxon in origin, and the Immigration Acts of 1906 and 1910 were put into effect to curb the influx multi-ethnic immigration. One of the most notorious parts of the 1910 act was labelled Section 38, and stated that the Canadian government had the power to restrict “immigrants belonging to any race deemed unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada.” (northamericanmigration.org) This remained the official policy for Canadian immigration law until 1967. Along with increasing the difficulty for people of certain ethnicities or nationalities to get into Canada, the Immigration Acts also increased the power of the state to deport immigrants whom they deemed undesirable. Grounds for deportation included “becoming a public charge, insanity, infirmity, disease, handicap, becoming an inmate of a jail or hospital and committing crimes of “moral turpitude”” (peoplescomission.org)
It can certainly be argued that Daniel Coleman’s theories on “White Civility” in Canada apply, in practice, to the Immigration Acts of 1906 and 1910. Particularly in the prairie provinces, these acts sought to erase or redefine a very recent history of settlement and land cultivation, one in which the principle players were Eastern European minorities. In collusion with the Immigration Acts, the Mennonites, Ukrainians, Jews, and Doukhobors who had spent years converting previously unfarmed land into valuable real estate were forced to assimilate to Anglo Saxon society or lose their land. Many Doukhobors chose to give up their homes rather than their culture, and relocated to British Columbia. Of course, the Indigenous peoples who had traditionally occupied the prairie lands were not made to be part of the new national identity, either. It is difficult, however, to evaluate the role of the Eastern European prairie settlers in the displacement of Indigenous peoples, because many of these immigrants were in fact refugees fleeing persecution, pogroms, and genocide.
The “fictive ethnicity” which Coleman describes was very much at work during the passing of the Immigration Acts. Coleman writes that a fictive ethnicity has to be constructed, in order to make a particular social structure appear natural. The Immigration Acts did this specifically – they ignored the contributions of peoples from Asian countries and of European minorities to the construction of the Canadian state through reinforcing the Anglo Saxon as the dominant Canadian ethnicity. The Acts also served to naturalize Anglo Saxon dominance over Indigenous peoples in regards to ownership of land. The irony of a settler population assuming it has a moral basis for excluding certain immigrants is something we still see happening today.
Works Cited:
“A History of Racism in Canada’s Immigration Policy” http://www.peoplescommission.org/files/poped/05.%20A%20History%20of%20Racism.doc.pdf n.d. Web. 25 Feb 2014.
“Forging Our Legacy: Canadian Citizenship and Immigration , 1900 – 1977” http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/publications/legacy/chap-3.asp. n.d. Web. Feb 25 2014.
“Homepage.” www.immigrationwatchcanada.org Web. Feb 25 2014
“Immigration Act (Canada) (1910)” http://northamericanimmigration.org/141-immigration-act-canada-1910.html n.d. Web. Feb 25 2014.
“Komagata Maru” http://www.vancouverhistory.ca/archives_komagatamaru.htm Web. Feb 25 2014
Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3:1.” ENGL 470A Canadian Studies Canadian Literary Genres. University of British Columbia Blogs, 2013. Web. 7 Feb. 2014.
Hi Stepan!
Your comments about European immigrants reminded me of a novel I studied in ENGL 222, Renovating Heaven by Andreas Schroeder. The novel is based on Schroeder’s experience growing up in a immigrant German Mennonite family, first in rural Agassiz and later in urban Vancouver. I think the series of dislocations that the family feels, first when placed abruptly in a farm setting after living completely differently in Germany, and then again when moving from Agassiz to Vancouver and leaving a tight-knit, German-speaking Mennonite community behind, has parallels to many other immigrant experiences. Do you think the deep connections that close-knit immigrant communities such as the Mennonites have formed with their new land in Canada parallel the experience of any other groups?
Hi Keeley
Thanks for your reply!
I haven’t read that particular novel, but I did have Andres Schroeder as an instructor for a Non Fiction Creative Writing course last term. He’s certainly an interesting and animated fellow, and a fantastic writer.
I think the Mennonite experience was quite similar to other religious groups, including the Doukhobors who I mention in my blog post. The Hutterites are another group with a similar history, who still live in independent communities in Alberta. These groups were invited to Canada because they had a reputation as good workers and able agriculturalists, but eventually found themselves not fitting in to the desirable model of a British Canadian citizen. I think that for groups like this, their connection to a “new land” becomes very strong, because they are communities of outsiders. Land becomes a defining, fixed element of their identity, particularly after existing in a state of transition for long periods of time. To have a fixed geographical place to call “their new land” is crucial, and therefore is particularly damaging to the communities when they are forced relocate.