Canadian Immigration: A historical overview
Marie Gervais, PhD. Director Global Leadership Associates Inc
www.global-leadership.ca
immigration has always been tied to economics
The history of Canadian immigration can be divided into 9 parts:
1. Pre-European Settlement;
2. 1600 to the Conquest of New France;
3. 1760 to the War of 1812;
4. 1815 to the “Opening of the West”;
5. 1880 to World War I;
6. Between the Wars;
7. End of World War II to 1967;
8. Since 1968: The “Merit Point System” and
9. Since 2009: Beyond the point system.
Each of these time periods had both an emphasis on economic development through immigration and a restriction on immigration as majority groups perceived various groups as threatening. Whether opportunity or threat was the motivating factor in immigration policy and practice, was largely dependent upon both the international climate of war/peace and national economic boom/bust/growth cycles. Generally it can be stated that until 1963, Canada restricted immigration to British and American groups either as a primary modus operandi or as default. Even so larger numbers of first European, then Eastern European, Asian, South Asian and finally African and South American ethnic groups gradually entered the country as it became necessary to widen the on-ramp to meet economic goals. Religious groups fleeing persecution and refugees were admitted into the country off and on in various periods of relative openness or when Canada submitted to international pressure by the United Nations for humanitarian relief.
From 1962-1967, it became Canada’s official policy to eliminate racial and ethnic discrimination in immigration policy and gradually non-European and visible minority immigrants have become the mainstay of immigration to Canada. Canada’s Multiculturalism Policy in 1971 was a historic move away from discrimination, and several years later in an unprecedented expression of goodwill, the Canadian public rushed to sponsor Vietnamese “boat people” refugees at the request of the Canadian government in 1979. These two events are benchmarks in a national shift from suspicion to desire for integration that, although not consistently advanced, showed the beginnings of attitudinal change towards immigrants in Canada.
From 1974 onwards it became obvious that most immigrant entry and settlement into Canada were to the cities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver and this became a new immigration concern. By 1993 there were more female than male immigrants and the addition of the “point system” into immigration criteria has created a dynamic whereby the immigrant population in Canada today is by and large significantly more educated and skilled than native-born Canadians.
It can be said that the history of immigration has always been based on the idea that immigrants are a “necessary” commodity-like tool for economic growth. Immigrants are expected to assume a position of subordination to the majority society as an expression of gratitude at being allowed into the country and given the opportunity to start a new life in the “best country”. This belief has contributed to a number of issues facing immigrants, often rooted in receiving population attitudes of suspicion, hostility and racism. When economic conditions are hard, immigrants can become scapegoats. Even in the best of economic climates, majority sense of threat keeps significant numbers of immigrants at low-level jobs where their skills are underutilized and frustration is high. A number of studies measuring educational achievement and economic attainment have consistently shown that visible minorities, even the 2nd and 3rd generation after immigration have consistently lower economic attainment than their light-skinned counterparts. This is counter-intuitive since culture shock, English or French language proficiency and educational opportunity and attainment are no longer barriers to those born in Canada – discrimination, however, appears to continue to play an ongoing role in keeping visible minorities from achieving their full career and economic potential.
Other issues facing immigrants are the long period of cultural adjustment and adaptation, finding work, finding work that matches education and skill, promotion and advancement, making mainstream social and economic connections, and disruption of family roles. Many immigrant families live in poverty, some never rise above the poverty line. Males in particular experience serious loss of status and this has lead to a number of immigrant family issues such as increase in separation and divorce and family violence. Additionally, immigrant parents have idealistic expectations of their children and expect them to master both the new language and achieve academic excellence in short periods of time. Most do not know or believe that the normal attainment of academic English/French parity is between 5-7 years after conversational English/French proficiency. This results in undue pressure put on children and lack of sensitivity to the problems and frustrations they face in gaining both language and cultural proficiency in Canada.
The parent/child relationship is altered in the immigration experience because children usually adapt and gain language proficiency more quickly than their parents and are asked to perform tasks that parents normally do for their children. Some of these might include translating for parents in interactions with school officials, in stores, and in medical situations, making appointments for parents and negotiating conflicts between older family members. This switch in roles can cause problems of authority between children and their parents. Families lose their community support systems and may succumb to depression and illness. Grandparents lose their entire social network and are relegated to babysitting while parents work long hours at several jobs. Sometimes children are ashamed of their parents and blame them for things that are entirely out of their control. This can become an ongoing tension when children reach their teen years.
As a result of these difficulties and the lack of appreciation of this experience by the society around them, it is not unusual for ethnic groups to draw more tightly together and to form their own organizational networks, supports and social realities. Partly this helps to alleviate the pain of immigration and increases the sense of identity and in-group belonging, but it also creates suspicion and barriers between minority groups and mainstream society, and in inter-ethnic relations. Part of the solution to this dilemma is for both immigrants and dominant groups to understand more deeply the social, emotional, spiritual, and economic realities of immigrants. Increased empathy can help bring increased desire to create joint solutions. There is no country in the world where immigration is easy and painless. But in Canada we have the opportunity to facilitate the process in ways that countries with a longer history of ethnic conflict cannot even begin to imagine.
