Women Immigrating Essay, Research Paper

Early women immigrating to Canada was generated by a network of

emigration agents who were salesman who advertised to Canada’s

attraction’s to prospected immigrants. They targeted wealthy

farmers, agricultural laborers and female domestics, preferably from

Great Britain, the United States and Northern Europe.

Canada’s first immigration legislation, the Immigration Act of 1869

reflected the laissez-faire philosophy of the time by not saying

which classes of immigrants should be admitted but , merely that

the “governor” could prohibit the landing of pauper or destitute

immigrants at any Canadian port.

The Chinese, who were arriving in large numbers to build the

railway, were a special target of fear and suspicion. An act passed

in 1885 to “restrict and regulate” Chinese immigration, was later

complemented by head taxes designed to discourage Chinese

immigration. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that regulations and

restriction to Chinese immigration were completely lifted.

The 19th century closed with a world wide depression and a slow

down of immigration to the West. But all that changed in 1895,

when Clifford Sifton was appointed as Minister of the Interior at

the start of an economic recovery. Sifton believed that “a stalwart

peasant in sheep skin coat” made the most desirable immigrant ,

and set out to attract people suited for farming, In 1896, 16,835

immigrants entered Canada. When Sifton left in 1905, the

population was 141,464. It rocketed to 400,970 by 1913. Some

three million newcomers arrived between 1896 and the outbreak of

World War 1.

But Sifton’s policies triggered criticism, despite success in

attracting farmers. Immigration from central and southeastern

Europe raised a ground swell of hostility on the prairies because

residents didn’t believe theses newcomers could assimilate readily

into the dominant Anglo-Saxon society.

The authorities wanted to keep African-Canadians out of Canada

because they thought that they were useless to Canada. They

thought that the African-Canadians couldn’t be farmers or could do

any form of work that was useful to Canada so they thought that

it would be better to keep them out of Canada then to have them

in.

Almost all of Canada’s population can be traced back to the major

immigration period between 1867 and 1915 which was when the

most people immigrated to Canada which was a grand total of

three million.