Canadian Immigration Policy

Date01 September 1948
DOI10.1177/002070204800300304
Published date01 September 1948
Subject MatterArticle
Canadian
Immigration
Policy
1
H.
L.
Keenleyside
i
C
anada
is
a
nation
of
immigrants.
From
25,000
years
before
the
Christian era
down
to
the
arrival
of
the
last
trans-Atlantic
liner
men,
women,
and
children
from
other
lands,
driven
by
economic
pressure,
by
the spirit
of
adventure,
by
the
unending
human
search
for a
better
life,
have
faced
the
perils
of
the
ocean
or
of
Arctic
barriers
to
answer
the
lure
of
America.
The
original
nomadic
Amerind
population
of
the
land
now
known
as
Canada
were
immigrants
who
crossed
the
Bering
Sea
on
a
land
bridge
from
Asia-a
continent
from
which
immigration
is
now severely
limited.
The
descendants
of
these
North Ameri-
can
Indians
and
Eskimos
now comprise
about
one
per
cent
of
the
Canadian population.
The
remainder
can
be divided
roughly
as
follows:
British immigrants and
their
descendants
49%;
French
immigrants
and
their
descendants
31%;
other
European
immigrants
and
their
descendants
18%;
other
Asiatic
immigrants
and
their
descendants
1%.
II
An
immigrant
may
be defined
as a
person
who
changes
his
place
of
residence
from
one
country
to
another,
entering
the
latter
with the
intention
of
establishing
himself
permanently
therein.
Accepting
this
definition,
the
first known
trans-Atlantic
immi-
grants
to
Canada
were
the
French
apothecary
Louis
Hdbert, his
wife,
son,
and
two
daughters,
who
arrived
at
the frontier
village
of
Quebec
in
the
summer
of
1617.
Their
arrival
was
viewed
with
dubious
eyes,
if not
with
active
hostility,
by
representatives
of
state,
church,
and
commercial
enterprise. It
was
the
generally
accepted
official
view
that
neither
military
conquest,
the
con-
'This
article
is
based upon
and
is
for
the
most
part
identical
with
an address
delivered
at
the University
of
British
Columbia
on
April
5,
1948,
under
the
terms
of
a
Lectureship provided
by
the
Canadian
Club
of Vancouver.
222
Canadian
Immigration
Policy
version
of
the Indians,
nor
the
expansion
of
the
fur
trade
would
be
promoted
by an
influx
of
permanent
settlers
who
at
best
would
get
in
the
way,
and
at
worst
might
become
a
burdensome
liability.
Nevertheless
the
stubborn
H6bert
remained
and
others
followed,
gradually,
in
his
wake.
Four
years
after
his
arrival
one
of
his
daughters
married
a
man
bearing
the
name
Couillard,
thus
establishing
the
first
white
family
in
Canada.
Throughout
the
French
r6gime
the
movement
of
immigrants
was
consistently
slow.,
Neither the
climate,
the
accessible
natural
resources,
nor
official
policy was
such
as
to
stimulate
an
active
and
sustained
interest
in
New
France
as
a
land
for
permanent
abode.
The
Huguenots,
the
only
element
in
French
society
that
might
have
been
expected
to
contribute
large
numbers
of
immi-
grants
for
the
settlement
of
the
St.
Lawrence region, were under
interdict,
not
only
as
settlers,
but
for
most
of
the
period,
as
traders
also.
Thus
in
the
century
and
a
half
from
Louis
H6bert
to
the British
conquest
the
white population
grew
to
a
total
of
only
60,000.
It
is
interesting
to
speculate
as
to
whether
a
more
tolerant
policy
towards
the
Huguenots,
a
more
active programme
of
agricultural
development,
and
a
less
exclusive
concentration
on
the
fur
trade,
on
Indian
missions,
and
on
the
expansion
of
military
conquest
might
not
have
produced
different
results
in
the
North American
phase
of
the
Seven Years'
war.
When
the
British administration
opened
New
France
to
the
currents
of
world
trade
immediately
following
the
fall
of
Quebec,
there
was
a
brief
influx
of
eighteenth century European
carpet-
baggers
who
gave
a
considerable
impetus
to
the
commercial
life
of
the
colony.
These
were
followed
by
more
permanent settlers
from
Great
Britain,
and
after
the
end
of
the
American
Revolution
a
new and most
significant
element
joined
the
population
of
what
are
now
the
five
eastern
provinces
of
Canada.
The United
Empire Loyalists,
driven
out
of
the Thirteen
Colonies,
or
voluntarily departing
for
reasons
of
principle,
sentiment,
or
advantage,
almost
tripled
the
population
of
Nova
Scotia
and
Prince
Edward
Island,
added
ten thousand.
patriotic
exiles
to
the
seven
hundred inhabitants
of
New
Brunswick, and
set
down
twelve
thousand
men,
women,
and
children
in
the
almost
un-
inhabited
region
of
Upper
Canada. The
significance
of
this
move-
ment
in
the subsequent
development
of
Canadian
society
is
a
223

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT