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Throughout much of its history, Canada has given its immigrants a very ambiguous welcome. While immigration was considered essential for national development, many Canadians worried about its cultural impact on society, doubted the immigrants’ loyalty to Canada, or viewed them as competitors in the labour market.

Before the First World War, the Canadian government regarded Britons, Americans and northern Europeans as “preferred” classes of immigrants. Colourful posters and booklets advertising the Canadian prairies as the “last best West” were distributed in the thousands in Britain, Holland, Sweden, Germany and the United States. But immigration from the “preferred” countries was insufficient to meet Canada’s growing need for skilled farmers and labourers, so the Canadian government turned to eastern and central Europe. Between 1890 and 1914, Canada saw the arrival of 170,000 Ukrainians as well as thousands of Germans, Poles, Finns, Jews, Hungarians and other Europeans. The majority of these immigrants took up farming in the West, but many found industrial employment in mining, logging, railway construction or manufacturing.

The “foreign” customs of eastern and southern Europeans made them a target for ethnic prejudice and stereotyping. Ukrainians and other Slavs were described as “sullen” and obstinate; Italians as “hot-tempered” and violent, while Jews had a reputation for “clannishness” and greed. Immigrant labourers were usually forced to perform the most arduous and lowest-paying jobs, often experiencing mistreatment and verbal abuse from their bosses. Many early 20th century Canadian intellectuals worried about the influx of “foreigners” into the country. In his famous Strangers Within Our Gates (1909), Rev. James S. Woodsworth viewed Canada’s growing ethnic diversity as an urgent problem that could only be resolved through proper assimilation and “Canadianization” of the newcomers.

The First World War raised the anti-immigrant sentiment to a new level. Nationals of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria were defined as “enemy aliens” required to register with the police and banned from leaving Canada. About 8,000 “enemy aliens” (primarily Ukrainians from Austria-Hungary) were placed in internment camps. The growth of labour unrest was also blamed on the “foreigners” prominent in Canadian socialist organizations. During the Red Scare of 1918-20, hundreds of eastern European immigrants were arrested and tried for so-called subversive activities. Some immigrant radicals were deported back to their home countries.

Immigrants from Asia suffered from the double burden of ethnic and racial discrimination. The majority of Canadians in the 19th and much of the 20th century saw the Chinese as a cultural menace. Chinese men were stereotyped as opium smokers and gamblers, while many Chinese women were accused of prostitution. Shunned by English-Canadian society, Chinese immigrants congregated in overcrowded Chinatowns, where they opened restaurants, laundries and grocery stores. Racist attitudes were especially widespread in British Columbia, which had the largest Chinese and Japanese communities in the country. In 1907, Vancouver’s Chinatown became the scene of a race riot that left many Chinese and Japanese businesses vandalized. Since 1885, the Canadian government tried to restrict Chinese immigration by imposing a head tax on every immigrant from China. The tax was raised several times until in 1903 it reached $500. In 1923, immigration from China was banned completely. Chinese Canadians were also subjected to an array of discriminatory laws and regulations. Until the late 1940s, the Chinese in British Columbia had no right to vote in federal or provincial elections, to hold liquor licences, own pharmacies, practise law or sit on juries.

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