On April 10th of 1978, the Immigration Act was passed by Pierre Trudeau of the Liberal Government of Canada. This piece of legislation had three main objectives. It promoted the reunification of families that had been separated by immigration, accepted persecuted people for humanitarian value to the nation, and strengthened a currently strong and viable economy in Canada. The Immigration Act of 1978 outlined three distinguishable classes of immigrants: Independent, Family, and Refugee. In order to be accepted, the Independent Class had to satisfy a new Point System, which enabled immigrants to score marks from each category: Education, Skill, Language, and Resources. The Family Class was mainly for immigrants with close relatives who were already living in Canada as a citizen or as a permanent resident. This unprecedented act primarily allowed a humanitarian category for refugees. The Immigration Act of 1978 impacted Canada as it permitted the nations to strengthen its economy and population, provided ethnic composition of population, and fulfilled Canada’s obligation to refugees.
The Immigration Act of 1978 had a ground-breaking effect on the society and economy of Canada. This act impacted the size and the composition of the population. The yearly population increased from 22,809,000 in 1974 to 29,303,000 in 1995.This reinforced the pre-existing trend for the rural population to relocate to the cities, where the industrial bloom brought abundant employment opportunities. Witnessed by past censuses, the new immigrants to Canada began with wages equivalent to about 80% of the wage of native citizens. However, within a 10 to 20 year period, the average wages of the newly arrived immigrant reached or went beyond the average wa...
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...slation, such as the Boat People. The Immigration Act of 1978 has impacted Canada greatly in a positive manner.
Works Cited
“Immigration Policy in Canada: History. Administration and Debates l Mapleleafweb.com.” http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/immigration-policy-canada-history-administration-and-debates (accessed December 29, 2011).
Ninette Kelley and M. J. Trebicock, The Making of the Mosaic: a history of Canadian immigration policy. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1998).
“ Immigration Policy in Canada: History. Administration and Debates l Mapleleafweb.com.” http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/immigration-policy-canada-history-administration-and-debates (accessed December 29, 2011).
McDonald, Ted, In Canadian immigration: economic evidence for a dynamic policy environment. (Montréal, Quebec: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010), 128-134.
Historically, Canada has held a world renowned reputation as nation with a magnanimous ideological approach to providing asylum to those individuals subjected to marginalization and persecution in their homeland – regardless of their nation of origin (Ismaili, 2011, p.89 & 92). Indeed, providing sanctuary to refugees who would otherwise experience significant hardships ranging from blatant discrimination and racism to torture and genocide, has very much become an institutionalized aspect of Canadian society. However, recent changes to Canada’s immigration policy delineated in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and Bill C-31 may have perhaps put this ideology in peril (Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, 2001).
The purpose of this letter is to promote Sir Clifford Sifton for the wall of fame and as being one of the significant Canadians ever. No one has changed western Canada’s history like this man. Canadian immigration policy in the first decade of the century is associated with no one individual more than Clifford Sifton.
The development and implementation of John A. Macdonald’s National Policy was able to accomplish it’s three main goals: completion of the Canada Pacific Railway, the increase in tariffs and import duty to protect resources and industrial interest, as well as expanding immigration to the West of Canada. However, this period of success was also met with many disadvantages as well. The policy put forth for western immigration was discriminatory to francophone Canadians, causing massive emigration to the United States. In addition, the only areas to benefit from the National Policy were the heartland areas from Windsor to Montreal, causing regional innequality in Western Canada and the maritime provinces.
Canada’s immigration policy has got fairer from the middle of the century on to the end of the century. At the start of the century, Canada’s immigration policy, Canada’s immigration policy wasn’t fair but as the century comes to an end, Canada’s immigration policy became entirely different. There were a lot of racism in the first half of the century but most of this racism in the immigration policy disappeared from 1967 and on. As the years go by, Canada’s immigration policy gets a lot reasonable.
Parr, J. (1994). Labouring children: British immigrant apprentices to Canada, 1869-1924. (pp. 11-141). Toronto, PQ: University of Toronto Press.
On June 6, 1919, after over a month of striking in Winnipeg, the federal government amended the Immigration Act “[allowing] officials to deport any alien or Canadian citizen not born in Canada for advocating the overthrow of the government by force.”1 Canada, as a democratic country, was/is based upon the idea of allowing the people to influence the decisions that impact their own lives2. However, the government’s eventual decision to deport strikers and strike leaders displayed a lack of adherence and respect for the democratic system. The government contradicted itself as a democracy by ignoring the people instead of intervening to reach a peaceful and fair solution. The government overturned the political freedom3 it was meant to promote and foster by threatening to deport anyone who opposed the status quo. Looking at the amendment carefully will reveal that the changes to the Immigration Act only allowed the deportation of ‘aliens’ and immigrant citizens, but not ‘true Canadians’. This particular change in the Immigration Act displayed bias towards foreigners. Although not on the government’s mind, this was extremely...
Stevenson, Garth. "Canadian Federalism: The Myth of the Status Quo." Reinventing Canada: Politics of the 21st Century. Ed. M. Janine Brodie and Linda Trimble. Toronto: Prentice Hall, 2003. 204-14. Print.
Newman, Garfield et al. Canada A Nation Unfolding. Toronto: Mc Graw – Hill Ryerson Limited, 2000.
Robert, Jean-Claude, Dr. "Immigration Acts (1866 - 2001)." Canada in the Making. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2013. .
Thompson, John Herd, and Mark Paul Richard. "Canadian History in North American Context." In Canadian studies in the new millennium. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. 37-64.
Ngai, Mae M., and Jon Gjerde. "Refugee Act of 1980." Major Problems in American Immigration History: Documents and Essays. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2013. 525-526. Print.
Canada has continuously served as a home to immigrants and refugees from decade to decade harbouring people from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The first set of immigrants to settle in the country came from Britain, the United States and from other nationalities mostly including immigrants from Europe who were either desperate to escape from religious or political turmoil or were simply attracted to Canada’s economic promise. Soon after the Canadian confederation in 1867, immigrants from Irish and Chinese backgrounds who occupied most of the country were used as workers and the demand for labourers to develop the country increased rapidly as more Chinese descents were imported to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Although, Canada opened its doors to immigrants, but the country also intended to gain human resources for work in the farms, in the forests, factories and mines but not everyone was equally welcomed in Canada.
Every year, over 250,000 people make Canada their new home. Attracted by its education system, economy and universal healthcare system, there are few other places in the world like it. All Canadians are guaranteed equality before the law and equality of opportunity, regardless of where they are from. However, some might argue that Canadian policy has not been put into practice as well as it should be. Is the concept of true equality a far-fetched idea? It seems that Canada has taken great measures to promote the integration of immigrants socially, but can the same be said for their integration economically? Politically? To judge whether or not Canada has been successful at promoting the integration of immigrants in these realms, a deeper understanding of Canadian policy must be considered.
The Canadian Constitution, is the supreme law of the land, has evolved countless of times throughout history. Within this paper, I will focus on two vital dates: The Constitution Act of 1867 and 1982. Canada’s Constitution Act is made up of written laws (statutes), conventions and Canadian court decisions (Mcconnell, W. H. 2015). The Constitution Act of 1867, was formerly known as the British North American Act (NBA), together with amendments made to it since enacted, became the Constitution Act of 1982. Immigration is one of the few areas covered in the Constitution that gives both federal legislators and provincial legislators to enact laws.
Makarenko, Jay. "Immigration Policy in Canada: History, Administration and Debates | Mapleleafweb.com." Immigration Policy in Canada: History, Administration and Debates | Mapleleafweb.com. 12 Aug. 2010. Maple Leaf Web. 17 Dec. 2013 .