Immigration to the West November 4 2010 Immigration

Immigration to the West November 4 2010

Immigration Lecture Outline 1. Federal Immigration Policy Phase 1: 1867 -1896 Phase 2: 1896 -1914 2. Race, Gender & Immigration 3. Female Immigrants & Emigration Workers 4. Conclusion

Canada as a Settler Society: A society “in which Europeans have settled, where their descendents have remained politically dominant over indigenous peoples, and where a heterogenous society has developed in class, ethnic and racial terms. ” Unsettling Settler Societies: Articulations of Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Class

Phase One: 1867 - 1896 - National Policy - Develop an agricultural settlement in the West: 1. Opened land up 2. Dominion Land Act (1872) 3. Block settlements John A Macdonald

Phase Two: 1896 -1914 • Mission: to populate the West with a specific type of person 1. Reorganized Dept. Of the Interior 2. Use the CPR & HBC’s land 3. Homesteading made easier 4. Advertised Canada in Europe Clifford Sifton

Selling Canada

Ethnic Distribution

Clifford Sifton’s ‘Peasants in Sheepskin Coats’

Immigrants refused admission to Canada

Race, Gender and Immigrants

Female Immigrants to the West

Imperialism & Female Immigrants Female Immigration – part of Imperial project: making and keeping Canada British Domestic servants & mothers of the new nation

Conclusions • Myth of Canadian immigration • Immigration policy: based on racist and gendered ideas