Although immigration was necessary for economic
development in Canada, until the end of the 19th century,
comparatively few "foreign" immigrants had come to Canadian
shores, and Canada's population was largely composed of
British, French, and Aboriginal groups. Between 1896 and
1914, the status quo underwent a drastic shift as 3,000,000
people immigrated to Canada. Between 1901 and 1911,
the country's population increased by 43 percent. To Canada's largely
Anglo-Saxon cultural elite—its leaders, teachers and
intellectuals—the fact that many of these migrants were
non-British was an unwelcome surprise. Conversely, French
Canadians felt threatened by the influx of British settlers
and their elitist attitudes.
The British cultural elite was highly motivated to ensure
that the "right kind" of immigrants helped populate the
country. In fact, throughout the first half of the 20th
century, "improving the race" and fears of "race suicide"
were common themes in discourse, and immigrants became
scapegoats for all the social ills faced by the young
nation. Poverty, crime, alcoholism, drug abuse,
prostitution, mental and sexual disease, labour unrest—all
these and a host of other social ills were blamed upon
"inferior" or "immoral" immigrants. The
elite felt that for the good of the
nation, steps had to be taken to control immigration.
Canada's future greatness was dependent upon maintaining
its Anglo-Saxon heritage and culture, in the eyes of those
who took for granted the evolutionary superiority of the
British race and culture—derived from the theory of Social
Darwinism. Thus, immigrants who were easiest to assimilate
into the dominant culture were most welcome. As a result,
British and American immigrants were the most welcome,
followed by Northern and Western Europeans, Central and
Eastern Europeans, followed by Jews and Southern Europeans.
The extent to which the dominant culture had been
assimilated was of particular importance with the outbreak
of the First World War, when cultural and linguistic
assimilation were assumed to be synonymous with loyalty.
Pacifist religious sects such as the German Hutterites
and Mennonites and Russian Doukhobors were less welcome than
the average countryman. These groups formed their own
tightly-knit communities rather than assimilating, competed
economically, and when war broke out, were viewed with
suspicion because of their pacifism.
Blacks
and Asians were also considered "less desirable." Their
visibly different appearance prevented them from being fully
assimilated, and they were categorized via Social Darwinism,
as being the least evolved members of the human species. This pseudo-scientific application of
Darwin's evolutionary theory received support from the
introduction of intelligence tests—which, as a product of
the dominant Anglo-bourgeois culture, reflected the values,
education, and experiences of the cultural elite.
Rather than being an accurate reflection of intelligence,
IQ tests confused familiarity with the norms of the dominant
culture with mental ability. Consequently, IQ tests merely
reinforced Canada's hierarchy of desirable immigrant groups,
and bolstered imperialist and racist sentiments.
The threat felt by the Canadian establishment as a result
of the influx of immigrants can be seen in the ethnic
stereotypes common in Canada at the turn of the century:
- Central, Eastern and Southern Europeans and Asians,
were stereotyped as poor, illiterate, diseased, prone to
"mental deficiency," alcoholism, violence, and crime
- Chinese were stereotyped for using and selling drugs,
gambling and seducing white women—stereotypes that Emily
Murphy addressed, and, to some extent debunked
- Anti-Semitism was also widespread, because the Jews did not
fit the Canadian elite's concept of what a Canadian should
be. Canada's cultural elite desired farmers and homesteaders
to settle the land and they viewed Jews as city people. As a
result, Canada closed its borders to Jewish people just
prior to the Second World War, when many of them sought
refuge in other countries as they tried to flee Nazi
Germany.
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