Diversity In Canada

Words: 1491
Pages: 6
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Erica Ford
Mrs. Moen
English
June 21st, 2016
The Treatment of Canadian Immigrants Erica Ford
One out of five people in Canada's population is foreign-born. According to data from the 2011 NHS, “Canada had a total of about 6,775,800 foreign-born individuals who arrived as immigrants. They represented 20.6% of the total population, compared with 19.8% in the 2006 Census.” (Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity in Canada). Canada is a very diverse and multicultural country, but with their diversity has come a lot of judgement and conflict. Since the early days of immigration, Canadian immigrants have been treated in various ways that have damaged their culture and self-worth. Whether it was because of skin colour, spoken language, religious …show more content…
Many Japanese went to detention camps in the interior of British Columbia, and others even went further east. Their separation continued to the end of the war, when the Canadian government encouraged many to go back to Japan. That left only 4,000 left, more than half Canadian-born and two-thirds Canadian citizens. Immigration in Canada reached its lowest level of the century with only 7,576 immigrants to Canada. In 1945, directly after the war, immigration controls remained tight, but there was outcry for a more open immigration policy for those in Europe recovering from the war. It wasn’t until a year later in 1946 that resettlement began for European refugees and even then the door did not open for refugees without relatives in Canada until mid-1947. Selection of refugees was guided by economic considerations, ethnic prejudices, and political biases. Until the 1960s, Canada chose its immigrants selectively based on their race, religion, or sex rather than the person as an individual, as a human. Pierre Trudeau's government reformed the Immigration Act in 1976, which opened Canada's doors to the best and the brightest from the world over. Beginning in 1962, regulatory changes were introduced that rid Canada’s policy of the most racist points and in 1967, a points system was introduced and immigrants would be chosen …show more content…
The new act was made around three points/requirements of admission: “independent applicants [were] assessed on the basis of points awarded for employment skills, education, and language abilities rather national or "racial" origin; sponsorship by close family members; and refugee status” (Challinor). In 1987, Bill C-55 was accepted. The bill revised the refugee determination system, creating the Immigration and Refugee Board. It provided for refugees to be excluded from the process if they had passed through a "safe third country". In February 1995, the government imposed the Right of Landing Fee, widely known as the Head Tax. The fee of $975 applied to all adults, including refugees, becoming permanent residents. In February 2000, the government removed the Right of Landing Fee for refugees, but maintained it for immigrants. Now in 2016, there are less strict immigrant policies in place and there has been apologies toward the Chinese people and also those who in WWII were denied entrance to Canada. Immigrants are more widely accepted across Canada, but there still is and probably will always be animosity toward people coming from war-torn countries as well as refugees. Compared to their treatment in the past, Canada has taken major steps to accommodate all of the new citizens of Canada and improve their quality of
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