Post on 31-Mar-2015
HISTORY OF SOUTH ASIAN IMMIGRANTS IN CANADA
By Jason Vaz
1900: THE FIRST RECORDED ENTRY OF SOUTH ASIANS
(SA) INTO CANADA .
1900: DESCRIPTION
Upper middleclass farming families sent a capable member to Canada
to alleviate heavy monetary debts owed to dishonest landowners in the
state of Punjab. At this time, British Columbian farmers were looking
for man-power to till acres of unused yet farmable soil, and they
advertised Canada as the land of opportunity. In response, 5000 SA
Sikh farmers arrived over a period of 7 years. Since the dominion
government imposed a $500 charge on any Chinese that wished to
enter Canada, most BC farmers looked for SA and Japanese help.
1907: THE BRITISH COLUMBIA RACE RIOTS
1907: DESCRIPTION
were a reaction to the tension of (1) escalating unemployment of indigenous
farmers, which would eventually lead to depression the following year, and (2)
increasing arrivals of the SA “menace” to BC in search of work. The British-
Canadian Government, in reaction to these riots imposed strictures
unreasonable restrictions on SA immigrants, which forced many of them to flee
back to India. The British Government tried to send the remaining 1,100 SA
immigrants to British-Honduras from where most of them returned due to
inhabitable conditions. In British Columbia, the returning SAs were allowed to
stay but were not permitted to bring their families from India to live with them.
1 9 1 9 : T H E G OV E R N M E N T A L L O W S S A I M M I G R A N T S T O B R I N G T H E I R
FA M I L I E S T O C A N A D A .
1919: DESCRIPTION
The Government allowed “legal SA residents” to
bring their wives and dependent children to Canada.
The illegal SA residents were those that entered the
country between 1908 and 1918 like the the SAs on
board Komagata Maru in 1914.
1947 : VOTIN G R IGHTS A R E AWA R D E D TO S A S BY THE B C GOV E R N M E N T .
This was brought about by the combined
lobbying of local SAs and provincial officials.
The Government agreed because it could no
longer hold on to prejudicial restrictions and
justify it after the Second World War.
1 9 6 7 : R A C E , E T H N I C I T Y A N D N A T I O N A L I T Y D I S R E G A R D E D B Y C A N A D I A N G O V E R N M E N T I N
I M M I G R A N T S E L E C T I O N
1967: DESCRIPTION
- Recognizing the economic benefits of immigrants
and the growing need to strengthen the Canada’s
economy and man-power, immigrants were now
selected on economic criteria and skill type/ level.
IMAGE SOURCES
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/SSEAL/echoes/toc.html
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.fr
w.ca/albums/TRCA/TRCA_and_FRW_staff_join_Cou
ncillor_Cho_at_Multicultural_Project_Site_in_Morni
ngsideTributary.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.frw.ca/r
ouge.php%3FID%3D124&usg=__MMyq8gMXw_JH
nxyFa7ezkkA1cpc=&h=360&w=480&sz=31&hl=e
n&start=28&zoom=1&tbnid=YfTPCFoV70UarM:&
tbnh=150&tbnw=258&ei=kaE4TfbaB5KGhQeStdX
OCg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmulticultural%2Btor
onto%2Bcanada%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw
%3D1639%26bih%3D800%26tbs%3Disch:10,600&
um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=360&vpy=226&dur
=306&hovh=192&hovw=258&tx=223&ty=110&o
ei=h6E4TbbDCsvPgAfix9CxCA&esq=2&page=2&n
dsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:28&biw=1639&bih=800