Immigration Policy In Canada, 1867 To Present

Part 1: Overview

Immigration Policy in Canada

To start with this research report I am going to introduce the exact meaning of the term immigration policy. Immigration Policy is a Canadian Act written in the Constitution, which allows people from different countries in the world to come to Canada. These people have intentions to be loyal to this country and stay here for a short period of time (3 years) to earn their citizenship. In different countries policies depend, number 1) is on "isolationism" which means that people are not allowed to come from other countries of the world, and 2) "free immigration" which applies to Canada, people in general are allowed to come from different countries in the world. In Canada the immigration policy is integrated into "building the country". The future of Canada depends on the formation and laws being put to maintain that policy.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Immigration_policy&diff=40633651&oldid=36854025, Feb 21 2006, Charles M. Campbell, Feb 2000 pg 6).

The year 1869, was the year where "the first immigration policy" was written in the Canadian Legislation. This marked a huge step forward for our country to become more diverse, and open a wide variety of doors to millions of people who wanted to come to this country. From that time on millions of immigrants have come and gone in and out of this country for more than a century. Clifford Sifton was one of the first politicians to be "Minister of the Interior". He was very intelligent to promote people to come to the West Coast of Canada. Many of the people that came during this period were mostly from Eastern Europe. The only reason that "more than 3 million people" came to Canada from 1891-1914 was because Sifton had a desire to solve the economic problems of Canada during that time under Laurier. Also this period of history was the most important economic boom for Canada because new railways were being built, it was the time of the "gold rush", new mines were being built and the framing in the Prairies and the West Coast were on a rise. That is the only reason Sifton wanted to attract as many immigrants as possible to Canada. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Sifton 2006, http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0007388 2006, http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/general/immigration/history-immigration-legislation.html 2005).

In the history of Canada there have been many immigration policies that have changed throughtout the years. For example there had been a "Chinese Immigration Act" for many years during the early 1900s, where all the Chinese people had to pay a "Head Tax" which was a amount of money to get in the country. This tax incresed as years passed, and Chinese people struggled to come in the country because they were looking for jobs, and the "gold rush". Most of the Chinese people settled in the West Coast because of Canada using them to build the Pacific Railway. Meanwhile in 1906 the Immigration Act was reinforced

by Frank Oliver in purpose so immigrants such as ("prostitutes, persons judged insane or mentally ill, and epileptics") could not come to this country. Also in 1952 the immigration policy was renewed which provided the governement with powers to "descriminate and deport" people. In 1967 This same Act was renewed again to not allow descrimination anymore and the "point system" was formed for people to aplly for status in Canada. From that time on this act has only been changed a few times just so to make everything better for Canada and its immigration. This policy has been rened to fix issues for refugees and people from countries that make a small portion of the entire world. (http://www.web.net/~ccr/history.html, http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/general/immigration/history-immigration-legislation.html 2005)

Rhonda Parkinson states in one of her articles that immigration policies and its programs run by the government have been discriminative after Confederation and until a period of 1950's to middle 1960's where after these years the government reinforced a new immigration policy. Now the new policies are made for the benefit of Canada in its "society, culture, and economy". (http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/general/immigration/index.html, Rhonda Parkinson, 2005)

Douglas Baldwin says that the Canadian economy is dependent on the number of immigrants it accepts annually. At the start of Confederation in 1867, Canada had about 3 million people. By building into the immigration Act every 4 years Canada in the present day has reached a population of about 32 million people. Canada is a country which accepts immigrants from every different part of the world, and its status is dependent on them. Immigrants have helped this country during good and bad times. They have done a magnificent job in building this country into where it is now. Also the immigration policy has divided immigrants into three separate categories. They are: refugees, families, and others based on the point system. Refugees are the most which