Clifford Sifton and Chinese Immigration

Open-door Immigration Policy?

Clifford Sifton Overview In the years preceding his appointment many of those homesteading on the

prairies had been overwhelmed by the rigours of prairie life, and had packed up and moved to the United States. Sifton set out to reverse that trend.

Once American immigrants began to move into the west Sifton shifted the focus of the government’s immigration policy to eastern Europe.

Many Canadians were horrified by the influx of Poles, Russians and Ukrainians. One newspaper even referred to Sifton’s immigration policy as a round “of European Freaks and Hobboes.”

Despite this and other criticisms, the campaign was an outstanding success and the number of immigrants entering Canada rose from 16,835 in 1896 to 141,465 in 1905.

Sifton astounded the country with his abrupt resignation at the end of February 1905.

He had become convinced that the education clauses in the bills intended to establish the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan extended to Roman Catholics privileges beyond those which they then possessed under previous territorial governments.

When Laurier refused to compromise on the wording Sifton resigned.

Clifford Sifton

The Last Best West

In 1896, Sir Clifford Sifton became Canada‘s new minister responsible for immigration.

Sifton increased immigration by: embarking on an extensive promotional campaign, featuring the slogan

"Canada: The Last Best West." reorganizing the immigration department to give it more power in setting

immigration policy; increasing the number of immigration agents and support personnel

aboard; freeing up unused land owned by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC)

and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR);        offering "free" land to settlers.

The Last Best West

Results Sifton's new immigration policy eventually eliminated any threat of

American annexation in Canada's West. However, it would further marginalized French-speaking people in Québec, some of whom felt this policy was excluding them from settling on the Prairies.

Henri Bourassa, a Québec Member of Parliament, was particularly upset about this immigration policy and would speak out against it occasionally in the House of Commons.

Despite general attempts to get people to settle in rural areas in Canada's West, about 50 per cent of people actually settled in Canadian cities (including Winnipeg, Edmonton, Montréal and Toronto) where they took labour industry jobs. Another 30 per cent went to rural farms in the Prairies and the remaining 20 per cent or so took remote jobs in mines, lumber camps or on the railways.

The Birth of Alberta and Saskatchewan

Between 1897 and 1911, two million people came to Canada. By 1905, enough people were living in the Northwest Territories that the federal government decided to create two new provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

These provinces were given authority over denominational schools, which caused the resignation of Sir Clifford Sifton as Minister of Immigration.

Saskatchewan and Alberta

Chinese Tax In 1885, work on the railway was nearing completion.

Trade union workers and some politicians on the west coast wanted to get rid of these Chinese workers

Many white people in blue-collar positions feared that the Chinese would take away their means of employment and standard of living. They also believed that Chinese people were:

         less clean and more susceptible to diseases.         dishonest and immoral.        simply weren't suited to living in the harsh climate of Canada.

In the face of mounting public dissatisfaction, a Royal Commission was held by the federal government in 1885 to look into the effects of Chinese immigration.

Chinese Head Tax

Chinese Immigration Chinese immigrants were subject to a head tax, which required every Chinese

immigrant to pay a special $50 tax upon entering the country.

Although relatively few in number - there are only 23,000 Chinese people in Canada in 1900 - arrivals from Asian countries are resented by the white majority.

Originally, male Chinese labourers were allowed into Canada to work for low wages in British Columbia's gold mines and on the trans-Canada railroad.

Chinese workers will accept lower wages than white workers, and this causes resentment in the white population, especially when jobs are scarce.

In the lumber industry, Chinese workers are paid only between 25% and 50% of the wages paid to white labourers for the same work.

The populace generally perceives Chinese people to be immoral opium addicts.

The Chinese Head Tax      By 1903, the Chinese head tax was increased to $500 per

person to eliminate Chinese immigration.

This fee was roughly equivalent to two years worth of wages for a Chinese labourer living in Canada at the time.

However, some employers in the railway industry needed cheap labour, and were willing to pay this fee for adult men.

That meant that Chinese immigration wasn't eliminated altogether, but that Chinese women and children didn't get the opportunity to join their husbands and fathers.

This created a Chinese bachelor society in Canada.

Anti-Asian Vancouver Riot 1907

In September 1907, there was a serious riot against Asian businesses in downtown Vancouver that was started by members of the racist Asiatic Exclusion League.

A mob of about 9,000 white people riled up by the Asiatic Exclusion League descended upon Oriental businesses in downtown Vancouver, smashing windows and destroying signs. Later that year, a federal government inquiry was held to look at providing compensation to the Oriental community.

Rating the ImmigrantsEager to develop the West, Canadian immigration authorities rate immigrants according to their race, perceived hardiness and

farming ability: Most Wanted

EnglishFrench white American farmers

Acceptable Belgians

DutchScandinaviansSwissFinnsRussiansGermansAustro-HungariansUkrainiansPoles

Need Not Apply Italians

South SlavsGreeksSyriansJews BlacksAsiansGypsies

 

Further Restrictions

After 1905, when Frank Oliver succeeded Sir Clifford Sifton as Immigration Minister.

Oliver favoured immigrants to Canada's West from certain regions believed to have the settlers best suited to life on the Prairies. He tended to support the immigration of those who came from the following regions in this exact order of preference:

Nearby Canadian provinces Britain The United States Northwestern Europe

Frank Oliver

As a member of parliament, Oliver had said that settling the West was not "merely a question of filling that country with people who will produce wheat and buy manufactured goods" but also of "building up of a Canadian nationality so that our children may form one of the great civilized nations of the world." He worried that immigration could "deteriorate rather than elevate the conditions of our people."

Frank Oliver

Video

http://archives.cbc.ca/society/racism/topics/1433-9242/