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POST‐WAR IMMIGRATION PATTERNS
Immigration, the movement of people from one country to another, played the most
significant role in the development of Canada; emerge as a “middle power” after World War II.
Canada was a place where people did not want to come during the “bloody” years, because of
conscription, racial discrimination, and lack of industrial employment. But when the war ended in
1945, Canada started progressing, economically, and this suddenly opened doors to many
immigrants. The immigration of Canada vastly differed in the post‐war era which, economically and
demographically, impacted Canada because “The Universal Points System” was introduced,
immigrants from “non‐white” countries were accepted, while immigration decreased from Europe,
and skilled labors were needed and accepted.
Prior to the war, Europe was one of the most beautiful, and awe‐aspiring places. Then,
World War II struck, the second major war in less than 20 years, which affected many European
nations and killed millions of people. During the mid‐1920s and 1930s, with the introduction of the
“Universal Points System” many people immigrated to Europe, to explore a new land of freedom
and to find a new way of life. Canada, prior to the war, was the home to mainly British and French
immigrants. But after the war ended, Europe transformed into a wasteland, the major battles were
fought there and there was, in 1945, nothing left in Europe to prosper. After the war, Canada was
driven by post‐war economic boom, growing job market and a resulting demand for labor.
Immigration continued from Britain and France but now people from Italy, Switzerland,
Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, southern Italy and Germany, came to Canada. Ukrainian‐
Canadians account for the largest Ukrainian population outside of Ukraine and Russia. Most settled
in urban cities like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver (Ukrainians.ca, Par: 9). By the late 1960s,
Europe was able to stand on its feet, by accepting loans to rebuild its economy. As a result, Canada,
in the 1960s placed more emphasis on educational and occupational skills as criteria for selecting
immigrants, though sponsored immigrants under family unification and refugee status remained
important components of immigration. The Immigration Act of 1978 was introduced by the
Parliament which promoted family reunion, upheld humanitarian values, and encouraged economic
growth in Canada (Borjas, 254). It recognized three classes of immigrants: individuals, family and
refugee. The individual class was for people who applied for immigration through the point system.
Family class was for close relatives of people who were residents of Canada. And the refugee class
applied to people who were displaced from their hometown and feared the threat of another war.
Although, European immigration to Canada made up majority of the immigrants in Canada, in the
post‐war period, their importance, in terms of the proportion of the total immigrants, declined after
1967 due to the Point System under which, each applicant was awarded points for criteria such as
age, education, ability to speak English or French and demand for that particular applicant's job
skills (The Canadian Encyclopedia, Par: 6). If an applicant scored enough points they would be
granted admission together with their spouse and children. Those who did not score enough points
were denied admission. In the post‐war years from 1946 to 1953, Canada admitted less than 1
million immigrants into Canada, about 96 percent of whom came from Europe; British immigrants
alone accounted for 35 percent of the immigrants (Department of Justice, Par: 5). Immediate post
war effects forced many Europeans to flee to Canada, but when conditions improved, the
immigration numbers declined as a result of economic prosperity and high employment
opportunities in Europe. In order to fill up the need of immigrants in Canada, the government used
the Universal Points System which allowed people to come to Canada based on pre‐defined criteria.
This trend dramatically increased the number of immigrants coming to Canada from other
countries, which prior to the war, was only from Europe, to fill the growing need of jobs and
“different” people in Canada.
Visible minorities had started being allowed to come to Canada, and be somewhat accepted
different people but the “white” people of Canada did not accept them. The reason being, that they
had a different skin color, different cultural beliefs and heritage, which is why those immigrants
faced discrimination. These people were made to do hard labor, work under horrible conditions,
and moreover, did not get their natural rights. Most racial discrimination was evident mainly in the
pre‐war era. During the time of tension between the United States and Japan, natives of Japan living
in Canada, who had sworn to have no ties with Japan, were considered Enemy Aliens; they faced
extreme hatred and suspicion which led to sending many Japanese – Canadians to internment
camps. This obviously changed in the post‐war years, and Japanese were more widely accepted;
this was a result of rapid change in cultural belief and modernization which had hit Canada. In
1945, Canadian immigration rules underwent dramatic changes to have a more diverse society.
Many immigrants sacrificed everything in the post‐war era and refused to assume second‐class
status in the country they had helped to protect. Supported by like‐minded Canadians, they rejected
ethnic and racial discrimination in Canada and demanded human rights reform. They forced
governments to legislate against discrimination on account of race, religion and origin in areas like
employment, accommodation and education (The Canadian Encyclopedia, Par: 3).The federal
government decided to eliminate racial, religious or ethnic barriers to Canadian immigration. This
opened Canada's doors to many of those who would previously have been rejected. Canada
admitted thousands of displaced persons, individuals made homeless by the war or who, at war's
end, found themselves outside of their country of citizenship. Among the displaced persons were
Jewish Holocaust survivors who resettled in Canada. These survivors of war had nothing of their
own; they had been stripped off their properties, families and above all, their natural rights of being
human. This way, Canada had the opportunity to increase its population which in turn would help
its economy. In 1986, members of visible minorities made up 6.3 percent of Canada’s population
(Department of Justice, Par: 6). Refugees, another form of immigrants, fled their home countries
due to fear of war. This form of immigration was vaguely evident in the pre‐war years but mostly
evident during the war and after the war. Since 1980, Canada has accepted more than 130,000
refugees. In Canada, where once displaced people with different ethnicities were not welcomed,
were now allowed after the war ended to help Canada prosper which resulted in the need for more
jobs that needed skilled immigrants.
Unlike the mass immigration of the pre‐war era, this post‐war immigration was not
streamed exclusively towards agricultural or rural‐based resource extracting industries such as
mining or lumbering (The Canadian Encyclopedia‐Historica, Par: 25). Canada emerged from World
War II as an urban, industrial power, and many post‐war immigrants soon filled jobs in the new
urban‐based manufacturing and construction sectors, some building the expanding city
infrastructure and others, the better educated immigrants, meeting the strong demand for trained
and skilled professionals. An explosion in consumer spending on everything from houses,
automobiles, and appliances to education, leisure, and travel, began the economic growth of the
"Land of Promises". The problem was a shortage of goods not money and, of labor not jobs. With
the Point System now in place by the late 1960s, Canada was able to accept a wider range of more
people of various ethnic backgrounds, and skill level. After the war, industries sprang up that
needed those skilled labors from countries than Europe. This period was known as the "Economic
Boom" for Canada, where there were more people buying Canadian goods and paying taxes to the
government. Most working immigrants came under the points system that favored people who had
superior skills or resources. The 1967 immigration regulations was Canada's attempt to compete
for skilled labor around the world, as Canada placed more emphasis on human capital as the basis
of immigrant selection. For the eighteen year period between 1968 and 1986, Canada experienced
a net gain of 16,349 immigrants in professional, technical, managerial and entrepreneurial
occupations (Juteau, 126). One of the greatest contributors of workers during the post war
immigration were the Italians. Canadian census figures suggest that there were 150,000 Italian‐
Canadians in 1951 and this jumped to 450,000 in 1961 (Alberta Online Encyclopedia, Par: 2). They
worked on the railways, road construction, mines and factories but also went directly to cities and
moved into retail. They imported pasta, cheese, and other Mediterranean delicacies which became
popular in Toronto stores (Alberta Online Encyclopedia, par: 2). Many skilled trades’ people left
Britain to find work because their factories had either suffered heavy war damage or had been shut
down when war production stopped. Due to the emerging industries and jobs for more people and
not just “white” people, Canada was now able to accept more skilled professional immigrants from
not just Europe but around the world, which positively impacted Canada’s economic status in the
world.
Post‐war immigration patterns to Canada were vastly different than previous waves of
immigration that had a great impact on Canada. Due to the decline in European immigration and
introduction of the Points System, acceptance of visible minorities and, the economic boom Canada
experienced, led many excited people from around the world to immigrate to Canada and venture
in a new world and gain betterment for their families. All these factors contributed to the growing
population of Canada, and impacted largely on the economy of Canada as well as Canadian
industries. By the significant contributions of the immigrants of the 1950s and 1960s, Canada has
become one of the most multicultural and diverse countries in the world, with people coming from
all over the world in helping build a nation – diverse in its own way.