IV: 1867-1914: First Wave (3)

1867-1914: Background / Fitful Growth / Changing Conditions / First Wave / Laurier Boom

First Wave

Regional Differences

Emerson Hough, The Sowing (Winnipeg: Vanderhoof-Gunn, 1909).

Breadline, Toronto, ON, 1909.

Although large numbers of immigrants were well off relative to their compatriots who stayed in their homelands, many people came to Canada with few resources. Some of these newcomers also fell on hard times soon after they arrived.

Immigrants themselves were under enormous stress in a nation where few social services existed to help them if they were in financial distress. Although recent studies suggest that most immigrants had come from wealthier segments of their home populations, many arrived with few goods and little cash. Families sometimes broke up to pursue work opportunities in different areas of the country. Communities of earlier immigrants sometimes provided financial and social support to newcomers. The ethnic "enclaves" growing as distinctive districts within

many growing cities in Canada offered more familiar surroundings and, sometimes, a common language. But immigrants nevertheless faced hardship. Distances between family members and poor means of communication often stranded individuals in towns and cities. The federal government and church groups sometimes provided accommodations, and government agents distributed information and reduced prices on meals at the government immigration centres established in most major Canadian cities.