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1867-1914: Background / Fitful Growth / Changing Conditions / First Wave / Laurier Boom
First Wave
Immigrants themselves coped in their new land as best as they could. Among the new Finnish immigrants at the turn of the century were two spinsters who placed an advertisement in a Finnish newspaper in British Columbia. They described themselves as "happy maidens who would like eternal guides to their life here on the Canadian shores…. We are not too tall and not too short, eleven feet all total and eighty-seven years…. Letters from all are welcome." 7
As a number of diverse, ethnic streams converged upon Canada in this "first wave," the immigrants reinforced existing, or established new, chains of immigration. For instance, peasant farmers from Hungary arrived, many via the United States, and joined the other newcomers searching for land.
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National Archives of Canada (PA-139302, photo by Allison Studio). |
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First Hungarian Sick Benefit Society, Lethbridge, AB, n.d. Chain migration -- wherein the initial wave of immigrants encouraged friends and relatives from the home country to join them in their new settlements -- contributed to the numbers of Hungarians and other European groups who immigrated to Canada around the turn of the century. These immigrant groups also often established aid and benevolent organizations to assist other newcomers. |
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