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

First Wave

They tended to be in their early twenties and from the same regions or towns. They left farming districts where industry had been slow in developing and where farm mechanization was leaving rural farm workers unemployed. Most of these newcomers had made advance arrangements with family and friends in Western Canada for lodging and employment. Their own arrival thereafter sustained secondary chains of immigration. The letters they sent home usually encouraged others to follow. As Paul Bődy points out in a

study of Hungarian-Canadian immigration, letters from Canada caused "considerable excitement" in a home village. A Hungarian described the arrival of one letter: "It is read aloud in a dignified manner to a large audience. The whole village learns of its contents. The money transmitted, photographs showing emigrants in new clothes, portrayals of American life have the effect of creating a general desire, particularly among less industrious and impoverished peasants, to travel to that miraculous land of promise." 8

Previous Page

Next Page