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

Laurier Boom

Clifford Sifton

Economic Takeoff

Demography

Frank Oliver

In practice, Sifton was more apt to restrict immigration of the working and middle classes. The English middle classes faced reverse discrimination in immigration promotion, as did the urban poor. In Canada, trades councils and unionized labour argued that immigrants other than farmers took jobs from Canadians. Social scientists and "eugenicists" (who were concerned about preserving a robust and homogenous British race) also criticized pauper immigration. They were concerned that orphaned poor children from London's East End might introduce an "hereditary taint" to the Canadian population. 12 Canada's immigration policy then remained selective, although some of the criteria changed over time.

Such discriminatory policies seemed the more important given the changes that immigration was visibly making to the composition of populations in the West and in eastern urban areas. In 1901, those not of British origin constituted less than 15 per cent of the Canadian population. By 1931, they comprised 20 per cent of the population. Among immigrants, continental Europeans accounted for 18 per cent of newcomers in 1901, 24.5 per cent in 1921, 26.7 per cent in 1921-26, and 49.5 per cent in 1927 and 1928.

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