1914-1945: Overview / War Years / Interwar Years / World War II / Changing Attitudes

Interwar Years

Interwar Legislation

The Second Wave

Exclusion

Despite immigration promotion in the British Isles, the Canadian government could not induce large numbers of British farm workers to emigrate. Rather, the numbers of English, Scottish, and Irish immigrants to Canada declined during the 1920s. The on-going need in industry and business for cheap labour became so acute by the mid-1920s, when the Canadian economy began to show signs of recovery, that a new policy was required. The government created a work permit system for the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National (assembled between 1919-1923 from the Canadian Northern, Grand Trunk,

Grand Trunk Pacific, and the Intercolonial railways) in 1924 that brought 6,700 farm labourers to Canada from "non-preferred" countries. The second wave of immigration began to arrive the next year, when the 1925 Railways Agreement with the Federal government gave these national companies permission to recruit and transport workers to Canada as required. The government extended the entry permit system to other Canadian businesses, to enable them to arrange permits for workers from abroad.

Interwar Legislation

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