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1914-1945: Introduction / War Years / Interwar Years / World War II / Changing Attitudes
World War II
The start of the Second World War introduced a period of even more stringent immigration restriction; partly as a result, between 1938 and 1945, the majority of immigrants were British or American. Of the 100,000 immigrants who arrived in the eight years before 1945, most were the wives and children of Canadian residents. Few were refugees. Jews had throughout the 1920s, faced tighter restrictions when they attempted to enter Canada. They were similarly turned away when they desperately sought asylum in Canada from Nazi persecution in the 1930s. The nation demanded a comparatively massive capital requirement of Jewish immigrants ($20,000 by 1938). In 1940, an order in council prohibited entry of nationals of countries at war with Canada, ensuring that few German and Eastern European Jews could escape to Canada. Refugees who gained admittance were primarily from Britain: between 1939 and 1940, 4,500 children and 1,000 mothers from that country took residence in Canada during the German bombing Blitz of London and other British cities.
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Race Restrictions |
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National Archives of Canada (PA-142400, photo by Montreal Gazette). |
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Evacuee Children from Britain Arriving in Canada, Montreal, QC, 7 July 1940. During the Battle of Britain, which began in the late spring of 1940, the Luftwaffe -- the German air force -- began its bombing of major British cities, including London. The bombing campaign forced thousands of women and children to safe havens in the British countryside and abroad to countries such as Canada, which received thousands of evacuees. |
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Interwar Years