IV: 1945-1967: Post-war Years: Policy(4)

1945-1967: Introduction / Post-war Years / 1952 Immigration Act / Policy Practise

Post-war Years: Policy to 1952

Reconstruction

Racial Discrimination

Policy to 1952

This policy enabled these families and communities to put down roots in Canada, and it marked a departure from previous polices that treated Chinese or Indian labourers as simply temporary residents. Continued restrictions against Chinese immigrants, however, likely prompted the illegal entry of immigrants and the misuse of Canada's sponsorship programs for assisting family members. The rising political uncertainties in China, particularly after the 1949 formation of the communist People's Republic of China, prompted numerous immigrants to evade, in desperation, the letter of existing regulations. In 1960, the RCMP arrested ringleaders of a Hong-Kong based operation that smuggled immigrants illegally to the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The Diefenbaker government in 1962 finally gave amnesty to illegal immigrants in the Chinese Adjustment Statement Program. Before the program was closed in 1973, about 12,000 immigrants took advantage of the amnesty offer. 10

National Archives of Canada (PA-124939, photo by Globe and Mail).

Chinese Women Learning English, Toronto, ON, 1959.

After 1947, the Canadian government lifted its ban on Chinese immigration. Between 1947 and 1962, thousands of legal and illegal Chinese immigrants (most of whom were later granted amnesty by the government of John Diefenbaker in 1962) entered the country.

1952 Immigration Act