Perspective: Nativism

In British Columbia, the backlash against some immigrant groups prompted new restrictive legislation. In West Coast communities, fears among Anglo-Canadians that Japanese immigrants would take jobs from whites and overwhelm the British presence made immigration restriction a popular political issue. In 1907, an unusually large number of Japanese migrant workers arrived by boats, mainly from the Hawaiian Islands, prompting a tide of anti-Asian sentiment. With some 8,000

Japanese immigrating that year, trade unions organized an Anti-Asian demonstration that turned into a riot in the Chinatown and Japanese sections of Vancouver. In response, the federal and Japanese governments struck the Lemieux-Hayashi "Gentlemen's Agreement" of 1908. The Japanese government promised to limit passports to male labourers and domestic servants to Canada to 400 a year.

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