Perspective: Race Restrictions

Race considerations determined federal policies regarding Asian and East Indian migration. By 1923, the Chinese Immigration Act virtually stopped all Asian immigration. It required all people of Chinese descent to register with the Dominion government, prompting Chinese communities to mark the act's implementation by observing "Humiliation Day" on 1 July of that year. By 1924, immigration officials barred Black immigrants from entering

Canada on racial grounds; their race was deemed unsuited to Canada's climate.

The government granted few naturalization certificates to members of either of these groups in the 1920s. After 1923, it approved few, if any, naturalization certificates for Japanese and Chinese immigrants, even though they had fulfilled the government's five year residency and domicile requirements.

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