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No Refuge
by Paul Stortz, University of Calgary
During the 1930s and into the 1940s, the Canadian government restricted immigration. The 1920s had witnessed a period of rising opposition to immigration from various social, political and labour groups, all of whom wanted to protect social and economic stability. The Depression of the 1930s put the country under considerable economic strain, magnifying the belief held by many Canadians that immigration was hurting their own financial prospects. As well, there was a growing perception that radical political movements such as communism, and later fascism, were being imported from Europe. Although only small and vocal pockets of people supported these movements, many Canadians became more antagonistic towards foreigners and immigrants in general. As a result, starting with a 1931 order-in-council, the federal government of R.B. Bennett, and later that of William Lyon Mackenzie King, severely restricted the arrival of immigrants, unless they were of British or American background.
A rise in political radicalism in the early 1930s and the fact that about one-quarter of the entire labour force was out of work meant that the vast majority of naturalization applications were refused. In 1936, the Department of Immigration became a sub-agency of the Department of Mines and Resources. This indicated that immigration had become a low federal government priority -- almost a backroom portfolio -- to be supervised by an agency more interested in economic development than in humanitarian concerns.
Clearly, among the groups of people who suffered the most from Canada's immigration policy during this time were the European Jews. Hitler's rise to power during the 1930s led to an increasingly dire refugee crisis. After 1938, as Jewish immigrants and their families began applying in ever larger numbers for safe haven in Canada, they found their pleas largely ignored by the government. The prime minister, along with his autocratic director of immigration, F.C. Blair, argued for a complete ban on Jewish immigration, citing a need for social and economic stability, as well as for political caution.
The real reasons behind such discriminatory policies may have included a desire to placate voters who had become wary of foreign people and ideas. As well, the government may have been genuinely ignorant of the extent to which Jews were suffering from Hitler's policies. That said, however, the government's lack of multicultural awareness, and particularly its discomfort with the Jewish people, may well have been at the root of its anti-Semitic policies. Whatever the reasons, the Canadian government did not make an exception for Jews to enter Canada, even though the country's overall immigration levels during this period, stifled by restrictive policies, were at an all-time low. These restrictions on immigration were only gradually lifted after the end of the Second World War, in 1945.
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