History of Canada’s Immigration

• 94% of all immigrants move to one of only four provinces (Ontario, B.C., Quebec, Alberta)

• Most immigrants settle in large cities (2/3 choose to live in either Toronto, Montreal, or Vancouver)WHY?...

Push Factors:

The reasons for leaving your own country

ie. high taxes, bad weather, loss of job

(refugees – persecution, war, famine, climate change)

Pull Factors:

The reasons for moving into a specific country

ie. What attracts you to that country (good job opportunities/ presence of family and friends)

Landed Immigrant

A Canadian immigrant with permanent resident status who is not yet a Canadian citizen

There are THREE classes of Landed Immigrant:

Class 1. Independent Immigrants

Two types:1. Skilled Worker

Needs 80 points in a point system (education / job training/ job offer/ age/ knowledge of either English or French)

2. Business Immigrant Needs 25 points, but must have lots of money to start or invest in business.

Class 2. Family Immigrants

• not assessed by point system• must be sponsored by the “host”

relative in Canada • allows reunification of families• “host” assumes financial responsibility

for family immigrant

Class 3. Refugees

• an individual who immigrates to a country because he/she fears persecution (or even death) in the home country

• this persecution must be due to reasons of race/ religion/ nationality/ political opinion etc.

Immigration Numbers

• Canada’s Populations = 32,000,000

• 1% per year are immigrants = 250,000

• 0.1% were refugees = 25,000 (10% of all immigrants)

Pier 21

Halifax, Nova Scotia

A ship docking at Pier 21, Halifax, 1957.

Rows of stiff wooden benches provide seating in an assembly hall for tired travellers as they anxiously wait for their names to be called.

• Immigration officer reviewing a family's documents, Immigration Examination Hall, Pier 21, 1952.

British war brides and their children on their journey to a new life in Canada, April 1946.

• New arrivals aboard the Argentina awaiting clearance in the Immigration Examination Hall, Pier 21, March 1952.