With
the recent increase in refugee claimants crossing unannounced into our country
from the U.S., Canada’s approach to refugees is once again being hotly debated.
While
there is a commonly held view amongst Canadians that we have been, and continue
to be, a very welcoming country when it comes to refugees and other immigrants,
the reality is that over the last 150 years nearly every large wave of
immigration has faced significant resistance. And, in pretty much every case,
the arguments against allowing in whichever group it is at the time have
largely been the same.
Our lack
of historical memory concerning our often-conflicted attitude toward
immigration prevents us from learning from the past and leads us to keep
repeating the same tired debate over and over again.
When a
boatload of desperate Tamils arrived off of Vancouver’s shores in 2010, the
Harper government declared it a national emergency, recalled parliament from
summer recess, passed new laws and argued that the 400 or so bedraggled people
posed a significant threat to our security.
Canada
had virtually the same reaction in 1939 when a boatload of Jews fleeing Nazi
persecution on the MS St. Louis tried unsuccessfully to land in Nova Scotia,
and in 1914 when the Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver waters carrying Sikhs.
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| Sikhs on-board the Komagata Maru |
Like many
Canadians, I have always been proud of the role that Canada played in providing
sanctuary to African Americans fleeing slavery via the Underground Railway.
However, at the time, many of our ancestors viewed the fleeing slaves as
“illegals” who, because they were not properly screened, represented a
potential security threat and integration challenge. Sound familiar?
Exactly
the same arguments are now being used against the few hundred poor souls that
are currently crossing our borders each month fleeing persecution in the hope
of finding a better life.
What is
interesting is that over the years, the reasons cited by those opposed to each
major wave of immigration and refugee resettlement have almost always been the
same. They have argued that immigration from this particular group should be
minimized because these people have a different culture, a different system of
values and beliefs; that they won’t be able to integrate; that they will be a
drag on our economic resources; that there are too many and as a result that
they will swamp our society and change our national identity. That they are a
security threat.
In the
early 1900s immigration from China was resisted since there was a fear that
numerically they would swamp us and that our security was threatened by the
Asian diseases they would bring with them.
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| Chinese labourers detraining camp, Petawawa, ON.Credit: Meredith, C.P./Library and Archives Canada |
From the
mid-1800s to the mid-1900s there was considerable hostility to Irish Catholic
immigration. For many, the Irish represented an undesirable cultural group
whose allegiance was more to Rome and the Catholic Church than to Canadian laws
and values.
Leading
up to and during the Second World War practically no Jewish refugees were
allowed into the country because, it was argued, they had different religious
and cultural beliefs and practices, which would make it hard for them to
integrate. And once again, the security concerns were raised — how could we be
sure that no German agents were hiding amongst the valid Jewish refugees, ready
to attack our country once they were resettled into Canada?
Given
that the same alarmist, anti-newcomer arguments have proven, in every case, to
be invalid over the last 150 years, perhaps it’s time that we acknowledge there
is nothing to fear from these waves of immigration. Instead, let’s recognize
that, as in the past, each new wave does in fact end up integrating into our
society and contributing to making this country the vital, culturally rich and
economically strong mosaic that it is.
Canadians
should have greater faith in the overarching strength and resilience of our
Canadian identity and the universal appeal of our values when concerns about
newcomer integration are raised. We have a wealth of historical experience to
show that this faith would be well-founded.
This opinion article by RRP chair Andrew FitzGerald was first published in the Toronto Star, May 16, 2017
