Reader\'s Digest Canada - 05.2020

canada’s immigration system is a

complicated set of ever-changing rules

that are difficult to understand unless

you spend your life studying them. But

immigration isn’t about an objective set

of rules that have dropped from the sky

for our collective benefit. Immigration

laws did not apply to white settlers

who colonized this land. Only after they

claimed their place here did they decide

they needed an entry system that strictly

favoured their kin. And while the rules

continue to shift, the value of white

immigrants over all others has not. In

fact, when white people have needed

to flee to Canada, rules have been

changed or simply not applied.

The Canadian government can’t tell

us exactly how many Americans came

to Canada between 1965 and 1975 to

escape being drafted into the U.S. mil-

itary to serve in the Vietnam War—it

just didn’t count. The government’s

estimates put the number as high as

40,000. We had immigration laws back

then, of course, but the government

decided to make an exception for the

mostly white people who wanted to

resettle in Canada. A migration also

happened in the opposite direction, as

tens of thousands of Canadian citizens

moved to the U.S. to enlist with the

U.S. military and join the war. The Can-

adian Vietnam Veterans Association

estimates that about 20,000 Canadians

enlisted in the U.S.; some historians

put the number closer to 40,000. This

unregulated flow of mostly white men

between Canada and the U.S. stands in

sharp contrast to the strictly regulated

flow of racialized people across the

same border over the last half-century.

The mass arrival of Black people in

Canada has historically been marked by

the strictest regulation our government

can design, and the welcome often

doesn’t last. The general idea is that

Black people are lucky to be here and

should be grateful for whatever labour

and living conditions we are offered.

Black people seeking opportunity in

Canada have often already been dis-

placed by colonial forces—we can’t

escape colonialism just by leaving one

plundered territory for another.

In 1955, Canada launched a pro-

gram it called the West Indian Domes-

tic Scheme to bring Black women from

the Caribbean to provide cheap house-

hold labour. At this time, the United

BLACK WOMEN MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR WHITE

WOMEN IN POSTWAR CANADA TO IMPROVE

THEIR SKILLS AND JOIN THE WORKFORCE.

reader’s digest

96 may 2020