Discrimination In Canada

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Today, Canada is recognized as one of the most diverse and multicultural societies in the world that embraces liberal immigration. However, unbeknownst to many, Canadian immigration has a dark history of racism and discrimination. Canada practiced racist laws and restricted the immigration of minority groups. During the early twentieth century, Asiatic minorities were subject to severe racial discrimination in the Canadian society, notably the Chinese, the Japanese and the Indians. Between the years of 1914 to 1929, many of these immigrants settled in British Columbia, which consolidated itself as a “white man’s province” and strongly opposed to Asian immigration. They wanted to preserve their white homogeneity to the extent that the government imposed several discriminatory legislations to discourage Asians from residing and remaining in the province. Thus, Asian immigrants suffered great hardship as they were treated unfairly in the society and endured injustice for many years. At that time, Asians were a threat – the…show more content…
When the Japanese settled in Canada, most of them worked in the fishing industry as they worked as fishermen back in their homeland. Japanese men were recognized for their proficiency in fishing and were in great demand. By 1920, Japanese Canadians possessed almost half of British Columbia’s fishing licenses. However, their journey was not smooth sailing as local white fishermen worried about the Japanese dominating the industry and complained to the government prompting an anti-Japanese fishing policy. The government complied with the demands of the British Columbians and ultimately “stripped fishing licenses from about half the Japanese-Canadian fishermen working in coastal waters” by 1925 (Hickman & Fukawa, 2011, p. 35). This legislation jeopardized the lives of many fishermen and their families as they took away their main source of
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