Migration in Canada Post 1920s

Rural/Urban Shift Canada had a fair bit of both migration and immigration going on during the early 1900s. In the 1920s Canada underwent a rural-urban shift. Lots of people moved from rural areas (the country) to urban areas (the city). This changed the landscape of our country dramatically.

The Changes Over the Years After 1921, Canada officially had a higher percentage of its population in urban areas than rural. In 100 years from Canada’s Urban population went from being 13% of the population to a whopping 62%. Currently we have over 80% of our population in Canada located in Urban areas.

Population Graph Census – The process of getting information about the entire population of a country. Census – The process of getting information about the entire population of a country.

Industrialization This lead to Canada having a great deal of industrialization as well. Canada began to have factories open in the cities which provided jobs and opportunities to its citizens. Many people wanted these jobs and decided to move from the hard life of farming to the city life. This also lead to Canada advancing on the global scale. A big factor in this was the assembly line. It was implemented by Henry Ford. Assembly line allowed people to specialize in producing one particular item.

Immigration and Racism There was also a lot of immigration in Canada during this time. In ,681 immigrants were admitted to Canada. There were racist laws which were put into place back in these times. There was a Chinese head tax which was set at $50 in 1885 and increased to $500 by The Canadian government collected a total of $18 million from Chinese immigrants between Yet British and American immigrants were completely free to enter our country.

Sifton and Immigration Clifford Sifton was the minister of the interior when Wilfred Laurier was prime minister. He encouraged massive amounts of immigration to Canada in order to populate western Canada. Sifton had a list of people from ethnic backgrounds who were not desired to be part of Canada which included Jewish people, black people, Asians, Syrians, and Italians. With the Chinese head tax; it was designed to eliminate Chinese immigration. Some Canadian employers were willing to pay the tax for adult Chinese men because they were viewed as cheap labour for building railways.

Global Impacts From ,000 Jewish immigrants arrived in Canada. Most of them were refugees from Russia. They were fleeing the horrible political issues going involving the Tsarist regime in 1917.

United States by Comparison The United States also had an immigration surge in the early 1900s. Between the United States had nine million immigrants. Most of which went through the Ellis Island center in New York. They were asked 29 probing questions which included; do you have a job? Family in United States? Do you have Money? Are you an anarchist? Commonly immigrants were only detained for 3-4 hours and then released to do as they pleased following a medical examination.

More Comparing to our Southern Neighbours Life was more difficult for those who were arriving without any family located in United States They would usually have to live in public housing neighbourhoods populated by their fellow countrymen. These places were overcrowded and unsanitary.

An old Italian saying summed up what was being felt by many: "I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, found out three things: First, the streets weren't paved with gold; second, they weren't paved at all: and third, I was expected to pave them." In spite of the difficulties, few gave up and returned home.

Agriculture and America Canada and America are actually fairly similar in some ways when it comes to agriculture. As far as agricultural growth, Canada and America are actually similar. America has seven times the agricultural land of Canada. For more information visit this link: Agriculture StatsAgriculture Stats