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revolutionary socialists in the United States

News & Views

Canada’s racist immigration policy — The legacy and the reality
by Ben Yedi

Until the 1960s, the Canadian state chose its immigrants on the basis of their racial categorization, rather than the individual merits of the applicant, with preference being given to immigrants of Northern European (especially British) origin over the so-called “black and Asiatic races”, and at times over Central and Southern European “races”.

Race officially ceased to be a factor with the introduction of the point system in the 1960s. However, there are some aspects of current policies that are reminiscent of earlier forms of exclusion. And still, the method of enforcement of seemingly neutral immigration requirements continues to discriminate against certain racialized groups.

The new immigration selection system now reflects the overseas selection system that was legally put into place on June 28, 2002, by the Liberal federal government. The Immigration Act legally requires that the skilled worker applicants apply in their home countries (or ‘countries of residence’).

In practice, this ghetto-izes immigration processing. The ‘target’ for each overseas processing is the number of visas issued, and the ‘target’ at each processing post creates a bottleneck at overseas visa-issuing centers (Canadian consulates).

Inevitably, processing times grow longer in missions located in the non-Western European countries, and processing times significantly vary based on “where you come from.”

Quebec City journalist Pierre Asselin of Le Soleil and La Presse revealed the current inventory of skilled worker applications in each overseas mission. This revelation is a ‘first’ in Canadian immigration history. It allows us to compare the number of people in the skilled worker category in inventory (the term used by the Immigration Department) at each mission, with the mission’s target for the applicants.

If the trend at the high volume immigration processing posts is an indication of a general pattern, the number of skilled workers applying to come to Canada is dramatically decreasing, as we can see from the stats of four high-volume centers:

• Buffalo: Received 52,755 applications for skilled workers in 2001. In 2002, the number of applications for skilled workers fell to 32,916. In 2003, the number decreased to 23,391.

• New Delhi: Received 45,451 applications for skilled workers in 2001. In 2002, the number of application for skilled workers fell to 15,732. In 2003, it decreased to 13,864.

• London: Received 28,882 for skilled workers in 2001. In 2002, the number fell to 16,644. In 2003, only 13,822 skilled workers applied.

• China: Received 22,953 applications for skilled workers in 2001. In 2002, the number of application for skilled workers fell to 2971. In 2003, only 1462 skilled workers applied.

The evidently racist policy causes a massive backlog of applicants in Third World countries.

File transfers by applicants are no longer permitted. Prior to June 28, 2002, the law allowed skilled workers to apply to any post, and to transfer files anytime to any other post, in order to create a system driven by applicants, so that an American-style quota system could never take root in Canada. But with a new system of forcing the applicants to apply only in their country of residence, immigration officials create a new racially motivated quota system.

The results of this quota system are reflected in the estimated processing time to complete the existing skilled worker inventory, (excluding any new applications):

• Accra/Abidjian, with 6511 applicants and yearly target of 395, it will take 16.5 years.

• Ankara, with 6515 applicants and yearly target of 650, it will take 10.0 years.

• Beijing, with 37,988 applicants and yearly target of 6680, it will take 5.7 years.

• For Bucharest, it is 8.9 years; for Damascus, it is 6.8 years; and for Islamabad, 8.5 years.

The policies made under Liberal governments were to preserve Canada’s so-called homogenous Western European heritage by limiting the number of Africans and Asians immigrating to Canada. It is precisely the Liberal Party government that has conceived and implemented these policies, which they claimed the more right-wing Conservatives had as their hidden agenda.

Historically, from the time when the federal government began to control immigration to Canada until the 1960s, explicitly racist laws and practices restricted the immigration of certain groups. The Chinese bore the brunt of racist controls. The first federal Chinese Exclusion Act, in 1885, imposed a head tax on Chinese immigrants of $50, increased to $100 in 1900, and to $500 in 1903. From 1886 to1923, more than $22 million were collected in head tax payments.

In 1923 the Chinese Immigration Act came into force, bringing about the almost total prohibition of Chinese immigration to Canada. The act was repealed in 1947, but the entry of Chinese remained restricted under more general rules relating to persons of “Asiatic race”.

The other main targets of exclusion were prospective immigrants from India. In 1914 a group of 376 Indians challenged this restriction, arriving in Vancouver on board the Komagatu Maru. After two months in the harbor, and an unsuccessful court challenge, they were forced to return to India.

The current quota system of Immigration Canada is in continuation of excluding certain races from Canada. Meanwhile, the Right of Landing Fee, which is $975 for each adult immigrant, is unattainable by most of the Third World applicants.

Besides, each applicant must provide documentary evidence of transferring $8000 for each adult person to Canada before coming to Canada.

Currently there are new initiatives to give work permits to guest workers who have job letters from the employers, instead of offering permanent residency to workers. The Liberals’ policies are designed to give preference to the needs of employers by the use of ‘guest workers’ rather than permanent residents, and to cater to bigotry, while ignoring the rights of immigrants.

The clear intention of the government is to absorb and give immigration status to people from Western Europe, and deny qualified candidates from the rest of the world.

This article first appeared in the October 2004 issue of Socialist Action newspaper.

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