34,217 124,667 83,975 262,469 34,175 146,908 45,206 208,794 Six months ended June 30, 1900 11,810 17,987 55,791 34,659 43,276 59,779 3,178 71,314 9,914 40,715 59,603 49,656 8,077 117,336 48,059 26,156 148,477 39,020 29,345 21,634 STATISTICS FOR TWO ANNUAL PERIODS 89,999 Despite the influx of English speaking settlers, the foreign language problem in Canada is by no means simple. In addition to the two recognized native tongues, English and French, there is a babel from other lands as will be seen from analysis of the table herewith presented: Total Immigration to Canada by Nationalities, for the Fiscal Year 1921-22, Compared With that of the Fiscal Year 1920-21, Showing Increase or Decrease of Each Nationality:5 Report of the Department of Immigration and Colonization, 1921-22 p. 11. Total Immigration to Canada by Nationalities, for the Fiscal Year 1921-22, Compared With that of the Fiscal Year 1920-21, Showing Increase or Decrease of Each Nationality: DOMINANCE OF ENGLISH SPEAKING IMMIGRANTS Taking the year 1921-22, as shown in the foregoing tabulation, it will be seen that of the ninety thousand entering, upwards of sixty-nine thousand came from English speaking countries, the British Isles, the United States, South Africa, Australia, Bermuda, Jamaica, Newfoundland and New Zealand. This gives a degree of homogeneity that simplifies the assimilative process. Yet it will be observed that a high degree of heterogeneity is found in the remaining thousands. IMMIGRATION POLICY Canada today wants immigrants, but her wants are tempered with judgment. Her desire is for selective immi gration, and with this end in view she has an elaborate immi gration and colonization programme. She has had to compete with the United States in European emigration centres, and -to her detriment in many cases. The more alert among the non-English speaking races, unless special inducements are offered, seem to prefer the milder climate and more numerous industrial opportunities of the Republic on the south. Therefore Canada's strongest appeal must be to the land hungry everywhere, and much money has been spent to induce the desired class of settlers to come to the country. The development of her agricultural resources is the underlying principle of Canada's immigration policy. The plan for putting this policy into effect includes the maintenance of paid agents in the several countries of northwestern Europe who campaign by means of circulars printed in the language of the country in which they are used, advertisements in newspapers, and -exhibits of Canadian products. In Great Britian, in addition, great fairs arousing much enthusiasm are held. These methods are designed to appeal only to the literate and sturdy. Another effective means of drawing settlers to Canada instead of to other points in the New World is the payment of bonuses to -booking agents. This has worked like magic since the bonus has always been large enough to be an attraction,-one pound for adults over eighteen years of age, and two shillings for children. Naturally such expenditure must be made with discrimination, if pitfalls are to be avoided. Bonuses have been paid mainly for British farmers, railway constructionists and domestic servants, and for the same classes in France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. It was not required that the specified persons had always been engaged in the above named pursuits, but that they had been in them at least a year, thus guaranteeing a reasonable period of apprenticeship, which would insure some experience in the work to be undertaken. This seems an improvement on the hit or miss method in vogue in the United States by which female farm hands in the Old World have too often become care-takers of delicate china in the New. Selective immigration has its advantages. While Canada was paying a bonus in Europe for a superior class of immigrants, she was also receiving others not supposed to be so competent. Precautions, of course have been taken to prevent the arrival of those who could not support themselves in their new surroundings. EXCHANGE OF SETTLERS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA Much money has also been spent in the United States to induce settlers to go to farms in Western Canada. Early in the present century, salaried agents were placed in sixteen of the largest and most important cities, and these had assistants who received a commission of three dollars per man, two dollars per woman and one dollar per child for bona fide settlers. As a result of this activity, between the years 1901 and 1909 almost four hundred thousand people from the United States, chiefly from the Middle West, moved to Canada. It must be noted that, as an offset to this, there has been a movement of great proportions, mainly from Eastern Canada, to the United States. From a population. standpoint, therefore, Canada occupies a unique position among the nations of the world. It is an emigrant as well as an immigrant country. It pours a large annual stream of people into the United States, and this has been going on for many years. The United States Census for 1900 listed 1,181,255 Canadians; in 1920 the number was almost 2,000,000. It would thus appear that for every four Canadians in Canada, there is one in the United States. With the exception of the French, the exodus from Canada is not entirely from the unskilled labor class; it is also from those who seek the wider opportunities of business and professional life afforded • Annie Marion MacLean, "The Canadian Immigration," American Journal of Sociology, May, 1905. |