Even as thousands of Indian students and young professionals queue up to migrate to Canada, thanks to the country’s liberal immigration policy, the rampant increase in racist attacks on Indian citizens or people of Indian origin in Canada of late has become a concern as the widespread media coverage on the issue highlights.
A recent viral video shot in Kitchener-Waterloo in Atlantic Canada shows an elderly white woman racially abusing a Canadian man of Indian origin without any provocation and telling Indians to go back.
In British Columbia, a Conservative Party candidate in the provincial elections had to apologise for making racist and Islamophobic remarks but wasn’t sacked by his party and went on to trounce his South Asian rival by nearly 4,000 votes, reported The Times of India.
While it makes sense to link the recent racist attacks against Indians to Canadian PM Justin Trudeau’s strong anti-India stand taken in favour of the pro-Khalistan groups who have a significant vote-bank and far more economic clout in the country, the history of racism against Indians and South Asians in Canada has been existing for more than a 120-years now and does not have anything to do with Canadians’ concerns over migration.
History of Indian migration to Canada[1]
Though there is not much clarity on when the first Indian emigrants reached Canada, the first notice of Indian presence was in 1905 when their number was recorded at 45. In 1906, the number of Indians went up to 387 and by 1907, it rose to 2,124. In four years since 1904, Indian migrant numbers rose to more than 5000 since Indian emigrants preferred Canada over the United States as it was British colony and as British subjects, they expected to be treated better than Chinese and Japanese migrants who were much larger in number and stood at around 50,000 at the time. However, the reality was different. Migrants from China and Japan were treated better than Indians, whose migration was legally made a lot more difficult through various legislations. Ironically, migration from Europe was rampant and continued to swell with every passing year even during that period.
The Indian Emigration Act (13 of 1883) had already made it illegal for Indians to go beyond Ceylon (Sri Lanka) or settlements in the Straits of Malacca. This Act was strictly enforced now making a Canadian migration illegal. Despite all that, if any Indian still dared to go to Canada, he was not allowed to land unless he showed a sum of 200 dollars for each person (a steep hike from 25 dollars/person).
As the number of Indian migrants continued to rise, their arose a demand to put restrictions on their entry. The main slogan put forward for that purpose was to “preserve Canada as a White man’s land”. The Canadian and British Indian governments, in cooperation took certain steps to counter the Indian migration including issuing a direct warning to steamship companies that their efforts to emigrate Indians to Canada wasn’t appreciated by Indian and Canadian governments. Besides, The Indian Emigration Act (13 of 1883) had already made it illegal for Indians to go beyond Ceylon (Sri Lanka) or settlements in the Straits of Malacca. This Act was strictly enforced now making a Canadian migration illegal. Despite all that, if any Indian still dared to go to Canada, he was not allowed to land unless he showed a sum of 200 dollars for each person (a steep hike from 25 dollars/person).
Despite all these restrictions, Indian migrants (a vast majority of them were from Punjab region) continued to reach the shores of Americas and spread across the continent from Vancouver in Canada to San Francisco in California since the early 1900s and fought racism and other menace to establish themselves as a vibrant community.
A casual visit to any small town in Punjab would reveal that Canada remains one of the top destinations for youngsters looking to immigrate to a western country with thousands queuing up before legal and illegal immigration agents to reach their dream destination.
But can this resistance to immigration be justified considering the history of Canada and the United States?
European Migration to Canada
The original inhabitants of the land that later came to known as Canada are native tribes known as First Nations, Metis and the Inuit. The Inuit primarily inhabit the northern regions of Canada while the Metis, of mixed European and Indigenous ancestry, live mostly in the Praire provinces and Ontario while the First Nations people occupy territories south of the Artic. According to the 2021 census, a total of 1,807,250 people in Canada have been identified as indigenous, making up just five per cent of the population.
According to the Immigration Consultants Group, Canada, the first European settlements in the country were established by the French in the 16th century with the arrival of Jacques Cartier in 1534. However, these early settlements were merely trading posts and missions. In 1608, Quebec city was founded, which became the center of French culture in Canada. By the 18th century, the British began to establish colonies in Canada and established settlements in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick. In 1763, France ceded Canada to Britain.
A large wave of migration from Europe to Canada took place in the 19th century and the population of Canada doubled between 1815 and 1850 with most of the growth coming from immigration. Most of the migrants who came to Canada during this were from Ireland, Scotland, and England.
A large wave of migration from Europe to Canada took place in the 19th century and the population of Canada doubled between 1815 and 1850 with most of the growth coming from immigration. The then government encouraged immigration from Europe and offered incentives to people who were willing to settle in the country as the government saw migration as a way to increase population and help develop the country. Most of the migrants who came to Canada during this were from Ireland, Scotland, and England.
Around the same time as the first Indians began to migrate to Canada during early 1900’s, migration from Europe to Canada increased even further as records indicate that between 1901 and 1914, over 2.5 million immigrants came to Canada from Europe, settling down mostly in Ontario and Quebec. The two World Wars and the subsequent poverty and famine drove European migration to Canada even further.
This clearly shows that migration from other countries (mostly European) to Canada was rampant, Indian migrants, despite being subjects of the British crown, were hugely discriminated against through stringent policies.
However, to date, successive Canadian governments have attributed immigration as the biggest driver of the Canadian economy, as the present government had in 2022 taken an aggressive plan to take in 500,000 immigrants every year until 2025.
While isolated incidents of racist slurs and attacks on minority communities are natural in any multicultural society, it is clearly the responsibility of the government of the day to ensure that all legal migrants are protected by law and can live with dignity.
To ensure that, the Canadian government should take efforts to highlight the history of the land and the role that immigrants – white and non-white — have played in developing the nation.
[1]Sohan Singh Josh, Hindustan Gadar Party pp 50 – 60, Desh Bhakt Yaadgar Committee, Jalandhar