ad a great impact on Chinese immigration between 1923 and 1947 only 44 Chinese immigrants came to Canada legally. (Cohen: 1987)Another example of racist tendencies in immigration came with the Jews and Wartime Immigration policy. During the Second World War thousands of Jews sought refugee from Nazi persecution. Although the government did not actually pass a law not permitting Jews into the country they did execute policies designed to obstruct Jewish immigration. Many of these polices were executed on an informal basis. This memo from the department of External Affairs and Immigration in 1938 reveals such a policy.We do not want too many Jews, but in the present circumstances we do not want to say so. We do not want to legitimize the Aryan mythology by introducing any formal distinction for immigration purposes between Jews and non-Jews. The practical distinction, however, has to be made and should be drawn with discretion and sympathy by the competent authorities, without the need to lay down formal minute of policy. (Boyko 1998)These are just two of the examples of past discrimination against certain group there are many others including The Japanese War measures Act, and The East Indian and the Continuous passage rule. So what has Canada done to improve on these racist immigration laws?Until recently nothing, there were no legal protections against racially exclusionary laws and practices. It was not until 1967 when Canada passed a new universal immigration act. That is people who apply to become Canadian Citizens are no longer judged by the colour of their skin, their religion or their ethnicity. In other words the immigration system, which had once used race-related factors to determine entrants is now seemingly “colour-blind”. (Cohen: 1987) Now the system determines its applicant on a system of points. Applicants gain points through amount of education, occupation, age, personal suitability, ect. This system is said ...
