We can look at immigration from two different perspectives. First, we can think about how the Canadian government has thought about immigration. Second, we can discuss how immigrants think about the process.
First, everywhere in the world, governments create laws and rules to try to control who can come into their countries and under what conditions. These rules can be part of an Immigration Policy or a result of an International Treaty a country has signed. For example, Canada has signed an International Convention on Refugees that requires Canada to follow certain rules when someone arrives in Canada and makes a claim refugee status. These rules can affect men and women differently.
A government will make decisions about immigration rules and policies based on economic, political and social factors. Public opinion is often against immigration when Canada is in recession, or an economic downturn. When the economy is creating a lot of jobs and wealth, people seem less concerned about how immigrants will affect them. Generally, if we look at Canadian immigration policy since the 1890s we can observe five broad purposes that have influenced the way people have been able to enter Canada.
First, the Canadian government has always wanted to have enough people to settle and farm in the vast spaces of land in the country in enough numbers to discourage the United States from trying to expand its territory. So for many years Canadian immigration policy encouraged farmers to come to Canada. Many Irish, Scottish and Ukrainian immigrants came to Canada to work on farms.
Second, over the past century, immigration policy has been influence by racism and discrimination against people from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and southern Europe. Canadian policy preferred immigrants from northern Europe until the 1960s. As a result of these racist attitudes, Canada tried to limit and restrict Asian immigration into British Columbia.
Third, dating back to Prime Minister Sir John A. McDonald and his plan to build a transcontinental railway, the Canadian government has tried to create an internal economy for Canadians and reasons for the country to be united from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.
Fourth, the long history of Canadian nationalism, or a sense of being one people with a common future, was tied to the links to British heritage and traditions. For many years, even after World War Two, immigration policy tried to encourage that connection with Britain in terms of who could come to Canada. This was done to discourage Quebec separatism, and in the previous century Prairie Metis separatism.
Fifth, the Canadian government has wanted to create a positive image of Canada as a new place of opportunity. They have wanted people around the world to see Canada as a country of potential greatness, and "a land of second chance," characterized by the fairness of British institutions. More recently Canada’s politeness and civility has been best marketed through its official multiculturalism.