4.2 Assignment

Create an illustrated plot diagram showing the progress and decline of Canadian immigration policies over the past 150 years.

Immigration: the process of people establishing homes, and often citizenship, in a country that is not their native country.

Immigration policy sets the procedures for evaluating immigrants and says how many people are allowed into Canada year after year. 

"Immigration has largely defined what Canada is today and has been a sustaining feature of Canada’s history. Waves of immigration have built and transformed the population while making significant contributions to the development of our economy, our society and our culture.  “- Issues for Canadians


Your task is to research the immigration developments of the last 150 years and decide if each development is an improvement in the way our country treated potential immigrants (progress) or if the policy is a setback that was perhaps rooted in prejudice and discrimination (decline).

Once you have arrived at your conclusions, present your information in the form of an illustrated “progress and decline” timeline. Upon completion, your timeline will resemble a stock market line graph with “ups” and “downs”. The policy you deem to be the best will be the highest peak on the poster and the one you feel our country should be the least proud of will be your lowest peak.

Procedure:

  1. Choose seven significant events from the section readings starting with the Immigration Act of 1869. You will need 3-5 point form notes for each event.
    In addition, select three of the following historical events in Canada’s immigration history and research 3-5 significant points about each event. These will become a part of your timeline.
    • Komagatu Maru 1914
    • “Becoming a Public Charge” deportations 1930
    • Post WWII Japanese policies 1940’s
    • Hungarian refugees 1956
    • American draft dodgers and deserters 1971
    • Lebanese Special Measures 1976
    • Kosovar refugees 1992
  2. Once you have conducted your research, rank the events in history from Canada’s “highest point” to Canada’s “lowest point”.
  3. Plot your events in timeline form in a word-processing document or on a large sheet of poster paper. It is recommended that you completed a planning page before you transfer your information to the poster. Keep in mind that:
    The oldest event will be near the left hand side of the page and the most recent event will be near the right hand side of the page.
    The event which holds the highest rank (#1) will be the highest peak on your timeline and the event which holds the lowest rank (#10) will be the lowest peak.
    Under each point, write your 3-5 notes or researched facts.
  4. Carefully select pictures and/or illustrations and add these to the timeline. These should correspond with some of the events you have chosen to plot.
  5. Create a bold title. Feel free to be as creative as you wish.

This will be marked out of 20 according to the rubric below.

This assignment adapted from "Ups and Downs of Immigration" by Chris Spruyt and Zlata Kunze from Historicalthinking.ca