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Description found in Archives

Title

Asiatic immigration records [textual record].

Series consists of

2 lower level description(s)

Arrangement structure

Show Arrangement Structure

Series part of

Immigration Program sous-fonds [textual record, graphic material] (R1206-43-9-E)

Bilingual equivalent

Documents d'immigration asiatique [document textuel]

Date(s)

1949-1973

Place of creation

No place, unknown, or undetermined

Extent

0.64 m of textual records

Language of material

English

Scope and content

Series consists of records created to document the administration of special restrictions on the immigration of persons defined as "Asiatics" or "Asians" in the period from about 1908 to 1967. The records include case files and a register of immigrants entering Canada during the years 1951 to 1967 from three "Asiatic" countries under special quota agreements of countries of origin. Between 1907 and 1967, prospective immigrants to Canada classed as "Asiatics" or "Asians" were subjected to special restrictions under a series of federal Orders in Council, as well as to less formal barriers in administrative practice. These controls were separate and distinct from these placed on "Chinese" immigrants under the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885-1947, documented in the Chinese immigration records series, (RG76-D-2, MIKAN 134842). Nationalities and ethnic groups considered as "Asiatics" included at one time or other the Japanese, ethnic East Indians (from the Indian subcontinent, the West Indies, Africa and elsewhere), Pakistanis, Ceylonese, Lebanese, Syrians, Arabs, Iranians, Filipinos, and certain other inhabitants of East Asia and the Middle East. The stringent controls and restrictions placed on the Japanese in Canada in World War II were not primarily Immigration measures, and records relating to them are found elsewhere. But all the groups named were subject to restrictions on their right to immigrate to Canada (and in some respects on their personal rights and freedoms once in the country), in the period from the first Orders in Council (O.C.P.C.s 27, 662, 919, 932, 1255, 8 January, 27 March, 27 May and 3 June, 1908) to the passing of the Canadian Bill of Rights in 1960. The discriminatory Orders in Council were not definitively rescinded until 1967, when the Immigration Regulations embodying the "point system" of immigrant selection were finally passed.

Conditions of access

Textual records

32: Restricted by law

Archival reference no.

R1206-181-X-E

Former archival reference no.

RG76-D-3

Terms of use

Additional information

A relatively complete list and summary of the line series of restrictive Orders in Council aimed at "Asiatics" between 1908 and 1960 is given on pages 125-191 of R. Sampat-Mehta's International Barriers (Ottawa: Harpell Press, 1973), although there are a few omissions and some inaccuracies in the summaries of the provisions of individual Orders.

Source of title

Title is based on the contents of the series.

Accruals

Further accruals are expected.

Related materials

For details on records related to Japanese in Canada in World War II see the unnumbered finding aid "Sources for the Study of the Treatment of Japanese Canadians, 1941-1950", revised 1988. Copies of the Orders in Council cited are in the Minutes, annexes and reports sub-series in the Privy Council fonds (MIKAN 133112, RG2-A-1-a) filed by date and OCPC number. Some nominal manifests of ships carrying groups of "Asiatic" passengers to the west coast of Canada from the East Indies, 1905 ff., may be found in the Records of Entry in the Vancouver ships' manifests sub-series (MIKAN 161345, RG76-C-1-g) and in the Victoria and other Pacific ports ships' manifests sub-series (MIKAN 161346, RG76-C-1-h).

Source

Government

MIKAN no.

134843