HIS466H1 Lecture 3: 3. Race, Orientalism, and Imagined "Asian Perils"
Document Summary
The rst law to restrict immigration in canada was the head tax in 1885 against. This was part of a larger pattern in immigration to privilege people of european background, and they did much to incentivize this immigration. China was a weak country internationally in this period, so they could not compel. Canada to be more tolerant in their immigration laws. The tax was considered a face-saving way to reduce immigration. It didn"t work initially, so they had to keep raising it. It thus deterred those who were not working- age males. Exemptions were business people and their families, students, and members of the clergy. The head tax set up precedents in canadian history and made for a more systematic control of immigrants. This pattern of discriminatory restrictions, and to a degree opposition from the. Canada could not straight out restrict indians, because they were part of the.
