Immigration History

Cookbooks are a profoundly important cultural device, promoting connections and outlining aspects of identity among migrant and displaced communities. Although they are a device for passing along knowledge, a cookbook can signal disruption in teaching traditions: the recipes are learned from the page, rather than from time together in a kitchen. Cookbooks also can reveal the shifts in practice as communities adapt foods to new places and new social and cultural contexts.

Association football—called “soccer” from the shortened “assoc.”—is a global game. Migrants in Canada use their connections with the game to build communities and to make and remake a space that is home. The sport benefits those who play, volunteer, administer, officiate, coach, and cheer for teams across the country. These many possible connections point to how important soccer is as a means for adaptation in Canada.

In 2024, the Museum collaborated with Qissa for the project Driving Canada: A Front Seat View of Immigration. Representatives from both Qissa and the Museum talk about the background to the project and the 7 interviews conducted in the Greater Toronto Area. They also reflect upon insights, themes, and next steps in terms of the interviews.

People from the Philippines represent about 8% of the population of Prince Edward Island. Many came initially with temporary contracts to work in seafood and fish processing plants, and have since become permanent residents. Here, you will meet four women from the Philippines who live in Western PEI who all have a connection to the fishing industries on the island. You will learn about their work and community lives in rural PEI.

In the nineteenth-century United Kingdom, the social ills associated with industrialization particularly afflicted children. A country-wide network of children’s homes developed in response, but was overwhelmed by demand. From the 1860s onwards, some of these homes organised the emigration of the children in their care, including to Canada. The children were failed by the governments of both countries, which did not sufficiently regulate the schemes. In Canada, the “Home Children” were often met with neglect and ill-treatment rather than the promised opportunities.

In 1952, the Canadian government adopted a new immigration act that explicitly excluded “homosexuals.” This ban emerged in the context of security concerns and increasing criminalization of queer sexualities, but was both driven and challenged from within the immigration branch itself. The outright ban stayed on the books until the 1970s, when a new immigration act was brought in that reflected the rapidly-shifting social and cultural environment, including the struggle for gay liberation.

World Refugee Year (1959-1960) raised global awareness of the desperate plight of refugees and the need to mobilize financial and material resources on their behalf by national governments, organizations, and ordinary citizens. With the support of the federal and provincial authorities, Canadians raised $3.4 million in financial and in-kind contributions on behalf of this international initiative. In addition, Canada admitted 3,508 refugees specifically as a result of WRY endeavours.

This oral history essay examines the experiences of Chilean exiles who left their country after the overthrow of the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende. The first section examines trajectories from Chile to Canada, and includes memories of the 1970 election and 1973 coup d’état. In the second section, we hear from the same Chileans as they reflect upon adjusting and remembering, as well as the legacy and lessons of the coup in Chile.

The Chinese Immigration Act, 1923, was intended to prevent Chinese immigrants from entering Canada. It proceeded from an extensive history of discrimination against Asian immigrants. While it was in force, only a handful of Chinese immigrants were able to enter Canada. Even after this exclusionary legislation was repealed in 1947, significant barriers remained against Chinese immigrants seeking entry. Those obstacles were challenged and reduced over time, and now China is a major country of origin for new Canadians.