Welcoming the Sick and Afflicted: Canada’s Tubercular Admissions Program, 1959-1960

Summary

by Jan Raska, PhD, Historian

During World Refugee Year (1959-1960), the Canadian government appeased public demands for a humanitarian response by implementing a special program that brought 325 tubercular refugees and 501 family members to Canada. Despite federal concerns about the financial cost and potential burden on the health care system, the resettlement scheme represented a notable departure from existing immigration policy for unsponsored immigrants with tuberculosis and became an early antecedent to broader reforms in the 1960s.

by Jan Raska, PhD, Historian

During World Refugee Year (1959-1960), the Canadian government appeased public demands for a humanitarian response by implementing a special program that brought 325 tubercular refugees and 501 family members to Canada. Despite federal concerns about the financial cost and potential burden on the health care system, the resettlement scheme represented a notable departure from existing immigration policy for unsponsored immigrants with tuberculosis and became an early antecedent to broader reforms in the 1960s.

Intrigued? Read Jan Raska’s article, Welcoming the Sick and Afflicted: Canada’s Tubercular Admissions Program, 1959-1960, published in Histoire sociale / Social History.