What Are The Positive Effects Of Canada's Views On Refugees

From World War One to present day, a positive change is visible on Canadians’ views on refugees. Due to historical events during the world war years, post war years and the past few decades, certain amounts of refugees have come to Canada. Furthermore, these certain amounts of refugees has only been increasing to larger amounts because of the diminishing of discrimination in society. As the differences in faith, ethnic and race stops mattering to Canadians, more and more refugees have been accepted into Canada, resulting in a drastic change in Canadians’ views on refugees. Moreover, since World War One, Canadians’ views on refugees has transitioned from being negative to more supportive.
To begin with, the attitudes shown towards the Jewish
refugees prior to World War Two showcases Canadians’ negative views towards refugees. Many Canadians were very anti-Semitic because of a number of longstanding stereotypes. Some stereotypes were, the Jews had “killed Christ”, introduced communism, and started diversifying Canada. (1) Senator Cairine Wilson proofs of these stereotypes when she states “In the same breath, the Jew is accused of being a Communist as well as controlling the money bags of the world”. (2) When the MS St. Louis Jewish Refugees fleeing Nazism arrived on Canada’s ports after being rejected by all of the Caribbean countries and the USA, Canadians reacted very unsympathetically. (3) The huge backlash from anti-Semitic Canadians resulted in the Prime Minister Mackenzie King rejecting the MS St. Louis Jewish refugees to enter. (4) To conclude, the tales of the MS St. Louis emphasizes Canadians’ negative views towards refugees.

Secondly, the support towards the displaced persons after the war illustrates Canadians’ views on refugees turning positive.
As World War Two came to an end, many Europeans became displaced persons because of war-ravaged land, communism-takeover and Soviet occupation. (5) Hence the displaced persons sought for a better country to escape to, and Canada seemed as the perfect refuge because of Canada neither being affected by communism or war. (6) In comparison to the Jews, Canadians showed some support towards the displaced persons. Businesses required workers to boost the economy, and displaced persons seemed as the ideal opportunity. (7) But there was also backlash towards the displaced persons. Canadians believed there were already too many immigrants in Canada especially from the ones who arrived during the war years and they believed it was not right for them to arrive at that time since the economy was not doing well and the displaced persons could be a potential threat to the economy. (8) With businesses in need for more workers and the public against the idea of more immigrants who could potentially ruin the economy, a point system was created. (9) Under Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker, a point system for refugees was created, which consisted of restrictions to allow only refugees of good health and education to resettle into Canada. (10) John Holmes, the first secretary of the Canadian High Commission proves about the restriction on displaced persons when he stated “Any Displaced Persons who would be permitted to come, it was assumed, would be selected like good beef cattle with a preference for strong young men who could do manual labour and would not be encumbered by aging relatives,”. (11) Although there was more backlash for the displaced persons from Europe, there was less backlash towards the Vietnamese “boat people” displaced persons. After the international news of the Hai Hong incident with the Vietnamese displaced persons, many Canadians urged
the government to accept them into Canada. (12) But the objection to this issue was that accepting the Vietnamese in such short notice would be unfair to the refugees in UN camps waiting for months to be accepted. (13) Although Canada as a country did not accept the Vietnamese displaced persons to come, a province, Quebec, instead accepted 200 Vietnamese displaced persons. (14) To conclude, from the displaced persons from Europe to the Vietnamese displaced persons a positive change is visible in Canadian views on refugees.

Lastly, Canadians’ extensive support to refugees in recent years signifies Canadians’ full change to entirely positive views towards refugees. As civil wars, government violence and genocides occur around the world, many people are left as displaced persons and Canada is willingly accepting them with open hands. (15) Regardless of what race and ethnic the refugees are, 27,600 refugees on average per year are accepted in Canada, and this number is continuously increasing.(16) In comparison to refugees during the world war years and post-war years, there is no discrimination or major backlash against the refugees accepted. Instead, more and more Canadians are supporting the refugees coming into Canada despite their differences in ethnic and race. Current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emphasizes the welcome for refugees when he tweeted “To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength”. (17) Not only are Canadians saying that they support the refugees, they are also proving they support them by donating whatever they can to help make the refugees feel safe and welcome. This has led to donation boxes around the country having to say that they cannot accept any more donations because of the overflowing amount of donations they have already received. (18) Some prime examples of refugees in the past few decades who have received such support include the Colombian refugees, the Tamil refugees, the Iraqi refugees and also present day Syrian refugees. (19) Syrian refugees today receive a vast amount of assistance through special programs like the federal Resettlement Assistance Program and financial funds like the $25,000 per family policy. (20) To conclude, Canadians’ views towards refugees have changed to utmost positivity in the past few decades. In conclusion, Canadians’ responses and reactions towards refugees since World War One to now displays a definite change towards positivity. Through historical events like the Holocaust, the diversifying of Canada and the Canadian Multiculturalism Act in 1988, the amount of refugees of different faiths who can be accepted into Canada has become larger. With the Holocaust leaving many international stereotypes and prejudices about the Jewish people, Canadians’ views on them was only negativity leading to minimal amounts of Jewish refugees being accepted during that time period. Secondly, the start of the diverse age in Canada allowed refugees like the Vietnamese “boat people” to be accepted. Finally, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act in 1988 annihilated most of the discrimination towards refugees with the open idea of multiculturalism. To conclude, because of these historical events, Canadians’ views on refugees have only become more positive.