2014/01/01 by Jatinder Mann · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Canadian Identity and History #Australian History and Society #Migration, Policy, and Dickens Studies #Conformity #Ethnic group #White (mutation) #Cultural assimilation #White British #Assimilation (phonology) #Immigration #Identity (music) #National identity #History #Gender studies #Political science #Sociology #Politics #Law #Art
paper · doi:10.3138/ijcs.2014.014
openalex publication_date 2014/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
In the late nineteenth century Canada started to receive large waves of non-British migrants for the very first time in its history. These new settlers arrived in a country that saw itself very much as a British society. English-speaking Canadians considered themselves a core part of a worldwide British race. French Canadians, however, were obviously excluded from this ethnic identity. The maintenance of the country as a white society was also an integral part of English-speaking Canada’s national identity. Thus, white non-British migrants were required to assimilate into this English-speaking Canadian or Anglocentric society without delay. But in the early 1950s the British identity of English-speaking Canada began to decline ever so slowly. The first steps toward the gradual breakdown of the White Canada policy also occurred at this time. This had a corresponding weakening effect on the assimilation policy adopted toward non-British migrants, which was based on Anglo-conformity.