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BALÁZS VENKOVITS similar to the situation in the United States. Moreover, while Sifton had preferred the “stalwart peasants in sheepskin coats” from Eastern and Central Europe, his successor Frank Oliver supported mostly British and American immigration, and members of the East-Central European group were often considered undesirable. The Immigration Act of 1906 barred a broad spectrum of individuals (prostitutes, “mentally retarded” people or those afflicted with a contagious disease), introduced stricter control of the Canada-US border, specified the amount of “landing money” immigrants had to have in their possession, regulated the deportation of prohibited immigrants, etc. The Immigration Act of 1910 brought even more restrictions and gave the government unlimited discretionary powers to regulate the volume, ethnic origin, and occupational composition of immigration, and it provided the necessary machinery to encourage some immigrants and virtually exclude others. Meanwhile, other measures were aimed at limiting the number of immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe, which reflected a dislike of people coming from this region. The measures curbed Asian immigration successfully, but the wave from Eastern and Central Europe continued until the First World War. The First World War halted immigration to Canada as well. In 1915 only 36,665 people arrived (the lowest number in the era) and even three-quarters of these people came from the United States.” Similar fears and restrictions about enemy aliens and nativist sentiment had emerged, as in the United States; this affected non-naturalized Hungarians as well, some of whom were even placed in internment camps, while those arriving after 1902 were disenfranchised in 1917.°° “The opposition to immigration from central and eastern Europe was promoted by leading educators, journalists, and politicians, who took the view that immigrants from that part of Europe resisted assimilation into mainstream Canadian society and that encouraging their immigration only led to the ‘balkanization’ of Canada.”*' The initial reactions of the two North American countries were similar, however, after the war the United States completely ended East-Central European emigration with the quota system, while Canada opened its gates and offered new opportunities for people from previously non-preferred countries. The quotas introduced in the United States impacted Canadianimmigration in different ways. As noted above, they did not apply to people born in Canada, thus many traveled south, which in itself had a negative impact on the Canadian labor market. At this point some (including Clifford Sifton) began to argue again that “stalwart peasants” were required in Western Canada, and they should be brought immediately from “Central Europe, particularly from 2° Knowles, Strangers at Our Gates, 127. 30 Patrias, Hungarians in Canada, 8. 31 Knowles, Strangers at Our Gates, 136. - 108 +
