Guarding the Gates: The Canadian Labour Movement and Immigration, 1872-1934

by David Goutor

Overview

From the 1870s until the Great Depression, immigration was often the question of the hour in Canada. Politicians, the media, and an array of interest groups viewed it as essential to nation building, developing the economy, and shaping Canada’s social and cultural character. One of the groups most determined to influence public debate and government policy on the issue was organized labour, and unionists were often relentless critics of immigrant recruitment. Guarding the Gates is the first detailed study of Canadian labour leaders’ approach to immigration, a key battleground in struggles between different political factions within the labour movement. This book provides new insights into labour, immigration, social, and political history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780774813648
Publisher:	University of British Columbia Press
Publication date:	05/15/2007
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Gregory S. Kealey is Founding Editor of Labour/Le Travail and author of Workers and Canadian History. Ruth A. Frager is co-author of Discounted Labour: Women Workers in Canada, 1870-1939

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Part 1: Issues and Arguments

1 Guarding the Gates

2 Setting the Stage: Labour, Industry, and Immigration in Canada, 1872-1934

Part 2: Labour’s Anti-Asian Agitation

3 The Bounds of Unity: Opposition to Chinese Immigration, 1880-87

4 The “Old Time Question”: The Campaign for Exclusion, 1888-1934

Part 3: Labour and Atlantic Immigration 

5 Superfluous People: Labour’s Construction of Immigrants from Europe and the British Isles

6 Importing Victims: The Assault on the Commerce of Immigration

Part 4: Immigration, Ideology, and Politics

7 Immigration, Joseph Arch, and the Producer Ideology, 1872-79

8 Imported Labour, the Tariff, and Land Reform, 1880-1902

9 Retreat, Corporatism, and Responsible Management, 1903-34

Conclusion

Notes; Bibliography; Index