ABSTRACT
Canada is a country of immigrants, and its economic development and growth are inextricably connected not only with the history of colonization and subjugation of the First Nations population who are the original settlers, but also with immigrants’ labour. After the colonization of the First Nations people, which began with the arrival of the first Europeans in Canada, immigration policies developed as a significant tool for building Canada as a nation. This chapter demonstrates that Canada as a nation-state has developed historically on the basis of a White Canada policy that was geared to maintaining ‘racial purity’. After colonization of the First Nations and Inuit people, Canada at various phases of its nation-building process expanded its growth by bringing in immigrant labour. During the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway that solidified the Confederation of Canada, intense demand for a cheap and constant labour supply opened Canada’s borders to Asian male labour.
