ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the British imperial, US, and global context of the “events” and explains some of the processes which induced them. It discusses the larger policy frame in Canada as a member of the Commonwealth. The chapter describes the negotiations about admitting non-white caregivers and domestic workers from other segments of the Commonwealth in Canada – always with emphasis on empire and England. When, in 1947, the federal government changed the Chinese exclusion act, both in terms of international relations and of people’s attitudes, racism was only one of several options. In the 1960s the governments in Canada and Great Britain decided on diametrically opposed migration policies and legislation. The Empire Windrush, a second-hand troop transport ship, had its own imperial history. The men and women of the Windrush generation came as fully socialised Jamaicans with wartime experience in Great Britain into English – or four-culture British – society.
