ABSTRACT
The relationship of citizenship to ethnicity in Canada has seldom been studied by scholars. This paper traces the history of the concept of citizenship, and its relation to ethnicity, as Canada evolved from a colony at Confederation (1867) to autonomous nationhood (post 1931). The development of subjectship/citizenship legislation; its linkage to ethnic selectivity in immigration policy and restrictions on the full exercise of the rights of citizenship by some ethnic groups in Canada are the themes of the analysis from the 1860s to the 1980s.
