What Are The Positive Effects Of Canada's Views On Refugees

From World War One to present day, a positive change is visible on Canadians’ views on refugees. Due to historical events during the world war years, post war years and the past few decades, certain amounts of refugees have come to Canada. Furthermore, these certain amounts of refugees has only been increasing to larger amounts because of the diminishing of discrimination in society. As the differences in faith, ethnic and race stops mattering to Canadians, more and more refugees have been accepted into Canada, resulting in a drastic change in Canadians’ views on refugees. Moreover, since World War One, Canadians’ views on refugees has transitioned from being negative to more supportive.
To begin with, the attitudes shown towards the Jewish
As World War Two came to an end, many Europeans became displaced persons because of war-ravaged land, communism-takeover and Soviet occupation. (5) Hence the displaced persons sought for a better country to escape to, and Canada seemed as the perfect refuge because of Canada neither being affected by communism or war. (6) In comparison to the Jews, Canadians showed some support towards the displaced persons. Businesses required workers to boost the economy, and displaced persons seemed as the ideal opportunity. (7) But there was also backlash towards the displaced persons. Canadians believed there were already too many immigrants in Canada especially from the ones who arrived during the war years and they believed it was not right for them to arrive at that time since the economy was not doing well and the displaced persons could be a potential threat to the economy. (8) With businesses in need for more workers and the public against the idea of more immigrants who could potentially ruin the economy, a point system was created. (9) Under Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker, a point system for refugees was created, which consisted of restrictions to allow only refugees of good health and education to resettle into Canada. (10) John Holmes, the first secretary of the Canadian High Commission proves about the restriction on displaced persons when he stated “Any Displaced Persons who would be permitted to come, it was assumed, would be selected like good beef cattle with a preference for strong young men who could do manual labour and would not be encumbered by aging relatives,”. (11) Although there was more backlash for the displaced persons from Europe, there was less backlash towards the Vietnamese “boat people” displaced persons. After the international news of the Hai Hong incident with the Vietnamese displaced persons, many Canadians urged