Continuity in Canadian Immigration Policy 1947 to Present: Taking a Fresh Look at Mackenzie King’s 1947 Immigration Policy Statement

Abstract

An examination of the major policy decisions in Canadian immigration history since the end of the Second World War, up to and including the present day, reveals a remarkable consistency in overall approach to this area of public policy. This paper identifies these important milestones and demonstrates how they relate to Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King’s 1947 statement on immigration policy. This contention flies in the face of much of the literature studying this period that suggests that Canadian immigration policy has vacillated and reversed course frequently over the last 60 years. However, the three pillars of the immigration program that Mackenzie King identified—economic, family, and humanitarian—continue to form the basis of Canada’s immigration program.