Mediated Citizenship and Contested Belongings: Canadian War Brides and the Fictions of Naturalization

Abstract

When they arrived in Halifax at the end of the Second World War, newly-married or engaged to Canadian servicemen, the war brides were welcomed as exemplary new citizens and media darlings. Sixty years later, Canada officially honoured these women’s war work and reconstruction efforts, commemorating “The Year of the War Bride” with ceremonies at Halifax’s Pier 21—and more news media coverage. But somewhere along the way, between 1946 and 2006, as immigration and naturalization legislation was redrafted, the war brides got caught in a citizenship quagmire and many of their claims to citizenship were denied. In the summer of 2006, the media picked up on what had emerged as a gap in citizenship statutes, and widespread reportage shaped public discourse about the war brides’ struggle for full enfranchisement. This paper describes the importance of mass media, marriage and migrant networks to the war brides’ ongoing quest to gain secure legal status and Canadian citizenship.