Ward draws upon a rich record of events and opinion in the provincial press, manuscript collections, and successive federal enquiries and royal commissions on Asian immigration. He locates the origins of west coast racism in the frustrated vision of a white British Columbia and an unshakeable belief in the unassimilability of the Asian immigrant. Canadian attitudes were dominated by a series of interlocking, hostile stereotypes derived from western perceptions of Asia and modified by the encounter between whites and Asians on the north Pacific coast. Public pressure on local, provincial, and federal governments led to discriminatory policies in the field of immigration and employment, and culminated in the forced relocation of west coast Japanese residents during World War II.
- ISBN10 0773508244
- ISBN13 9780773508248
- Publish Date 1 November 1990
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 25 November 2021
- Publish Country CA
- Imprint McGill-Queen's University Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 228
- Language English