The Setting

Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century there had been an undercurrent of opposition in Canada to certain classes of immigrants. Soon after Confederation, however, legislation specified particular categories that could be denied entry altogether. They were: the dependent, the criminal, the diseased, and those, like confirmed paupers, who were expected to become a liability. Unaccompanied children constituted an interesting group in this respect since although the younger ones were dependent on arrival their dependency could be expected to decline. In fact they could be regarded as an investment, both nationally and by individual employers. However, from the 1880s until the turn of the century in particular, their immigration was opposed for three main reasons: economic, eugenic and political.

There was a conviction on the part of organised labour and some communities that as low-paid or unpaid servants the children prejudiced employment opportunities and, in general, depressed the level of wages. Other fears could easily be aroused, particularly that because of their deprived backgrounds in British slums the children carried with them the threat of contamination, a contamination that was thought to be of a congenital nature and therefore not to be eradicated by benign Canadian influences. There was believed to be the risk of diseases like syphilis or tuberculosis, as well as the risk of genetic deterioration as a result of inter-marriage or promiscuous relationships. There was also the fear that Canadian youth might be exposed to the immoral or criminal influences that the British immigrant children were supposed to exercise. Opposition also derived from the assumption that, sooner or later, at least some of these children would become social liabilities rather than economic assets. The girls might produce illegitimate children, while the boys could swell the prison population. Coming as they did from ‘poor stock’, both the boys and the girls might become sick or ‘mentally disordered’ or cease to be able to earn their living for other reasons. Since they had no family on which to call in times of trouble, and since those who had arranged their immigration would not usually assume continuous responsibility for them, they were particularly liable to become a charge on charitable or public funds. Resort could be made to deportation, but usually only within two years of the children's arrival.