Managing Migrants: Toronto, 1820–1880

Abstract

Abstract: Immigration to and through central Canada increased substantially in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. In response to some of the problems associated with this mass migration, and in an effort to stimulate more of the ‘right’ kind of settlement, state-funded immigration agencies were established at all major ports and urban reception centres across the region during this period. To date, most of the literature on this subject has focused upon the state's management of migrants in Lower Canada (at Montreal, Quebec, and Grosse-Île) and upon the response of government officials to the period's major epidemics (cholera and typhus). This article uses Toronto as a case study to trace the evolution of the state's interaction with migrants from a different starting point. It emphasizes the importance of the 1820–80 period – a period in which major state initiatives were put in place to regulate the flow of immigration more effectively. It underlines the fact that the state consisted of multiple, frequently competing layers of authority and power during the period of transition from colonies to nation. Finally, the study of Toronto highlights that the intersections of different state levels (municipal, provincial, imperial, federal) did not constitute an especially monolithic state regulatory response during this period, but rather more of a labyrinth whose changing features could radically affect the individual experiences of migrants during these years.