Over the course of the twentieth century, sequential waves of immigrants from Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa settled in the cities of the Canadian Prairies. In Immigrants in Prairie Cities, Royden Loewen and Gerald Friesen analyze the processes of cultural interaction and adaptation that unfolded in these urban centres and describe how this model of diversity has changed over time. The authors argue that intimate Prairie cities fostered a form of social diversity characterized by vibrant ethnic networks, continuously evolving ethnic identities, and boundary zones that facilitated intercultural contact and hybridity. Impressive in scope, Immigrants in Prairie Cities spans the entire twentieth century, and encompasses personal testimonies, government perspectives, and even fictional narratives. This engaging work will appeal to both historians of the Canadian Prairies and those with a general interest in migration, cross-cultural exchange, and urban history.

In Immigrants in Prairie Cities, Royden Loewen and Gerald Friesen analyze the processes of cultural interaction and adaptation that unfolded in these urban centres and describe how this model of diversity has changed over time.

This book examines immigration to small cities throughout Canada. It explores the distinct challenges brought about by the influx of people to urban communities which typically have less than 100,000 residents. The essays are organized into four main sections: partnerships, resources, and capacities; identities, belonging, and social networks; health, politics, and diversity, and Francophone minority communities. Taken together, they provide a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary perspective on the contemporary realities of immigration to small urban locations. Readers will discover how different groups of migrants, immigrants, and Francophone minorities confront systemic discrimination; how settlement agencies and organizations develop unique strategies for negotiating limited resources and embracing opportunities brought about by changing demographics; and how small cities work hard to develop inclusive communities and respond to social exclusions. In addition, each essay includes a case study that highlights the topic under discussion in a particular city or region, from Brandon, Manitoba to the Thompson-Nicola Region in British Columbia, from Peterborough, Ontario to the Niagara Region. As a complement to metropolitan-based works on immigration in Canada, this collection offers an important dimension in migration studies that will be of interest to academics, researchers, as well as policymakers and practitioners working on immigrant integration and settlement.

A history of the Canadian prairie provinces from the days of Native-European contact to the 1980s.

This collection of 35 readings on Canadian prairie history includes overview interpretation and current research on topics such as the fur trade, native peoples, ethnic groups, status of women, urban and rural society, the Great Depression and literature and art.

In the late 1870s, thousands of Chinese men left coastal British Columbia and the western United States and headed east. For them, the Prairies were a land of opportunity; there, they could open shops and potentially earn enough money to become merchants. The result of almost a decade's research and more than three hundred interviews, Cultivating Connections tells the stories of some of Prairie Canada's Chinese settlers - men and women from various generations who navigated cultural difference. These stories reveal the critical importance of networks in coping with experiences of racism and establishing a successful life on the Prairies.

Despite being one of the largest immigrant groups contributing to the development of modern Canada, the story of the English has been all but untold. In Invisible Immigrants, Barber and Watson document the experiences of English-born immigrants who chose to come to Canada during England’s last major wave of emigration between the 1940s and the 1970s. Engaging life story oral histories reveal the aspirations, adventures, occasional naïveté, and challenges of these hidden immigrants. Postwar English immigrants believed they were moving to a familiar British country. Instead, like other immigrants, they found they had to deal with separation from home and family while adapting to a new country, a new landscape, and a new culture. Although English immigrants did not appear visibly different from their new neighbours, as soon as they spoke, they were immediately identified as “foreign.” Barber and Watson reveal the personal nature of the migration experience and how socio-economic structures, gender expectations, and marital status shaped possibilities and responses. In postwar North America dramatic changes in both technology and the formation of national identities influenced their new lives and helped shape their memories. Their stories contribute to our understanding of postwar immigration and fill a significant gap in the history of English migration to Canada.

Beyond the romanticized image of newcomers arriving as a “huddled mass” at Halifax’s Pier 21, understanding the reality and complexity of immigration today requires an expert guide. In the hands of scholar Augie Fleras, this intricate and ever-changing subject gets the attention it deserves with analysis of all aspects, including admission policies, the refugee processing system, the temporary foreign worker program, and the emergence of transnational identities. Given the unprecedented number of federal policy reforms of the past decade, such a roadmap is essential. Immigration Canada describes, analyzes, and reassesses immigration in a Canada that is rapidly changing, increasingly diverse, more uncertain, and globally connected. Drawing on the best Canadian and international scholarship, Fleras investigates related topics such as integration, identity, and multiculturalism, to consider immigration in a wider context. By thoroughly capturing the politics, patterns, and paradoxes of contemporary migration, this book rethinks the thorny issues and reframes the key debates.

This is the story of the settlement of the prairie and plains of the United States of America by hundreds of thousands of Germans during the last half of the 19th century. More specifically, this is the story of our own ancestors, Prussian immigrants who settled in Minnesota and Wisconsin between 1853 and 1884. Common among their surnames are Arndt, Dahlke, Eyffer, Grimmelt, Happel, Matz, Ost, Potthoff, Rusch, Schatzke, Wanke, Warnke, and Weckwerth. Most left the villages of Buchwerder, Neuhofen, Putzighauland, Gembitzhauland, or Runau in the "county" of Czarnikau in the province of Posen. Most finally settled in the counties of Chippewa in Minnesota or Marquette in Wisconsin. They were aggressively recruited by sophisticated campaigns largely funded by U.S. railroads. They were enticed by offers of land, much of it free, made available by the Swamplands Act of 1850 and the Homestead Act of 1862. They left behind a rigid class system rent by economic, ethnic, ideological, political, and religious conflict . . . which is the history of Prussia. They brought with them cole slaw, hamburgers, kindergartens, and labor unions. Regarding the latter and taking liberties with the lyrics from the third verse of Ralph Chaplin's old union hymn, Solidarity Forever: "It is we who plowed the prairies; built the cities where they trade; dug the mines to find the iron, many acres of swamp we drained . . ." Fred and Sally Comer and their daughter Allison Ring are school teachers (political science, biology, and mathematics in that order). They represent the two most recent of at least four consecutive generations of school teachers in the family. This is their fourth book in a series of four, one for each of Allison's grandparents.