The key milestones of liberalization process of Canadian immigration policy in 1945-2012

Nowadays, different countries and their governments are faced with challenges caused by the current migration crisis. Different issues of immigration process have a great influence on the various areas of society’s life. Thousands of refugees and immigrants are looking for their new home. As a result, a number of states are going through a crisis of multiculturalism and tolerance. All these problems encourage the studying of the mass relocation and different practices of immigration policy, especially the successful ones. It is important because the best practices can serve as a positive example for other countries. And in the second half of the 20th century, Canada was one of the regions with successful experience of immigration policy. Therefore, the article focuses on Canadian immigration policy and on the specificities of this area of Canada’s policy during the period from 1945 to 2012. The main attention is paid to the transformation processes and changes in the basic principles and goals of the Canadian immigration system. These processes started in the first decades after the end of World War II, and they lasted until the first decade of the 21st century. On the one hand, this paper examines the process of rejection of the concept of White Canada with its significant characteristics such as restrictive and discriminative norms of the immigration legislation. On the other hand, this article investigates the steps forward the new immigration policy of the Canadian state, which was based on the principles of liberalization, democracy, and the strategy of the Open Doors for the newcomers. In addition, the author identified certain chronological stages in the development of Canadian immigration policy during the historical period from 1945 to 2012. These stages are important because they made possible to provide an overview of identifying structural features that were commonly found at the different stages of Canada’s immigration policy. Finally, based on the research, the author summarizes the fundamental differences in Canadian immigration policy, as well as proposes her own scheme of dividing the historical development of this area of Canada’s federal policy from 1945 to 2012.