A History of Migration from Germany to Canada, 1850–1939.

Dieter K. Buse is professor emeritus of history at Laurentian
University.

Why Germans left their homeland and why they chose Canada as a destination are the two main questions Wagner answers. In addition, he demonstrates who recruited and assisted migrants, the passage patterns, and the way migrants were perceived both in their homeland and their adopted country. Wagner writes almost parallel histories of Germany and Canada as he presents the main demographic patterns.

The introduction presents the methods and main archival sources employed, and it explains the exclusion from the study of return migration. Four chapters are organized chronologically to cover the beginnings (the 1850s and 1860s) when few policies governed migration, the 1870–1890 mass movements between agrarian societies, the generation impacted by industrialization in the 1890–1914 period, and the revival of migration during 1919–1939. The conclusion expounds on why regimes in both countries saw migration as nationally significant. Economic conditions, societal structures, and technological changes are underscored as crucial to migration patterns. Ideological factors such as liberalism and nationalism as well as imperialism and racism, however, receive the main attention because of their influence on individuals as well as policy-makers. Wagner makes explicit comparisons of German and Canadian outlooks. In general, “Over the four ensuing generations the migration of German peoples to Canada was transformed almost unrecognizably, becoming well organized, whether through private or state means, closely defined in legal and policy terms, and far less difficult to undertake.”

Some of the novel research results of this clear and concise synthesis define Canada’s state and private recruitment systems, including the methods of going around German authorities’ restrictions on enticement. The changing images offered of Canada will be of interest to scholars of identity. The German institutions, mostly religious charitable organizations in Bremen and Hamburg, which offered aid and advice, are well-delineated through their own reports.

This book has filled a large gap by thoroughly treating Canada’s third largest European ethnic group. It will stand beside the previous studies by Bassler, Bade, Jackson, Freund, and Hoerder on German and Canadian migration.