Immigration and the Racialization of Work | 

Lesson 6

89

www.etfo.ca | 

Intermediate ETFO Resource

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Learning from Labour

Life of the Immigrant Worker Jigsaw Comparison Chart

Instructions

Step 1

Choose one of the following immigrant groups in pre- and post-Confederation era Canada; Irish workers on the Rideau Canal, Black 
Loyalists in Nova Scotia, Chinese railroad workers in B.C. Each person in the group should choose a different ethnic/racial group to 
research.

Step 2

Using one or two of the websites provided by your teacher, complete the chart outlining the living/working conditions of that group. 

Step 3

Share your findings with the other two members of your group in order to help each other to complete the information about the 
remaining two ethnic/racial groups.

Step 4

Be prepared to report your findings to the class by answering the question, “How did discrimination and racist attitudes towards the 
Chinese, Irish and Blacks affect the working conditions of those groups during the mid-late 1800s?”

Websites

B.C. Archives: Chinese Restrictions. Source: Canada (1885). Select Committee on Chinese Restrictions. Report of Select Committee on 
Chinese Restrictions. Chapter 39. http://archives.leg.bc.ca/EPLibraries/leg_arc/document/ID/LibraryTest/1639230236

Black Loyalists. Equal Pay? Retrieved June 6, 2015 from http://blackloyalist.com/cdc/story/prejudice/pay.htm

Black Loyalists. Shelburne Riot. Retrieved June 6, 2015 from http://blackloyalist.com/cdc/story/prejudice/riot.htm

Explorail. Chinese Railroad Workers in British Columbia: Railways and Immigration to Canada. http://histoiredurailhistory.ca/
immigration_en.html

Government of Canada. Black Loyalist workers in Nova Scotia: Government of Canada. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/multiculturalism/
black/history.asp

Multicultural History Society of Ontario. The Ties that Bind Multicultural History Society of Ontario. http://www.mhso.ca/tiesthatbind/
ChineseRailWorkers.php

Rideau Canal the Kingston Irish Folk Club. Rideau Canal. https://kingstonirish.wordpress.com/irish-history-2/rideau-canal/

Watson, K. W. (2003). Irish workers on the Rideau Canal: Those Who Laboured. Rideau Canal. http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/
articles/laboured.html