Grade 10 Social Studies: Can There be a Fair Immigration Policy? (part 1)
Objectives
It is expected that the student will:
Describe significant events/trends affecting immigration to Canada (1815-1914)
Evaluate changes to Canada’s immigration policy
Develop critical thinking skills by evaluating materials
Develop research skills by searching for archival and present-day online materials
Materials
Multicultural Canada archival collection
Computers
Access to Internet
Activities
Introduction:
Teachers ensure there is a discussion on the idea of “fair” with the whole class. What does it mean to be fair? Who does this include? Does being fair mean meeting the needs of the most disadvantaged social class members or the most advantaged members? Is fairness about equity or equality? In groups, students brainstorm ideas pertaining to “fairness.”
Study:
Students will research immigration policies from the beginning of the 20th century to the current Canadian immigration policy. They will be asked to discuss and record what elements of each policy they found to be “fair” and/or “unfair.” Students will be asked to look at photographs and articles from the 20th century (archival collection) to better understand the nature of immigration policies. They will be asked to share their findings with the rest of the class.
Students will create their own immigration policy for Canada that is fair.
When creating the policy, students must come up with ten criteria in order for a person to immigrate to Canada.
Two questions that must be addressed while creating this policy:
How would you feel if you had to go through this process?
How would this work if every county in the world did the same thing?
Conclusion:
Students will present their policy to the class. While presenting students must address the two questions they were asked think about while creating their immigration policy.
Assessment
Students will be assessed on: how they critically they think about past and present immigration policies as well their own policy. See rubric on critical thinking.
Extension
Students compare and contrast the experiences of present-day immigrants with older immigrants to Canada (beginning of the 20th century). Students may use the archival collection to find articles and interviews of the experiences of older generation immigrants to Canada.
Students find examples of people/non-profit organizations which aid new immigrants in their city, province or country.
