In the months before the start of the Second World War, more than 900 Jews boarded the SS St. Louis in Hamburg harbour in hopes of escaping the racism of Nazi Germany.
All of these people had witnessed Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, and a number had already survived internment at concentration camps such as Dachau. They climbed onto the ship in hopes of finding safety somewhere in the world.
The ship was destined for Cuba, but once it arrived, passengers were not allowed to disembark. Efforts to land in the Dominican Republic, the United States, Canada and several other countries also failed.
It is significant to note that the SS St. Louis was a major news issue at the time. A group of academics and clergy lobbied the Canadian government to allow the ship to land in Halifax, but Canada's director of immigration, Frederick Blair, would have none of it. His anti-Jewish policy has been well documented and he was supported by the administration of William Lyon Mackenzie King.
The SS St. Louis had no choice but to return to Europe. However, all of its passengers were able to obtain visas to other European countries, notably the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. After the onset of the Second World War, most of these passengers again found themselves living in Nazi-held territories and the vast majority of them died during the war.
The tragedy of the SS St. Louis is a tragedy for all of us.
Here we had a ship full of gifted souls, ready and willing to use their talents for the betterment of humanity. The fear that they would in some way be a detriment to society was nothing but an appalling myth. Jews living in Germany at the time tended to by well educated professionals with a strong family system. Imagine where Canadian society would be today had we been able to see beyond the lies of racism.
A recent study done at Stanford University attests to this speculation, noting that "German Jewish migrs (after 1933) had a huge effect on U.S. innovation. They helped increase the quality of research by training a new generation of American scientists, who then became productive researchers in their own rights."
We are again seeing a world where fear of immigration is rampant. Yes, there are false refugees. We need to keep in mind, however, that refugees are heavily screened. This is especially the case in countries like the United States and Canada, where they need to board airplanes to reach their destinations. Immigration officials working in refugee camps know what they are doing. They are following an effective formula and only bringing the best people they can find into our country.
The same can be said for all immigrants arriving in Canada. Those of us who have families long established in this country need to ask ourselves if we would even be living here had such stringent controls been in place at the time when our ancestors arrived.
According to a 2005 study from Statistics Canada, "Second-generation Canadians (children of immigrants) are much more likely to have a university degree; their incidence of reliance on government transfer payments and rates of employment and unemployment are no different, and their average earnings are higher than those young adults of Canadian-born parents."
It is also significant to note that this trend will likely increase in the future because, due to changes in Canadian policy, immigrants today tend to be more educated than their counterparts a generation ago.
The bottom line is that we all benefit from immigration. Efforts to keep out entire groups of people based on religion and ethnicity are not only morally reprehensible, they are foolish.
