Domestic and International Dimensions of the Resettlement of Polish Ex-Servicemen in Canada, 1943-1948

“Dr. Thornton has provided historians with a hitherto forgotten aspect of Canada’s post-world War II immigration policy. Using archival sources from both sides of the Atlantic, this book examines the humanitarian and economic motives behind resettling Polish ex-servicemen in Canada; one of many groups who had become displaced after the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe. It also puts Canadian immigration policy into the broader context of Anglo-Dominion relations, Cold War politics and international relations.” – Dr. Kent Federowich

“. . . . meticulously researched and is based on an exceptionally wide range of primary source material, including manuscripts from the Canadian Department of External Affairs, Department of Labour, and Department of Mines and Resources, as well as British records (Cabinet Office, Dominion Office, Foreign Office and War Office Files), and Polish material in the Polish Institute and General Sikorski Historical Museum. These are backed up by an impressive array of secondary sources, used critically throughout the text, and the result must not only be the most detailed and well researched survey of the topic yet undertaken, or ever likely to be, but an illuminating study of the subject in all its wider ramifications. For the greatest value of the study is its placing of a very detailed case-study, initially of apparently limited interest and significance, in not only the realm of refugee-immigration policy-making, including the roles of minor administrators who rarely receive such careful attention, but in the light which is subsequently thrown on the making of foreign policy and the role of domestic factors, Canada’s relations with Britain, and international relations more generally.” – Professor C. C. Eldridge

“This detailed and scholarly monograph tells the story of the resettlement of displaced Polish veterans in Canada from both the point of view of the Second Polish Corps and in terms of Canadian politics and government. Emphasis is placed upon the relationship between this issue and the doctrine of ‘functionalism’ in Canadian external policy.” – British Journal of Canadian Studies

Table of Contents:
Preface
1. Introduction
2. The Domestic Determinants of Canadian foreign Policy Towards the Resettlement of Polish Ex-Servicemen
3. Poland and the Second Polish Corps
4. Canadian Idealism and Refugee Relief
5. Canada and Immigration Policies
6. Selecting Poles for Resettlement in Canada, 1946-47
7. The Domestic and International Ramifications of Resettling 4,527 Polish Ex-Servicemen in Canada
8. Conclusions
Bibliography; Index

>> See all our Canadian Studies books