"of Habits Subversive" Or "Capable and Compassionate": Perceptions of Transpacific Migrants, 1850S-1940S‪.‬

ABSTRACT/RESUME In this essay transpacific migrants are first contextualized in transatlantic and intra-imperial migration systems. Next, the life of one family is analyzed with respect to its transcontinental, transcultural, and transgenerational aspects under the impact of distant governmental policies, global economic change, and worldwide war. Third, the late nineteenth century official position that immigrants from Asia are "of habits subversive" is contrasted to many common Canadians' views of them as capable and compassionate neighbours and, fourth, to racialization in the context of imperial Britishness and Whiteness. Finally, the parliamentary debates over an end to exclusion and the beginning of a distinct Canadian citizenship serve to illustrate this complex change of attitudes at the state level.