Meet Joyce
Joyce or "Auntie Joyce" immigrated from Georgetown, Guyana in August 1969. At age 92, she is the matriarch of Canada Street.
Joyce founded the neighbourhood’s Canada Day party over 50 years ago and leads over 100 friends and neighbours singing "O Canada" to open the event. She usually performs a song, dances or leads everyone in an aerobic workout for the talent show. Presiding over all the activities of the day, Joyce makes sure that everyone feels welcomed and included, whether a friend or anyone who has wandered through. This example captures only the tiniest fraction of what this vibrant, active, strong, kind, immigrant woman means to people in the neighbourhood and the Hamilton community at large.
Now retired, Joyce served the community at St. Joseph's Hospital as a Care Attendant for 26 years. She loves her grandchildren一those born to her and those drawn to her一and, loves telling the stories that knot together the fabric of her family and the community. She might break into a song, or show you treasured heirlooms from her colourful life here in Canada. She might also offer you a shot of Sherry. One never knows with Joyce.
Migration Context:
Until the 1960s, racial and ethnic criteria were used in immigrant selection, as evidenced in selection principles that favoured the preservation of “the fundamental composition of the Canadian population” (predominantly British and northern European) and, more explicitly, restrictions on Black and Asian immigration. In 1967, Canada shifted its selection criteria for independent immigrants to a “points system” that assessed applicants based on education, training, language, and age.
The 1976 Immigration Act explicitly prohibited discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, or gender. The Act also emphasized the importance of family reunification, international obligations to refugees and displaced persons, and the need to tailor immigration to Canada’s economic and demographic needs.
The federal government opened new immigration offices in the Caribbean and Asia, and immigration began to diversify. Within two decades, about two-thirds of the country’s immigrants were coming from “non-traditional” source countries in the Global South.
These demographic shifts were also seen in Hamilton, with increasing immigration from southern Europe and beyond. The 1971 census found that 30 percent of Hamilton’s population was foreign-born.
