Strategic legal resistance
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To resist the exclusionary legislation, Syrians and Armenians had chosen to act from within the Canadian system. First, their strategy was to re-appropriate racial discourse and benefit from it rather than protesting to abolish the system. The feeling of white superiority persisted post-war, and the anti-asiatic legislation to which they were subject was lowering their social status and harming their professional mobility. Thus, they wanted to be considered Europeans, as the Encyclopedia Americana stated (Asal 83). For that, using the Canadian racial hierarchy and positioning themselves in a liminal position, away from other minorities, was a rational choice to protect themselves from discrimination and xenophobia (ibid 92). Part of their strategy was to prove that they were well-integrated, successful economically, thus they deserved to be considered as Europeans.
Second, in order to achieve that, they had decided to use the institutional channels and lead a legalistic campaign. They had been running petitions, meetings with ministers, and politically organizing to connect with government officials. For example, the Syrian Lebanese societies (CFSLs) was created to coordinate the campaign with a secretary general and lawyer, to meet with officials and even the minister of Immigration (82). This conventional way to protest against the legislation shows their will to demonstrate that they had assimilated Canadian values and were good citizens who would not cause any trouble to the state, thus, that they weren’t “undesirable” migrants and that their status should be improved.