For immigrants making the transoceanic journey from Europe or Asia to
North America, the experience of a new country began when they
disembarked. In Canada the federal government built a network of
buildings that provided newcomers with shelter, services, and state
support. "Immigration sheds" such as Pier 21 in Halifax - where ocean
liners would dock and global migrants arrived and were processed - had
many counterparts across the country: new arrivals were accommodated or
incarcerated at reception halls, quarantine stations, and immigrant
detention hospitals. For the Temporary Accommodation of Settlers
reconstructs the experiences of people in these spaces - both immigrants
and government agents - to pose a question at the heart of architectural
thinking: how is meaning produced in the built environments that we
encounter? David Monteyne interprets official governmental intentions
and policy goals embodied by the architecture of immigration but
foregrounds the unofficial, informal practices of people who negotiated
these spaces to satisfy basic needs, ensure the safety of their
families, learn about land and job opportunities, and ultimately arrive
at their destinations. The extent of this Canadian network, which peaked
in the early twentieth century at over sixty different sites, and the
range of building types that comprised it are unique among
immigrant-receiving nations in this period. In our era of pandemic
quarantine and migrant detention facilities, For the Temporary
Accommodation of Settlers offers new ways of seeing and thinking about
the historical processes of immigration, challenging readers to consider
government architecture and the experience of migrants across global
networks.
