Canada is internationally recognized for its long-standing and comparatively generous refugee
policy. The United Empire Loyalists can be considered Canaada's first refugees.
True. With the American Revolution, Loyalists, migrated northward not
really by choice, but because they did not wish to become citizens of the new America and feared
retribution for their loyalty to England. Mennonites also migrated north to British Canada after the
American Revolution. They felt the war of Independence threatened their religious and pacifist
beliefs.
In 1986, the people of Canada received the Nansen Medal(named for Fridtjof Nansen, first High
Commissioner for Refugees) from the United Nations for our efforts on behalf of refugees. It was the
first time that an entire nation received this award.
