Uprooted: the shipment of poor children to Canada, 1867-1917

Roy Parker’s new book Uprooted has been well received by social policy makers and political scientists in Europe and North America. 
 

He writes about the 80,000 children shipped unaccompanied by relatives to Canada in the 50 years between 1867 and 1917.
The policy of emigrating impoverished children to Australia, Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe continued in some form until the early 1970s. As Social Research Unit Director Michael Little points out in his review for Adoption and Fostering, the history of this apparently harebrained idea encourages reflection on the potential absurdities in current children’s services.
 
"What is striking about Parker’s book is how broad was the constituency of people who colluded in promoting an intervention that sounded plausible – giving destitute children a fresh start in a new country – but was ultimately highly damaging," he says.
 
Roy Parker is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of Bristol and Founding Fellow of the Centre for Social Policy at Dartington. Uprooted: The Shipment of Poor Children to Canada 1867-1917 is published by Policy Press in Bristol.