This accession is a nearly complete set of "Monthly Operational Reports" on Immigration Branch activities for the period January 1951 - December 1977. These reports were compiled monthly from 1951 onwards in mimeo form for internal departmental use, originally by the Operations Division and later by the offices in charge of statistics (Program Data Division/Directorate of the Immigration Division/Immigration and Demographic Policy Group). In the period 1951-59 some issues are annotated, and some appear to be the original drafts from which the finished statistical tables were compiled.
Each of the reports contains either a narrative report with statistical tables (1951-1956, 1958-1967) or statistical tables only (1957, 1968-1977). The narrative reports consist of one to seven pages describing Immigration Branch activities and immigration trends in the month, reporting especially on specific classes of immigration traffic, the overseas conditions influencing it, analysis of the statistical trends of the month, and action planned as a result. Comments by or on specific field offices are often included (e.g. on local foreign economic conditions affecting migration, or on employment prospects in particular parts of Canada). The narratives from about 1960 to 1967 relate almost entirely to overseas activities. The extensive statistical tables of immigration activities include tabulations of immigrant and sponsorship applications, interviews, investigations, approvals, and refusals; visas issued or refused; hostels used; shipping traffic; publicity activities (films and shows); overseas meetings held; and statistics for special "hot" posts (Hong Kong, New Delhi) and for "group movements" by occupation and nationality (e.g. persons of Chinese ancestry and farm worker groups). The later reports tend to be tabulated province by province and cover a slightly different range of subjects (including information on employment and housing prospects for immigrants on arrival in Canada).
The reports are bound in annual volumes. Box 1 covers 1951-1960, Box 2 covers 1961-1967, and Box 3 covers 1968-1977.
