Between 1973 and 1978, six thousand Chileans leftists took refuge in central Canada after the Pinochet coup d’état. Once resettled at the northern extreme of the Americas, these political exiles had to find ways of coping with an abrupt and violent separation from their homeland that had deep material and emotional repercussions. In Young, Well-Educated, and Adaptable, Francis Peddie documents the experiences of twenty-one Chileans as they navigate their newfound identity as exiles. Peddie also considers how the admission of people from the wrong side of the Cold War ideological divide had an effect on Canadian immigration and refugee policy, establishing a precedent for the admission of political exiles over the decades that followed.

Francis Peddie is a historian of Latin America and Canadian immigration originally from Toronto. He teaches at Nagoya University in Japan.

Francis Peddie's profile page

Royden Loewen is a senior scholar at the University of Winnipeg. His books include Horse-and-Buggy Genius: Listening to Mennonites Contest the Modern World and Village Among Nations: "Canadian" Mennonites in a Transnational World, 1916–2006.

Royden Loewen's profile page

"The 6,000 Chileans who made their way to Canada between 1973 and 1978 arrived as political refugees who were obliged to reconstruct their lives in a society that was at best ambivalent to the forces that drove them out of Chile. Francis Peddie’s book provides a highly readable and insightful overview of the Chilean refugee experience in Canada. Young, Well-Educated, and Adaptable is based on interviews with Chilean refugees about politics, Canadian society and tragedy of longing to return. While the focus of this book is on one community, readers familiar with other communities of exiles will identify with the stories and experiences that are common to so many Canadians. Peddie not only looks at adjustment to life in a new society, he also provides a solid historical background setting Chile and Canada in the context of the Cold War. Young, Well-Educated, and Adaptable is more than just a history of an exile community, it is a story about Canada and our record of providing refuge to people from around the world."

Lakehead University

“Allows for a broad and comprehensive understanding of the exile, settlement, and integration/reintegration process for the first wave of Chilean exiles to Canada, as a result of the coup d‘état and ensuing repression.”

Refuge

"A well-written, accessible, and rich social history of Chilean exiles who fled to Canada after the 1973 coup against Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity government. A fantastic look at these exiles’ migration and settlement, the book offers keen insights..."

Canadian Journal of History