After the Second World War, there was a huge influx of immigrants from the Netherlands to Canada. Faced with the problem of overpopulation and rebuilding a war-ravaged country and economy, the Netherlands was eager to encourage emigration. When Canada was grudgingly looking to reopen immigration in the late 1940s after the hiatus of the Great Depression and the war, the immigration policy remained highly selective until the late 1960s. But along with the British and Americans, Northern Europeans like the Dutch were favoured by Canada and actively courted. When economic factors slowed Dutch emigration, the Canadian federal government stepped in to assist financially to maintain the flow of immigrants.