In Switzerland, between the 1850s and the mid-20th century, hundreds of thousands of children were forcefully removed from their parents by the authorities, and sent to work on farms, living with new families. These children usually came from poor or single parents, and were used as free labor by farmers, and were known as "contract children" or "Verdingkinder". In some Western countries throughout the 20th century and until the 1970s, children from certain ethnic minority origins were forcefully removed from their families and communities by state and church authorities and forced to "assimilate". Such policies include the Stolen Generations (in Australia for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children) and the Canadian Indian residential school system (in Canada for First Nations, Métis and Inuit), with such children often suffering severe abuse.