History of Chinese immigration to Canada

'' at Nootka Sound, 1788|left In 1788, some 120 Chinese contract labourers arrived at Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island. British fur trader John Meares recruited an initial group of 50 sailors and artisans from Canton (Guangzhou) and Macao, China, hoping to build a trading post and encourage trade in sea otter pelts between Nootka Sound and Canton. and later taken to Mexico. No other Chinese people are known to have arrived in western North America until the gold rush of the 1850s. == Gold Rush, 1858 ==

The Chinese first appeared in large numbers in the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1858 as part of a huge migration from California during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in the newly declared Colony of British Columbia. Although the first wave arrived in May from California, news of the gold rush eventually attracted many people from China. As a result, Barkerville, British Columbia—located in the Cariboo—became Canada's first Chinese community, == Immigration for the railway, 1871–82 ==

When British Columbia (BC) agreed to join Confederation in 1871, one of its conditions was that the Government of Canada build a railway linking BC to Eastern Canada within 10 years. British Columbian politicians and their electorate agitated for a settlement-immigration program for workers from the British Isles to provide this railway labour; however, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, along with investors and other Canadian politicians, said this would be too expensive. In opposition, however, the Workingmen's Protective Association was established in 1878 in Victoria with the following purpose:The objects of this society shall be the mutual protection of the working classes of British Columbia against the great influx of Chinese; to use all legitimate means for the suppression of their immigration; to assist each other in the obtaining of employment, and to devise means for the amelioration of the condition of the working classes of the Province in general.Insisting that the project cut costs by employing Chinese workers to build the railway, Prime Minister MacDonald told Parliament in 1882: "It is simply a question of alternatives: either you must have this labour or you can't have the railway." In 1880, Andrew Onderdonk — an American who was one of the main construction contractors in British Columbia for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) — originally recruited Chinese labourers from California. When most of them deserted the railway workings for the more lucrative goldfields, Onderdonk and his agents signed several agreements with Chinese contractors in China's Guangdong province and Taiwan, as well as via Chinese companies in Victoria. These Chinese railway workers were hired for the of the CPR considered to be among the more difficult segments of the projected railway, particularly the area that goes through the Fraser Canyon. Chinese-Canadian labour was characterized by low wages (usually less than 50% of what Caucasian workers were paid for the same work) and high levels of volatility. In the early 1880s, there were about 129 small clans in Canada whose members mostly came from just one or two counties in China. They extend from political groups in China, but in Canada their function was not necessarily related to political activities, focusing more on economic or other activity in the local community. Many of these associations were connected in larger community networks such as the Chinese Benevolent Association (CBA). CBA represented its member associations and acted as a political body that could interact with non-affiliated non-Chinese groups. Although there was a lot of community solidarity, the clan system was sometimes a divisive force that fostered conflict or cross-association feuds. Other immigrant groups in Canada also organized mutual-aid and cultural societies and associations, but none as extensive or cross-cutting as the Chinese. The Chinese associations were organized not just as a response to discrimination but also reflected the socio-cultural peculiarities of southeastern China. == After completion of the CPR 1885–1947 ==

From the completion of the CPR to the end of the Exclusion Era (1923–1947) which banned most Chinese immigration, Chinese in Canada lived mainly in a "bachelors of the backpack society", since most Chinese families could not pay the expensive head tax to send their daughters to Canada. As with many other groups of immigrants, the Chinese initially found it hard to adjust and assimilate into life in Canada. In response they formed ethnic enclaves known as "Chinatowns" where they could live alongside fellow Chinese immigrants, where the vast majority of Chinese Canadians in BC lived during the 1880s. Originally, the Chinese were often stereotyped as —temporary. Especially during the 19th century, white society in British Columbia perceived the Chinese as people who could not be assimilated. After the 1885 legislation failed to deter Chinese immigration, the Canadian government passed the Chinese Immigration Act, 1900 to increase the tax to $100. The Chinese had no choice but to pay it, although it was two years' salary for a railway worker. Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, 1885 Soon afterward, Chinese merchants among larger Chinese communities formed the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA), Royal Commission and Chinese professions, 1902–07 In 1902, the federal government appointed a Royal Commission on Chinese and Japanese Immigration, which concluded that "the Chinese are more unhealthy as a class than the same class of white people," and that they were "unfit for full citizenship...obnoxious to a free community and dangerous to the state." following demands by B.C. politicians. In BC, Chinese professionals were prohibited from practicing such professions as law, pharmacy, and accountancy. During the 40 years after 1885, following the completion of the CPR, Chinese persons became involved in the labor behind an industrializing economy. With legislation banning Chinese from many professions, Chinese entered those that non-Chinese Canadians did not want to do, such as laundry shops or salmon processing. Skilled or semi-skilled, Chinese Canadians labored in British Columbia sawmills and canneries; others became market gardeners or grocers, pedlars, shopkeepers, and restaurateurs. In the late 1920s, it was estimated that there were only five married Chinese women in Calgary, and six in Edmonton. == Post-war period,1947–99==

After the Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 was repealed in 1947, the majority of ethnic Chinese who immigrated to Canada until the early 1970s came from the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Other ethnic Chinese immigrants came from South Asia, Southeast Asia, South Africa, the Caribbean, and South America. The data used in the report, however, proved to be inaccurate. The Canadian Bureau for International Education revealed that there were only 55,000 foreign students in Canada at all levels of education, and only 20,000 full-time foreign university students. Historian Anthony B. Chan devoted an entire chapter of his 1983 book Gold Mountain to the incident, and found that, contrary to the claims of the prospective pharmacy student, there were no foreign students in Toronto's program that year. Chan emphasized the anger that the Chinese-Canadian community had about the images of anonymous Chinese people in the feature was because they felt the "implication was that all students of Chinese origin were foreigners, and that Canadian taxpayers were subsidizing Chinese students—regardless of citizenship." Chinese communities nationwide staged protests against CTV Television, the network that airs W5. Initially, CTV would only offer a "statement of regret" but the protests continued until it apologized in 1980. Network executive Murray Chercover acknowledged the inaccuracy of a great deal of the program's information, adding that the network "sincerely apologize[s] for the fact Chinese-Canadians were depicted as foreigners, and for whatever distress this stereotyping may have caused them in the context of our multicultural society." The protesters met in Toronto in 1980 and agreed to form the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) to better represent Chinese Canadians on a national level. 1980s–90s The 1980s saw movement of Chinese in Canada from the ethnic enclaves of Chinatowns to outlying suburbs of major Canadian cities. This movement was seen by some as changing the fabric of some communities with the establishment of new ethnic enclaves, commercial areas, and use of Chinese-language signage. Carole Bell, Deputy Mayor of Markham, Ontario, said that the overwhelming Chinese presence in the city was causing other residents to move out of Markham. Additionally during the 1980s, local communities in Toronto and Vancouver blamed the Chinese immigrants for hyperinflating property prices. During the mid-1980s and early 1990s, Canada's recession and growth of the Chinese economy resulted in a shift in Chinese migration in Canada. Attracted by the employment opportunities back home, some newer immigrants moved back, with many retaining their Canadian citizenship. This resulted in the phenomenon of astronaut families, where the husband and money-earner would only visit Canada once or twice a year, usually in December or in summer, while the rest of the family would live in Canada. The Chinese community also sought redress for past injustices done against them. Since the early 1980s, there has been a campaign to redress the Head Tax paid by Chinese entering Canada from 1885 to 1923, led by the CCNC. However, the movement did not gather enough support to be noticed by the government until the 1990s. Still, the government was largely resistant to the calls to apologize and refund the head tax to the payers or their descendants. Canadian courts also ruled that while the government had no legal obligation to redress the head tax, it had a moral obligation to do so. The Liberal governments of the 1990s adopted the position of "no apology, no compensation" as the basis of negotiating with the Chinese groups and were criticized for stonewalling the Chinese community. Immigrants from Hong Kong, late 1990s With the political uncertainties as Hong Kong headed towards transfer of sovereignty from the UK to China in 1997, many Hong Kong residents chose to emigrate to Canada, as it was easier for them to enter Canada than many other countries due to their Commonwealth of Nations connections. In addition the US set fixed quotas for different nationalities, while Canada ran on a "points" system, allowing immigrants to arrive if they had desirable attributes such as graduate degrees, training, funds to start new businesses and language abilities. According to statistics compiled by the Canadian Consulate in Hong Kong, from 1991 to 1996, "about 30,000 Hong Kongers emigrated annually to Canada, comprising over half of all Hong Kong emigration and about 20% of the total number of immigrants to Canada." The great majority of these people settled in the Toronto and Vancouver areas, with well-established Chinese communities. After the handover, there was a sharp decline in immigration numbers, possibly indicating a smooth transition towards political stability. In the following years the unemployment and underemployment of many Hong Kong immigrants in Canada prompted many to return. ==Immigration in the 21st century==

in Markham consists of some 400 shops catering to Chinese-Canadians Today, Mainland China has taken over from Hong Kong as the largest source of Chinese immigration, and become the origin of most immigration to Canada in general. A great number of immigrants have been Cantonese speakers, and a disproportionate representation of Cantonese over other Chinese immigrants is prevalent in many Chinese communities in Canada. According to statistics from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), between 1999 and 2009 the largest number of immigrants to Canada came from the PRC. By 2010, 36,580 immigrants from the Philippines surpassed the 30,195 from the PRC. Filipinos retained their status as the largest immigrant group to Canada in 2011 with 34,991, against the PRC with 28,696. == See also ==