History of Chinese immigration to Canada
Part of Canadian citizenship |
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Chinese immigrants were initially sought after by Canadian employers as a source of cheap labour due to Canada's relative wealth at the time and the difficult economic conditions in China. Between 1880 and 1885, the primary work for Chinese labourers in Canada was on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) but records of Chinese immigration start more than a century earlier.[1]
Nootka Sound, 1770s
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/The_launch_of_the_North_West_America_at_Nootka_Sound_by_John_Meares.jpg/250px-The_launch_of_the_North_West_America_at_Nootka_Sound_by_John_Meares.jpg)
In 1788, some 120 Chinese
The Chinese were, on this occasion, shipped as an experiment: they have generally been esteemed as hardy, and industrious, as well as the ingenious race of people; they live on fish and rice, and requiring low wages, it was actually not a matter also of economical consideration to employing them; and during the whole of the voyage there was every reason to be satisfied with their services. If trading posts should be established on the American coast, a colony of these men would be a very valuable acquisition.
— John Meares, Voyages Made in the Years 1788 and 1789, from China to the North West Coast of America[3]: 2
The next year, Meares had another 70 Chinese brought in from Canton. However, shortly after the arrival of this second group, the settlement was seized by the Spanish in what became known as the Nootka Crisis. Seeking to establish a trade monopoly on the West Coast, the Spanish imprisoned the Chinese men.[1] It is unclear what became of them,[2]: 312 but likely some returned to China while others were put to work in a nearby mine[4]: 196 and later taken to Mexico.[5]: 106 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
There was no shortage of successful Chinese miners: by 1860, the Chinese population of Vancouver Island and British Columbia was estimated to be 7,000.
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 labor; 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.[8]
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."[9]
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 laborers 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.[citation needed] These Chinese railway workers would be hired for the 200 miles (320 km) of the CPR considered to be among the more difficult segments of the projected railway, particularly the area that goes through the Fraser Canyon.[citation needed]
Chinese-Canadian labor was characterized by low wages (usually receiving less than 50% of what Caucasian workers were paid for the same work) and high levels of volatility.[1] Through Onderdonk's contracts, more than 5,000 laborers were sent as "guest workers" from China by ship, in addition to over 7,000 Chinese railway workers from California whom Onderdonk also recruited. These two groups of workers, who were willing to accept CA$1 a day for their labor, were the main force for the building of Onderdonk's 7% of the railway's mileage.[citation needed]
Between 1880 and 1885, 17,000 Chinese laborers completed the British Columbia section of the CPR, with more than 700 perishing due to appalling working conditions.[1] As was the case with non-Chinese workers, some of the laborers fell ill during construction, or died while planting explosives or in other construction accidents.[citation needed]
As with railway workers on other parts of the line in the Prairies and Northern Ontario, most of the Chinese workers lived in canvas tents.[citation needed] These tents were often unsafe and did not provide adequate protection against falling rocks or severe weather in areas of steep terrain. Such tents were typical of working-class accommodations on the frontier for all immigrant workers although (non-Chinese) foremen, shift bosses, and trained railwaymen recruited from the UK were housed in sleeping cars and railway-built houses in Yale and the other railway towns. Chinese railway workers also established transient Chinatowns along the rail line, with housing at the largest consisting of log-houses half dug into the ground, which was a common housing style for natives as well as other frontier settlers, because of the insulating effect of the ground in an area of extreme temperatures.[citation needed]
Largely because of the Trans-Canada railway, Chinese communities developed across the nation, with the vast majority of Chinese Canadians lived in British Columbia during the 1880s.[1]
Clan associations, community structure and support
For much of the 19th and 20th century most Chinese people in Canada were a part of clan associations (based on the tsung-tsu system), which provided a strong community support network. Membership in these associations were mostly based on surnames which assumes that everyone with the same surname shared a remote common ancestor.[10] In the early 1880s, there were about 129 clans in Canada and each was quite small, but interestingly, the membership in each clan mostly came from just one or two counties in China.[10] This reveals streams of migration from certain villages in China to locations in British Columbia, lasting through generations. There were also clan associations that limited membership based on village/county rather than surname, and two prominent associations that were free for anyone to join - the Chinese Freemasons and Kuomintang.[11] They extend from political groups in China, but in Canada, their significance was not necessarily related to political activities, focusing more on economic or other functions in the local community.[11] Many of these associations were joined in larger community networks, such as the Chinese Benevolent Association (CBA).[11] CBA represented their member associations and acted as a political body that could interact with external, 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.[10] Other immigrant groups in Canada also organized mutual-aid and cultural societies and associations, but none as extensive or cross-cutting as the Chinese.[11] 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
As with many other groups of immigrants, the Chinese initially found it hard to adjust and assimilate into life in Canada. As a result, they formed
[I]t is charged that the Chinese do not emigrate to foreign countries to remain, but only to earn a sum of money and return to their homes in China. It is only about thirty years since our people commenced emigrating to other lands. A large number have gone to the Straits' Settlements, Manila, Cochin China, and the West India Islands, and are permanently settled there with their families. In Cuba, fully seventy-five percent have married native women and adopted those Islands as their future homes. Many of those living in the Sandwich Islands have done the same... You must recollect that the Chinese immigrant coming to this country is denied all the rights and privileges extended to others in the way of citizenship; the laws compel them to remain aliens. I know a great many Chinese will be glad to remain here permanently with their families if they are allowed to be naturalized and can enjoy privileges and rights.[1]
By 1886, the population of Victoria Chinatown had increased tenfold from the completion of the CPR to over 17,000;[8] and at the turn of the 20th century, there were 17,312 Chinese settlers in Canada.[1] By the 1940s, almost 50% of the Chinese-Canadian population lived on the West Coast.[1]
Immigration Acts and Exclusion Era, 1885–1947
In 1885, the Government of Canada passed the
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, 1885
Soon afterward, Chinese merchants among larger Chinese communities formed the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA),[1] which was registered as a charitable organization in August 1884, but effectively served as an "internal administrative institution" in the Chinese-Canadian community.[8] The CCBA opened their first branch in Victoria in 1885 and a second in Vancouver in 1895. The Association was mandatory for all Chinese in the area to join and would do everything from representing members in legal disputes to sending the remains of members who died back to their ancestral homelands in China.[citation needed]
In addition, during the early 20th century, fraternal-political associations such as the
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."[1] Through the Chinese Immigration Act, 1903, the Government would further increase the landing fees to $500 (equivalent to CA$10,336.27 in 2021)[16] following demand by B.C. politicians.[1] Following the 1903 legislation of $500, the number of Chinese who paid the fee in the first fiscal year dropped from 4,719 to 8.[1]
In addition to federal legislation, municipal ordinances restricted employment opportunities.
Exclusion Act, 1923
The Chinese Immigration Act, 1923, better known as the "Chinese Exclusion Act", replaced prohibitive fees with an outright ban on Chinese immigration to Canada with the exceptions of merchants, diplomats, students, and "special circumstances" cases. (Ethnic Chinese people with British nationality were also restricted from entering Canada.)[1] The Chinese who entered Canada prior to 1924 had to register with the local authorities and could leave Canada only for two years or less.[citation needed]
Just before the enactment of the Exclusion Act, the Chinese Association of Canada went to Ottawa to lobby against the bill.
The discriminatory laws also gave way to a gender imbalance among Chinese immigrants. Primarily due to the head tax, the cost of bringing a dependent, such as a wife or aged parents, to Canada became prohibitive. As such, Chinese men typically came alone, living as bachelors in Canada. In 1886, there were only 119 females among a total population of 1680;[18][8] in 1931, only 3,648 were women among a total Chinese population of 46,519. A survey was done in 1922 by Republican China's Overseas Chinese Bureau showed that, among Victoria Chinatown's whole population of 3,681, only 456 were females.[19] In the late 1920s, it was estimated that there were only five married Chinese women in Calgary and six in Edmonton.[1]
Post-war period, 1947–99
With the Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 being repealed in 1947, the majority of immigrants in Canada emigrated from the People's Republic of China, including Hong Kong, and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Other Chinese immigrants have come from South Asia, Southeast Asia, South Africa, the Caribbean, and South America.[1] From 1947 to the early 1970s, Chinese immigrants to Canada came mostly from Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Southeast Asia.[1] Chinese-Canadians gained the vote federally and provincially in 1947.[1] Chinese immigration, still, was limited only to the spouse of a Chinese man who had Canadian citizenship and his dependents.
After the founding of the
Chinese Adjustment Statement Program and other policies, 1960–73
In 1959, the
Independent Chinese immigration in Canada came after Canada eliminated race and the "place of origin" section from its immigration policy in 1967. Four years later, in 1971, an official policy of multiculturalism was implemented in efforts to tackle institutional racism.
Many Chinese also enlisted in the Canadian forces, despite Ottawa and the BC government being unwilling to send Chinese-Canadian recruits into action, since they did not want Chinese to ask for enfranchisement after the war. However, with 90,000 British troops captured in the
Late 1970s
A turning point for Chinese in Canada was an incident in September 1979 involving a report on a high-profile current affairs series on commercial Canadian TV,
The report, suggesting that there were 100,000 foreign students, featured a girl complaining that her high marks had not allowed her into the University of Toronto's pharmacy program because seats had been taken up by foreign students.[20]
The data used in the report, however, proved 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.[20] 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.[20] 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."[20]
Chinese communities nationwide staged protests against CTV Television, the network that airs W5.[20] Initially, CTV would only offer a "statement of regret" but the protests continued until an apology was made 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."[20] 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, expressed 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 have accused the Chinese immigrants for hyperinflating property prices.
During the mid-1980s and early 1990s, Canada's recession and growth of the
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 of apologizing and refunding 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.[citation needed]
Immigrants from Hong Kong, late 1990s
With the political uncertainties as
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, as there are well-established Chinese communities in those cities. After the Handover, there was a sharp decline in immigration numbers, possibly indicating a smooth transition towards political stability. In the years to come, the unemployment and underemployment of many Hong Kong immigrants in Canada prompted a stream of returning migrants.[citation needed]
Immigration in the 21st century
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Pacific_Mall_-_Interior_-_2006_%28cropped%2Crotated%29.jpg/300px-Pacific_Mall_-_Interior_-_2006_%28cropped%2Crotated%29.jpg)
Today, Mainland China has taken over from Hong Kong as the largest source of Chinese immigration. 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. The People's Republic of China (PRC) has also taken over from all countries and regions as the country sending the most immigrants to Canada.
According to statistics from
Chinese-Canadians have become more involved in politics, both provincially and federally.
- After two failed attempts, New Democratic Party candidate Olivia Chow (wife of NDP leader Jack Layton) was elected in the 2006 federal election, representing the riding of Trinity—Spadina, and in 2023 became the leading candidate in the city of Toronto's mayoral race.
- Alan Lowe became the first Chinese-Canadian Mayor of Victoria BC (1999–2008).
- Gordon Campbell's administration.
- The Bloc Québécois had an ethnic-Chinese candidate, May Chiu, running in the riding of LaSalle—Émard against Liberal Party leader Paul Martin during the 2006 election.
- Philip Lee became the first Asian Lieutenant-Governorin Manitoba.
- Norman Kwong, Canada's first professional Chinese-Canadian football player, also became Alberta's first Chinese Lieutenant-Governor.
Because of the influx of Chinese emigrants from the global diaspora, community organizations reflecting Chinese people from Cuba, India, Jamaica, Mauritius, Peru, and so on, have established a considerable presence in Canada. Immigrants from the PRC have organized into many associations. The Chinese Professionals Association of Canada (CPAC) reported having a membership of over 30,000 in 2019. In terms of education, the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia was created in 2004 to educate the general public about Chinese people in Canada; the University of Toronto's Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library is a dedicated resource centre for Chinese-Canadian studies; the Toronto-based Chinese Culture and Education Society of Canada teaches Chinese and aims to develop education and cultural exchanges between Canada and China.[1]
Apology and redress, 2004–06
During the
The Liberal Party, which lost the 2006 election (as the outgoing government) changed their positions and were accused of "flip-flopping" on the issue during the election campaign as well as being questioned about their sincerity. Many Chinese, particularly the surviving head-tax payers and their descendants criticized Raymond Chan, the Chinese-Canadian cabinet minister who was left in charge of settling the matter, for compromising the Chinese community in favour of the government and misleading the public.[citation needed]
On 22 June 2006, Prime Minister
See also
- Chinese head tax in Canada
- Chinese Immigration Act, 1923
- Immigration to Canada
- Chinese Canadians in British Columbia
- Chinese Canadians in Ontario
- Asiatic Exclusion League
- Lost Years: A People's Struggle for Justice
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj Chan, Anthony B. (22 May 2019). "Chinese Canadians". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Ottawa: Historica Canada. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7425-1756-1. Archivedfrom the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
- ^ Meares, John (1790). Voyages Made in the Years 1788 and 1789, from China to the North West Coast of America: To which are Prefixed, an Introductory Narrative of a Voyage Performed in 1786, from Bengal, in the Ship Nootka; Observations on the Probable Existence of a northwest Passage; and Some Account of the Trade Between the North West Coast of America and China; and the Latter Country and Great Britain.
- ISBN 978-1-4363-0943-1.
- ISBN 978-0-7748-4352-2.
- ^ a b Wade, Mark S. (1979). The Cariboo Road. Victoria, B.C.: The Haunted Bookshop.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-919462-84-7.
- ^ from the original on 25 February 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
- ISBN 0-14-011763-6.
- ^ .
- ^ .
- ^ CBC television reporter, Eve Savory: "The National Magazine", 27 June 1997.
- ^ "List of Acts passed in British Columbia in 1873 and 1876, 1877 and 1878, 1879 including the Land Tax Act and Chinese Tax Act". Library and Archives Canada.
- ^ Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. "Bulletin inviting contributions to the Association". University of Victoria Libraries Digital Collections.
- ^ "Canadian Genealogy Centre: Chinese". Library and Archives Canada. Archived from the original on 7 December 2008. Retrieved 20 March 2009.
- Consumer Price Index) since 1914 provided by Statistics Canada can be found e.g. at the Bank of Canada inflation calculator Archived 10 May 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Wai-Man, Lee (Spring–Summer 1984). "Dance No More: Chinese Hand Laundries in Toronto". Polyphony. 6 (1): 32. Archived from the original on 5 September 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
- ^ Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. "List of numbers and occupations of Chinese in British Columbia". University of Victoria Libraries Digital Collections. Archived from the original on 10 September 2015.
- ^ Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. "Chinese population and their occupations in Victoria". University of Victoria Libraries Digital Collections.
- ^ CBC Archives. Archivedfrom the original on 2 July 2012. Retrieved 31 July 2008.
- ^ "Immigration Overview: Permanent Residents by Top Source Countries". Citizenship and Immigration Canada. 18 August 2006. Archived from the original on 7 October 2006. Retrieved 10 May 2007.
- ^ "PM apologizes in House of Commons for head tax". CTV News. 22 June 2006. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
- ^ "Canadian government apologies to Chinese immigrants". RTHK. 23 June 2006. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007.
- ^ "Stephen Harper apologizes to Chinese immigrants (Video)". RTHK. Archived from the original on 13 December 2007. (19 to 34 seconds)
Further reading
- Bangarth, Stephanie D. (September 2003). "'We are not asking you to open the gates for Chinese immigration': The Committee for the Repeal of the Chinese Immigration Act and Early Human Rights Activism in Canada". Canadian Historical Review. 84 (3): 395–442.
- Chan, Anthony B. (1983). The Chinese in the New World. Vancouver, BC: New Star.
- Clayton, Jenny. "Victoria Chinese Canadian Veterans Association: Veteran fighters for Canada and Chinese Canadian Citizenship". Victoria Chinatown.
- Historica Canada (1990). Nitro. Heritage Minutes.
- Hoong, Ng Weng (27 November 2013). "New B.C. book unearths Chinese labourers' secret role in First World War". The Georgia Straight.
- Li, Peter S. (1998). Chinese in Canada (2nd ed.). Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.
- Li, Peter S. (1999). "Chinese". Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples. Toronto: Multicultural History Society of Ontario.
- Lum, Janet (1991). "Recognition and the Toronto Chinese Community". In Evans, Paul M. & Frolic, B. Michael (eds.). Reluctant Adversaries: Canada and the People's Republic of China, 1949-1970. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press. pp. 217–239. (It is a discussion on the Toronto Chinese's view on Canada recognizing the PRC in 1969–1970).
- Morton, James (1974). In the Sea of Sterile Mountains: The Chinese in British Columbia. Vancouver, BC: J.J. Douglas. (A thorough discussion of Chinese immigration and life in BC, railway politics and a detailed profile of the political agendas and personalities of the time).
- Ng, Wing Chung (1999). The Chinese in Vancouver, 1945-80: The Pursuit of Identity and Power. Vancouver: UBC Press.
- Roy, Patricia (1989). A White Man's Province: British Columbia politicians and Chinese and Japanese Immigrants, 1858-1914. Vancouver: UBC Press.
- Roy, Patricia (2003). The Oriental Question : Consolidating a white man's province, 1914-41. Vancouver: UBC Press.
- Scholefield, E.O.S. & Howay, Frederic William (1914). "Chapter XXXII - Chinese and Japanese Immigration". British Columbia from the earliest times to the present, Vol. 2. Vancouver, British Columbia: S.J. Clarke Pub. Co.
- Sciban, Lloyd. "Important Events in the History of the Chinese in Canada". Multicultural Canada.
External links
Library resources
- Chinese Canadian Genealogy at the Vancouver Public Library
- Chinese-Canadians: Profiles from a Community - Vancouver Public Library wiki
- Chinese Immigration in BC - An archival collection from the UBC Library Digital Collections documenting Chinese settlement in British Columbia
- Historic Chinese Language Materials in British Columbia, Asian Library and the Centre for Chinese Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
- Multicultural Canada website - includes eight full-text searchable Chinese newspapers from B.C. and Ontario, publications relating to immigration, photographs, and the records of Victoria's Chinese Benevolent Association and the Cheekungtong (Chinese Freemasons) of Victoria and Vancouver
- The Early Chinese Canadians 1858-1947, Library and Archives Canada