|
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Total population | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,346,510[1] 3.9% of the Canadian population (2006) |
||||||||||||||||||
| Regions with significant populations | ||||||||||||||||||
| Canada | ||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Languages | ||||||||||||||||||
|
Cantonese, Mandarin, Canadian English, Quebec French, Hakka, Min Dong, Teochew |
||||||||||||||||||
| Religion | ||||||||||||||||||
|
56% non-religious or folk-religious · 14% Buddhist · 14% Catholic · 9% Protestant · Taoist · Confucian[2] |
||||||||||||||||||
| Related ethnic groups | ||||||||||||||||||
Chinese Canadians are Canadians of Chinese descent. They constitute the second-largest visible minority group in Canada, after South Asian Canadians. Canada contains one of the largest populations of overseas Chinese, and has the second largest population of Chinese people outside of Asia, after the United States.
People of Chinese descent, including mixed Chinese and other ethnic origin, make up about four percent of the Canadian population, or about 1.3 million people. Most of them are concentrated within the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario. The five metropolitan areas with the largest Chinese Canadian populations are the Greater Toronto Area (537,060), Metro Vancouver (402,000), Greater Montreal (83,000), Calgary Region (75,410), and the Edmonton Capital Region (53,670).
Contents |
The first record of Chinese in what is known as Canada today can be dated back to 1788. The renegade British Captain James Meares hired a group of roughly 70 Chinese carpenters from Macau and employed them to build a ship the North West America, at Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, then an increasingly important European outpost on the Pacific coast. When the shipbuilding was done, Meares relocated the Chinese to San Blas, Mexico,
The first substantial wave of Chinese immigrants into the British colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia began in 1858 with the onset of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush and a mass migration from the California gold fields. Most of these Chinese were "sojourners" in a sense, in that most of them planned on returning to their homeland after working in British North America for a period of time. Many came to British Columbia as common labourers and most were paid only in vouchers and mats of rice[3] so they were captives of the Chinese-owned firms that imported them. Gold rushes elsewhere in the British Columbia Interior also attracted a significant number of miners, many of them defectors from the railway camps, many of whom engaged in ranching and farming as well as mercantile pursuits. Chinese ranchers and farmers controlled large amounts of land in the BC Interior, and were the dominant ownership of the region's gold mines after the initial gold rushes waned. Chinese freight companies were also notable in all the gold rushes, as well as merchants of all kinds.
Many workers from Fujian and Guangdong Provinces arrived to help build the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 19th century as did Chinese veterans of the gold rushes. These workers accepted the terms offered by the Chinese labour contractors who were engaged by the railway construction company to hire them - low pay, long hours, lower wages than non-Chinese workers and dangerous working conditions, in order to support their families that stayed in China. Their willingness to endure hardship for low wages enraged fellow non-Chinese workers who thought they were unnecessarily complicating the labour market situations. From the passage of the Chinese Immigration Act in 1885, the Canadian government began to charge a substantial Head Tax for each Chinese person trying to immigrate to Canada. The Chinese were the only ethnic group that had to pay such a tax.
In 1923, the federal Liberal government of William Lyon Mackenzie King banned Chinese immigration with the passage of the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, although numerous exemptions for businessmen, clergy, students and others did not end immigration entirely.[4] With this act, the Chinese received similar legal treatment to blacks before them who Canada also had specifically excluded from immigration on the basis of race. (This was formalised in 1911 by Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier who in Sub-section (c) of Section 38 of the Immigration Act called blacks "unsuitable" for Canada.) During the next 25 years, more and more laws against the Chinese were passed. Most jobs were closed to Chinese men and women,. Many Chinese opened their own restaurants and laundry businesses. In British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario, Chinese employers were not allowed to hire white females, so most Chinese businesses became Chinese-only.[5]
Some of those Chinese Canadian workers settled in Canada after the railway was constructed. Most could not bring the rest of their families, including immediate relatives, due to government restrictions and enormous processing fees. They established Chinatowns and societies in undesirable sections of the cities, such as Dupont Street (now East Pender) in Vancouver, which had been the focus of the early city's red-light district until Chinese merchants took over the area from the 1890s onwards.
During the Great Depression, life was even tougher for the Chinese than it was for other Canadians. In Alberta, for example, Chinese-Canadians received relief payments of less than half the amount paid to other Canadians. And because The Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited any additional immigration from China, the Chinese men who had arrived earlier had to face these hardships alone, without the companionship of their wives and children.
Census data from 1931 shows that there were 1,240 men to every 100 women in Chinese-Canadian communities. To protest The Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese-Canadians closed their businesses and boycotted Dominion Day celebrations every July 1, which became known as “Humiliation Day” by the Chinese-Canadians.[6]
Canada was slow to lift the restrictions against the Chinese-Canadians and grant them full rights as Canadian citizens. Because Canada signed the United Nations' Charter of Human Rights at the conclusion of the Second World War, the Canadian government had to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act, which contravened the UN Charter. The same year, 1947, Chinese-Canadians were finally granted the right to vote in federal elections. But it took another 20 years, until the points system was adopted for selecting immigrants, that the Chinese began to be admitted under the same criteria as any other applicants.
After many years of organized calls for an official Canadian government public apology and redress to the historic Head tax, the minority Conservative government of Stephen Harper announced as part of their pre-election campaign, an official apology. On June 22, 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a message of redress in the House of Commons, calling it a "grave injustice".
Some educated Chinese arrived in Canada during the war as refugees. Since the mid-20th century, most new Chinese Canadians come from university-educated families, one of whose most essential values is still quality education. These newcomers are a major part of the "Brain gain" the inverse of the infamous "Brain drain", i.e., Canadians leaving to the United States of America, of which Chinese have also been a part.
Chinese Indonesians and Chinese Malaysians first arrived in Canada in 1960s during anti-Chinese riots in their respective home countries. From 1970s – 1999, many more Indonesians and Malaysians of Chinese origin settled in Canada. Many Chinese from Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea came to Canada as refugees in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
Many Chinese from Latin America also came in large numbers, especially those from Nicaragua who fled from the dictatorial Somoza rule and following the 1972 earthquake. Chinese-Peruvians fled Peru for political reasons. They mostly settled in Canada's large cities.
From the late 1980s, an influx of Taiwanese people immigrated to Canada forming a group of Taiwanese Canadians. The settled in areas such as Vancouver, British Columbia and to the adjacent cities of Burnaby, Richmond and Coquitlam.
There was a significant influx of wealthy Chinese from Hong Kong in the early and mid-1990s before the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China (PRC). Canada was a preferred location, in part because investment visas were significantly easier to obtain than visas to the United States. Vancouver, Richmond and Toronto were the major destinations of these Chinese. During those years, immigrants from Hong Kong alone made up to 46% of all Chinese immigrants to Canada. After 1997, a significant portion of Chinese immigrants chose to move back to Hong Kong, some of a more permanent nature, after the dust of the handover was settled and fears of a "Communist takeover" turned out to be unnecessary.
In the 21st century, Chinese immigration from Hong Kong has dropped sharply and the largest source of Chinese immigration is from the mainland China. A smaller number have arrived from Taiwan and very small numbers from Fiji, French Polynesia, and New Zealand.[7]
In 2001, 25% of Chinese in Canada were Canadian-born.[8]
The Chinese Canadian Population according to Statistics Canada in the 2006 census in the 10 Canadian Provinces and 3 territories:[10]
| Province | Chinese |
|---|---|
| Ontario | 644,465[11] |
| British Columbia | 432,435[12] |
| Alberta | 137,600[13] |
| Quebec | 91,900[14] |
| Manitoba | 17,930[15] |
| Saskatchewan | 11,100[16] |
| Nova Scotia | 5,140[17] |
| New Brunswick | 2,895[18] |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 1,650[19] |
| Yukon | 545[20] |
| Northwest Territories | 470[21] |
| Prince Edward Island | 300[22] |
| Nunavut | 80[19] |
| Canada | 1,346,510 |
Canadian cities with large Chinese Populations:[23]
| City | Province | Chinese |
|---|---|---|
| Toronto | Ontario | 537,060 |
| Vancouver | British Columbia | 402,000 |
| Montréal | Quebec | 82,665 |
| Calgary | Alberta | 75,410 |
| Edmonton | Alberta | 53,670 |
| Ottawa | Ontario | 36,305 |
| Winnipeg | Manitoba | 16,995 |
| Hamilton | Ontario | 13,600 |
| Victoria | British Columbia | 13,550 |
| Kitchener | Ontario | 10,970 |
In 2001, 87% of Chinese reported having a conversational knowledge of at least one official language, while 15% reported that they could speak neither English nor French. Of those who could not speak an official language, 50% immigrated to Canada in the 1990s, while 22% immigrated in the 1980s. These immigrants tended to be in the older age groups. Of prime working-age Chinese immigrants, 89% reported knowing at least one official language.[8]
In 2001, collectively, Chinese languages are the third-most common reported mother tongue, after English and French. 3% of the Canadian population, or 872,000 people, reported the Chinese language as their mother tongue — the language that they learned as a child and still understand. The most common Chinese mother tongue is Cantonese. Of these people, 44% were born in Hong Kong, 27% were born in Guangdong Province in China, and 18% were Canadian-born. The second-most common reported Chinese mother tongue was Mandarin. Of these people, 85% were born in either Mainland China or Taiwan, 7% were Canadian-born, and 2% were born in Malaysia. There is some evidence that fewer young Chinese-Canadians are speaking their parents' and grandparents' first language.
However, only about 790,500 people reported speaking a Chinese language at home on a regular basis, 81,900 fewer than those who reported having a Chinese mother tongue. This suggests some language loss has occurred, mainly among the Canadian-born who learned Chinese as a child, but who may not speak it regularly or do not use it as their main language at home. [8]
As of 2001, almost 75% of the Chinese population in Canada lived in either Toronto or Vancouver. The Chinese population was 17% in Vancouver and 9% in Toronto.[8] More than 50% of the Chinese immigrants who just arrived in 2000/2001 reported that their reason for settling in a given region was because their family and friends already lived there.
In a 2010 MacLeans Report citing that many Canadian Universities have simply become "Too Asian" citing
| “ | "The value of education has been drilled into Asian students by their parents, likely for cultural and socio-economic reasons. “It’s often described that Asians are the new Jews." “That in the face of discrimination, what you do is you study. And there’s a long tradition in Chinese culture, for example, going back to Confucius, of social mobility based on merit.
-Jon Reider, director of college counselling at San Francisco University High School and a former Stanford University admissions officer.[27] |
” |
Compared with the general Canadian population, Chinese-Canadians tend to be better educated and earn more than Canadians as a whole.
In 1986, the Canadian census shows that as many as 45 percent of foreign-born Chinese Canadians and 57 percent of the Canadian-born have had some post-secondary instruction. Undoubtedly, the emphasis of Canadian immigration policy since the 1960s on educational and occupational qualifications favoured those with professional and technical training. The large percentage of native-born Chinese Canadians with university education probably reflects the assistance provided to them by their immigrant parents and the aspirations of Chinese-Canadian families.[28]
According to Multicultural Canada, Chinese-Canadians were more than twice as likely as other Canadians (7.9 percent) to have completed university. Data from the 1986 census confirm that over 17 per cent of Chinese Canadians had done so and that the foreign- and native-born Chinese with university education were equally likely to have reached that educational level.[28]
In 2001, 40% of second-generation and 31% (overall for first and second generation) Chinese Canadians received a bachelor's degree compared with just 18% of the Canadian national average. Among second-generation Canadians between the ages of 20 and 29, 34% of Canadians of Chinese descent worked in high-skilled occupations (white collar professions those requiring a university degree).[29]
StatCan reported in 2001 that 27.1% of Canadians of Chinese origin aged 15 and over had either a bachelor's or post-graduate degree, compared with 15% of the overall adult population.[30]
Canadians of Chinese origin are particularly likely to have a post-graduate degree. In 2001, adults of Chinese origin made up 3% of the overall Canadian population, but represented 9% of all those with a Doctorate and 7% of those with a Master’s degree. Canadians of Chinese origin also represent a high proportion of those with degrees in highly technical fields.
In 2001, people of Chinese origin made up 6% of all university graduates in Canada, while they represented 12% of those with degrees in mathematics, physics or computer science, and 11% of those in engineering or applied science. As in the overall population, men of Chinese origin have somewhat more education than women of Chinese origin. For example, 31% of men of Chinese origin had a university degree in 2001, compared to 24% of their female counterparts.
However, women of Chinese origin are considerably more likely than other women to have a university degree. In 2001, 24% of women of Chinese origin were university graduates, compared to 15% of all Canadian women. Young people of Chinese origin are more likely than other young Canadians to be attending school.[30]
In 2002, the Ethnic Diversity Survey conducted by the University of Alberta, cited that 59.4% of Chinese Canadians completed a bachelor's degree.[31]
In 2006, StatCan reported that second-generation Chinese Canadians in the age 25-34 cohort had an university educational attainment rate of 62.4%.[32]
Canadians of Chinese origin make up a high proportion of all Canadians employed in scientific and technical occupations. In 2001, people who reported Chinese origins made up 3% of all workers, while they represented 7% of people employed in the natural and applied sciences despite comprising a mere 4% of the Canadian population. People of Chinese origin also represent a relatively moderately higher proportion of those employed in business, financial and administrative positions, as well as in manufacturing. At the same time, their representation in other occupational groups such as health and education was proportionately lower.[33]
At the University of British Columbia, Canadians of Chinese origin make upwards 15.4% of the faculty and staff, almost four times the proportion of Chinese Canadians in Canada (3.9%) as of 2010.[25]
Canadians of Chinese origin are also about as likely as those in the overall workforce to be self-employed with an incorporated business. In 2001, people of Chinese, who represented 3% of the total Canadian workforce, made up 4% of self-employed people who owned an incorporated business. In contrast, the representation of Canadians of Chinese origin among unincorporated self-employed workers was relatively low.[30]
According to a report released by Fairchild TV on behalf of Canadian Chinese Media Monitor, 57% of Chinese Canadians have an annual household income over $45,000 CAD with 17% of Chinese Canadian families reporting a household income of over $100,000 compared to 12.5% of all Canadians.[34]
StatsCan reports that as in the overall population, women of Chinese origin have lower incomes than their male counterparts. In 2000, the average income for adult women of Chinese origin aged 15 and over was just under $21,000, while for men it was $29,000. However, the income gap between women and men of Chinese origin is somewhat smaller than the gap in the overall population. That year, the average incomes of Chinese women were 72% those of their male counterparts, whereas the figure in the overall population was 62%.
Canadian seniors of Chinese origin also have relatively low incomes. In 2000, the average income from all sources for Canadians of Chinese origin aged 65 and over was $18,000, about $6,000 less than the income for all seniors, whose average income was $24,400. As with all seniors in Canada , women aged 65 and over of Chinese origin have lower incomes than their male counterparts. That year, the average income for senior women of Chinese origin was $15,600, compared with $21,000 for senior men of Chinese origin.
Canadians of Chinese origin receive about the same share of their income from earnings as does the overall population. In 2000, Canadians of Chinese origin aged 15 and over said that 79% of their income came from earnings, compared with 77% for all Canadian adults. At the same time, Canadian adults of Chinese origin received slightly smaller proportion of their total income from government transfer payments than other adults. That year, 10% of the income of Canadians of Chinese origin aged 15 and over came from government transfers, while the average for all Canadian adults was 12%.[35]
The majority of Canadian-born Chinese during the 1970s and 1980s were descended from immigrants of Hong Kong and Southern China, and more recently from mainland Chinese immigrants.
List of Chinese language media outlets in Canada:
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||