Vietnamese Canadian

Vietnamese Canadians
Tam Doan
Total population
220,425[1]
(0.6% of Canada's population)
Regions with significant populations
Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal
Languages
Vietnamese, Canadian English, Quebec French, Vietnamese French
Religion
Mahayana Buddhism and Catholicism[2]
Related ethnic groups
Vietnamese, Vietnamese Americans, Vietnamese people in France

Vietnamese Canadians (Vietnamese: Người Canada gốc Việt) are Canadian citizens who have ancestry from Vietnam. There are 157,450 Vietnamese Canadians, many of whom reside in the provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec.

History and demographics

Mainstream Vietnamese communities began arriving in Canada in the mid-1970s and early 1980s as refugees or boat people following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, though a couple thousand were already living in Quebec before then, most of whom were students. Most new arrivees were sponsored by groups of individuals, temples, and churches and settled in areas around Southern Ontario, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Montreal, Quebec. Between 1975 to 1985, 110,000 settled in Canada (23,000 in Ontario; 13,000 in Quebec; 8,000 in Alberta; 7,000 British Columbia; 5,000 in Manitoba; 3,000 in Saskatchewan; and 2,000 in the Maritime provinces). As time passed, most eventually settled in urban centres like Vancouver (2.2% Vietnamese), Calgary (1.6% Vietnamese), Montreal (1.6% Vietnamese), Edmonton (1.6% Vietnamese), Toronto (1.4% Vietnamese), Ottawa (1.0% Vietnamese), and Hamilton (0.8% Vietnamese).[3]

The next wave of Vietnamese migration came in the late 1980s and 1990s as both refugees and immigrant classes of post-war Vietnam entered Canada. These groups settled in urban areas, in particular Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary.

Vietnamese immigrants settled mainly in the East Vancouver and in Montreal's downtown and south shore. In Toronto they have settled in the city's chinatown area near Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West or to the west in Mississauga.

Notable Canadians of Vietnamese origin

Artists

Humanitarians

Entertainers

Politicians

Business

Others

Fashion

Business

In Canada, local Vietnamese media is dominated by:

In Vancouver, hardworking Vietnamese Canadians managed to open a variety of stores and restaurants throughout the city, especially on the east side of the city near Chinatown and around Kingsway and Fraser. These areas are home to concentrations of Vietnamese clothing, food stores, and shops. Vietnamese Canadians also brought their cuisine and phở has become a popular food throughout the city. Vietnamese Canadians have also opened up many stores and restaurants in Central City, Surrey, which is a rapidly growing suburb of Metro Vancouver.

In the Toronto area, there are 19 Vietnamese owned supermarkets.

In Montreal there are about 40,000 Vietnamese Canadian population among highest median income and education of Vietnamese Canadians in major cities. There are more than 100 Vietnamese restaurants, hundreds of small size manufacturers of different products from clothing to technology, about 80 pharmacies and hundreds of doctors, dentists, over a thousand scientists, engineers and technicians, about sixty convenient stores and groceries. Since Nov 2006, Mr. Ngo Van Tan has started a daring project to promote and build the first Vietnam Town in Canada called Vietnamville near metro Jean Talon including St-Denis, Jean Talon, St-Hubert and Belanger streets with over 130 businesses already opened in the area. Investment opportunities in Vietnam Town are open to Vietnamese worldwide.

See also

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑ (Statistics Canada, Census 2001 - Selected Demographic and Cultural Characteristics (105), Selected Ethnic Groups (100), Age Groups (6), Sex (3) and Single and Multiple Ethnic Origin Responses (3) for Population, for Canada, Provinces, Territories and Census Metropolitan Areas 1 , 2001 Census - 20% Sample Data)
  3. ↑ NHS Profile, Canada Census

External links

Vietnamese Canadian organizations
About Vietnamese Canadians