Asian Immigration in Canada

Asian immigration in Canada has had a long and difficult past, that has included many issues regarding racism. Canada is a nation that has always focused heavily on immigration as a way of growth its population. However, until the 1960s, the Canadian immigration policies have focused on preventing individuals who were not from western Europe from becoming Canadian citizens. Canada focused on gaining immigrants from Asian that would be able to work on projects, such as the the Canadian Pacific Railroad, but did not want to identify them as a citizen. Since this time, Asian immigration has become a large important factor in Canada. Specifically, two thirds of Canadian immigration have come from Asian countries (Yu 2009, p.1012).

History of Asian Immigration

Canada immigration policies have been immensely racist until the 1960s when multiculturalism became a large focus. Canada was a country founded by two nations, on land they did not have the right to colonize. The French and the British fought for control of the land belonging to the indigenous people. With the French eventually losing a war, North America became a British colony. It was not until 1867 when Canada was formally colonized and a considered a dominion of Great Britain.

As a result of its colonial past, Canada had focused on bringing immigrants of a western Europe, specifically French and English. Therefore, there were protective measures instituted into law to prevent any large influx of Asian immigrants. A few examples of these include the Chinese Head Tax and Komagata Maru incident.

Chinese Head Tax

At the time of confederation, a large trans-national railroad was decided to be built. A large portion of this railroad in western Canada was to be built by Chinese workers. These workers worked hard and they were paid considerably smaller wages. Chinese workers were subjected to extremely dangerous employment, were their lives were often at risk. Despite this, the wage difference for Chinese workers remained the same. Even though Chinese workers experienced many hardships with immigrating to Canada, they were accountable for twenty percent of the Canada’s non-indigenous population in 1881 (Yu 2009, p.1016).

At the end of the construction work for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, there were no longer any form of employment available for the Chinese workers. Many white Canadians living in the west at the time became threatened of the Chinese workers’ acceptance of low wages and their hardworking attitude. Therefore, in 1885 the Act to Restrict and Regulate Chinese Immigration into Canada was developed, placing a head tax of fifty dollars for any Chinese person who wished to immigrate to Canada (Winter 2008, p. 122). In 1901, the head tax was raised to one hundred dollars and then to five hundred dollars in 1903 (Winter 2008, p. 122). To understand this in perspective, five hundred dollars was two years wages for an individual at this time.(Winter 2008, p. 122). The Stakes of Inclusion: Chinese Canadian Head Tax Redress. (Winter 2008, p. 122). It is immensely clear that the objective of this head tax was to prevent certain races from being able to immigrate to Canada. Regardless of this blatant attempt at racism, there were still 96,000 Chinese immigrants that migrated to Canada while the head tax was in place (Yu 2009, p.1015). In 1923, the Canadian Federal Government abolished the Chinese Head Tax, but replaced it with the Chinese Immigration Act. This act forbade all Chinese immigration for sixteen years (Winter 2008, p. 122).

Komagata Maru

In 1911 the British Parliament stated that all of its Dominions should have the right to declare who is able or unable to a member of her country (Chakraborty 2016, p. 113). This was a response to the Canadian governments “Continuous Passage Act”, where individuals were only permitted to enter Canada from a ship that came from a country of citizenship or birth (The 100th Anniversary of the Continuous Passage Act, Government of Canada, 2008). This was clearly another attempt to prevent Asian populations from immigrating to Canada. Most of the journeys from Asian had to have stops in order to come all the way to North America (The 100th Anniversary of the Continuous Passage Act, The Government of Canada, 2008). In addition, each of the immigrants had to have two hundred dollars with them to be permitted to enter Canada (“Komagata Maru,” The History of Metropolitan Vancouver).

The Komagata Maru was a Japanese ship, in 1914, that held 376 Hindu and Sikh migrants travelling from Hong Kong to Vancouver. When the ship arrived in the Burrard Inlet, on May 23, 1914, everyone on board was not permitted to enter Canada. All of the passengers were British subjects, however, as they did not have a continuous journey from India or two hundred dollars, they breached the Canadian Continuous Passage Act. The passengers on board were refused food and water for two months while they sat in the Burrard inlet. On July 23, 1914 the Komagata Maru was forced to leave Vancouver, escorted by two Canadian naval ships. When returning to India, the passengers were stopped in Baj Baj, where twenty passengers were killed by British officials (“Komagata Maru,” The History of Metropolitan Vancouver). Furthermore, the inherently racist Continuous Passage Act was instilled in Canadian legislature until 1947 (The 100th Anniversary of the Continuous Passage Act, The Government of Canada, 2008).

Current Trends of Immigration

Current trends of migration are alluding to the large number of Chinese immigrants coming to Canada. With the adaption of the Point System of immigration, after 1967 immigration began to focus less on the race and more on the qualifications of the individual (Yu 2009, p.1016). The point system breaks immigrants into four classes; economic, family, refugee and other (Tannock 2011, p. 1333). Immigrants who were not sponsored through family members had to reach a certain amount of points based on skills, such as education, language ability, occupation and age (Tannock 2011, p. 1333). The benefit of this system, takes the away from the inclusions of Canadian culture. Therefore, there is still a large portion of people from Asian families that migrate to Canada only a yearly basis, through the point system. However, the reasons and way the individuals immigrate follow different trends than in the past. With two-thirds of all immigrants coming to Canada being Asian, it is now a large growth in language diversity (Yu 2009, p.1021). For instance, the second most used language in Canada is Chinese (Yu 2009, p.1021). Another trend that has become prominent over the last twenty-five years, is the idea of mobile migrants. Instead of having immigrants living consistently in Canada, there is constant travel between the two countries (Yu 2009, p.1018). Often times one member of the family will immigrate fully, while another will stay back in Asia to work. This is because Canada is seen an excellent place to receive and education and retire, but not necessarily work (Yu 2009, p.1018).

References

(2008). The 100th Anniversary of the Continuous Passage Act. Government of Canada. Retrieved at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/multiculturalism/asian/100years.asp.

(2011). The Incident. Komagata Maru: Continuing the Journey. Retrieved at: http://komagatamarujourney.ca/incident.

Chakraborty, S. R. (2016). The journey of Komagata Maru: conjuncture, memory and history. South Asian Diaspora 8(12), pp. 111-124.

Komogata Maru. The History of Metropolitan Vancouver. Retrieved at: http://www.vancouverhistory.ca/archives_komagatamaru.htm.

Tannock, S. (2011). Points of Prejudice: Education‐Based Discrimination in Canada's Immigration System. Antipode 43(4), pp. 1330-1356.

Winter, S. (2008). The Stakes of Inclusion: Chinese Canadian Head Tax Redress. Canadian Political Science Association and the Société québécoise de science politique 41(1): pp. 119-141.

Yu, H. (2009). Global Migrants and the New Pacific Canada. International Journal 64(4), pp. 1011-1026.