Immigrant's Facing Isolation in Canada

History of Immigration in Canada

Samuel de Champlain and his crew were among Canada's first group of European immigrants to establish one of the oldest continuous settlements in the early 17th century. After this, immigrants with European and American backgrounds were preferred, subjecting immigrants of other ethnicities to discrimination. Between the years 1900 and 1914, over three million immigrants came to Canada, 500,000 of those being of European descent .

Receipt of Head Tax

In the 1880's, seventeen thousand Chinese men arrived to Canada and proceeded to build the leg of the Canadian Pacific Railway that runs through British Columbia. Not only were they given the most dangerous jobs while completing the CPR project, but the men were paid only one dollar per day . After this, the Canadian government initiated a fifty dollar | Head Tax on all Chinese immigrants entering Canada. When the Chinese continued to immigrate to Canada, the government raised the tax to one hundred and eventually it reached the maximum of five hundred dollars; making it nearly impossible for them to live in Canada. This started to change after the second World War when China fought alongside Canada, jumpstarting the dissolve of the | Exclusion Act.

Immigrants Facing Discrimination

An immigrant is either accepted or rejected in society based on their race and the accent they bear. The General Social Survey shows that in 2009, one-fifth of immigrants to Canada face discrimination in various situations once they have arrived. Within these statistics, thirteen percent experienced discrimination based on ethnicity or culture, eleven percent based on race or colour, seven percent language five percent sex, and lastly four percent based on physical appearance . Statistics Canada estimates that between 29 and 32 percent of Canada's population will be made up of visible minorities by 2013 .

European vs Asian Immigrants

The history of Canadian immigration policies shows that Canada's current population has been racialized to be more of a white community base. In the 1920's, Canada's preferred immigrants were ideally British or American/ came from central and northern Europe . In a 2006 Census, of the 6.2 million foreign-born people in Canada, 1.1 million (58.3%) were born in Asian countries, including the Middle East. This number has been increasing steadily since the late 1970's. For example, in 1971 majority (61.6%) of immigrants to Canada were from Europe and only 12.1% were Asian-born . Despite this, Asian-Canadians are still discriminated against. In 2014, the Vancouver Sun newspaper discussed a poll that was taken of 658 Chinese and South Asian British Colombians that reported more than half experience discrimination in B.C. .

Immigrant Youth in Canada

Immigrant children and youth in Canada face different issues than non-immigrants. They experience linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic challenges in their daily lives. They will likely experience an identity crisis when learning the balance between their communities cultures and the ones they learn/ are brought up with at home. Family separation and the struggle to create cross-ethnic friendships can cause the feeling of lack of social support in their lives, according to Ngo and Schleifer . Social isolation is among the biggest concerns facing immigrant youths as it can lead to low self-esteem, anxiety, stress, and depression. While the parents are more likely to experience difficulties while adapting to their new life (learning a new language, finding work, etc.), this means the children are more likely to come from lower income families . In 2014, immigrant youth's unemployment rate was 19.5% if they lived in Canada for less than five years and 15.8% if they landed here over ten years ago .

Immigrants Facing Social Isolation

Social isolation is a complex concept that operates at the individual, community and societal level . Marc Valade, a lead researcher of the Integration Trajectories of Immigrant Families study at Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement, interviewed 23 immigrant families from 13 different countries. His findings showed a common theme of social isolation experienced by the families when they first arrived to Canada. Inability to speak and understand the language is a big contributor to this feeling of isolation .

Immigrants and Culture

| Kellie Leitch, a Conservative Party leader received a lot of criticism when she stated that immigrants should be screened for "anti-Canadian values."

Multicultural

There was a study conducted that shows Canadians may not be quite as accepting of multiculturalism as believed. According to the study, American's are more likely to think minority groups should keep their culture and language .