|
Canada's largest city Toronto and the Chinese Connection
I have heard that 400,000 of this city's total population of 3 million are of Chinese heritage. In Vancouver, way over on the other flank of the Big Turtle (a Native Canadian term meaning North America) is said to have 600,000 Chinese immigrants out of a population of 1.8 million. (Being raised in a relatively isolated small town to a Finnish-Canadian family, I did not meet any until I was already an adult. My interest in China did not begin until I actually went to Asia and subsequently wanted to learn where it all sprouted from).
The biggest recent influx in recent years had to be in the early 90's, mostly from from Hong Kong. Many admit they were worried about the HK handover to Chinese rule, and wanted Canadian citizenship just as a safety net. Whatever they came for, be it the building of the Yukon gold rush in the 1960's, to find work building the trans-Canada railway, or to provide an alternative lifestyle and western education possibilities for their children around the turn of the century, or to start out fresh in a clean, uncrowded country, they certainly make for a very visible and highly influential portion of Canadian, (and entire Big Turtle) population. Some now are already 2nd, 3rd, 4th, even 5th generation, not speaking a lick of Chinese, some are new arrivals who are very keen to assimilate, others have been here for 20 years and have not felt the need to learn any English or French. To each his own I guess, it is their right under the Freedoms Act to pursue a lifestyle of their chosing as long as it does not infringe on those of any others. It is a shame though that people that have come from so far do not want to learn the language and ways of their adopted countries, just like it is a shame that westerners traveling or working in China are not interested in "doing as the Romans". What a missed opportunity, locking oneself up in his cultural heritage and not being open to the absorption of new ideas and knowledge afforded. Would you go to Shanghai just to eat at McDonald's? (Wait, don't answer that!!)
I would not totally agree that the United States forces people to melt away all their heritage and cultural uniqueness in an agressive "melting pot" while Canada offers a happy-go-lucky laisser-fair attitude in dealing its vast multicultural immigrant population. This is a simplification for sure. There are so many dynamics involved in the integrating of new people and cultures into our very young societies that decide their quality of life and the acceptance in the eyes of others around them.
Canada has raised the bar once again and skilled labourers from China (Canada's current #1 source of new faces) with the new immigration laws. Only a few high-jumpers can make it, and there often is no soft landing for them trying to make it on talent and desire alone in this country with its rather depressed economy. On the other hand, it is getting easier all the time for those thick bill-folded people to come and go as they please, some of whom now even maintain immigrant status indefinitely and pad their Canadian bank accounts with their Asian business ventures, never caring to become citizens.
last modified May 29, 2004 at 11:20
|