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Chinese immigration
and
integration in Canada
Submitted by: Sammi Cheung Student number: 500342755
POL 129 Section 011 15 March 2013
In order to look at the history of Chinese immigration in Canada and how this reflects on Canada, and its success in welcoming and integrating immigrants, one needs to divide the history into different episodes. The first is the early settlements, mostly in British Columbia, as Chinese came more as sojourners for gold and fortune. The second would be the onset of Canadian legislations ostracizing Chinese Canadians, spawned from fear and racial discrimination. The third and last would be the period when Canada repealed many of its exclusionary legislations and truly welcomed the Chinese all together into their society.
The Beginning Settlements
Around the mid to late 19th century, China was in turmoil. On the international stage, they were consistently losing wars against foreign powers.
The last, last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railw...
A Canadian Pacific Railway freight eastbound over ...
English: Construction of snow shed on the Canadian...The most famous of these was the second Opium War. Where they suffered a humiliating defeat and were forced to sign the Treaty of Nanking. This treaty along with the Treaty of Tientsin gave naval access to Britain's fleet and ceded the Hong Kong Island to British rule. It further insulted the Chinese by forcing them to write all official documentations in English (Hern 2011, p.135).
At the same time, China was confronted by natural disasters and economic woes internally. All this together with to the international losses, severely eroded political stability and the trust of the Chinese people - causing massive civil unrest. This led to the Taiping Rebellion and Boxer Rebellion, where ten thousands of Chinese civilians were killed (Hern 2011, p.136). This instability certainly led to a major emigration from China to more stable and promising lands. Even though the Qing government had long banned emigration,