right|thumb|300x300px|Chinese labourers working on the [[Canadian Pacific Railway in the mountains of British Columbia, 1881. The railway from Vancouver to Craigellachie consisted of 28 such sections, only 2% of which were constructed by workers of European origin.]]

Chinese immigrants began settling in Canada in the 1780s. The major periods of Chinese immigration took place from 1858 to 1923, and indefinitely from 1947, reflecting changes in the Canada's immigration policy.

Chinese immigrants were initially sought after by Canadian employers as a source of cheap labour due to Canada's relative wealth at the time and the difficult economic conditions in China. Between 1880 and 1885, the primary work for Chinese labourers in Canada was on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), but records of Chinese immigration start more than a century earlier. British fur trader John Meares recruited an initial group of 50 sailors and artisans from Canton (Guangzhou) and Macao, China, hoping to build a trading post and encourage trade in sea otter pelts between Nootka Sound and Canton.

The next year, Meares had another 70 Chinese brought in from Canton. However, shortly after the arrival of this second group, the settlement was seized by the Spanish in what became known as the Nootka Crisis. Seeking to establish a trade monopoly on the West Coast, the Spanish imprisoned the Chinese men. and later taken to Mexico. No other Chinese people are known to have arrived in western North America until the gold rush of the 1850s.

Gold Rush, 1858

The Chinese first appeared in large numbers in the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1858 as part of a huge migration from California during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in the newly declared Colony of British Columbia. Although the first wave arrived in May from California, news of the gold rush eventually attracted many people from China. As a result, Barkerville, British Columbia—located in the Cariboo—became Canada's first Chinese community,

Immigration for the railway, 1871–82

When British Columbia (BC) agreed to join Confederation in 1871, one of its conditions was that the Government of Canada build a railway linking BC to Eastern Canada within 10 years. British Columbian politicians and their electorate agitated for a settlement-immigration program for workers from the British Isles to provide this railway labour; however, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, along with investors and other Canadian politicians, said this would be too expensive.

In opposition, however, the Workingmen's Protective Association was established in 1878 in Victoria with the following purpose:<blockquote>The objects of this society shall be the mutual protection of the working classes of British Columbia against the great influx of Chinese; to use all legitimate means for the suppression of their immigration; to assist each other in the obtaining of employment, and to devise means for the amelioration of the condition of the working classes of the Province in general.</blockquote>Insisting that the project cut costs by employing Chinese workers to build the railway, Prime Minister MacDonald told Parliament in 1882: "It is simply a question of alternatives: either you must have this labour or you can't have the railway."

In 1880, Andrew Onderdonk — an American who was one of the main construction contractors in British Columbia for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) — originally recruited Chinese labourers from California. When most of them deserted the railway workings for the more lucrative goldfields, Onderdonk and his agents signed several agreements with Chinese contractors in China's Guangdong province and Taiwan, as well as via Chinese companies in Victoria. These Chinese railway workers were hired for the of the CPR considered to be among the more difficult segments of the projected railway, particularly the area that goes through the Fraser Canyon.

Chinese-Canadian labour was characterized by low wages (usually less than 50% of what Caucasian workers were paid for the same work) and high levels of volatility. In the early 1880s, there were about 129 small clans in Canada whose members mostly came from just one or two counties in China. They extend from political groups in China, but in Canada their function was not necessarily related to political activities, focusing more on economic or other activity in the local community. Originally, the Chinese were often stereotyped as —temporary. Especially during the 19th century, white society in British Columbia perceived the Chinese as people who could not be assimilated. After the 1885 legislation failed to deter Chinese immigration, the Canadian government passed the Chinese Immigration Act, 1900 to increase the tax to $100. The Chinese had no choice but to pay it, although it was two years' salary for a railway worker.

Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, 1885

Soon afterward, Chinese merchants among larger Chinese communities formed the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA),

Royal Commission and Chinese professions, 1902–07

In 1902, the federal government appointed a Royal Commission on Chinese and Japanese Immigration, which concluded that "the Chinese are more unhealthy as a class than the same class of white people," and that they were "unfit for full citizenship...obnoxious to a free community and dangerous to the state." following demands by B.C. politicians. In BC, Chinese professionals were prohibited from practicing such professions as law, pharmacy, and accountancy. During the 40 years after 1885, following the completion of the CPR, Chinese persons became involved in the labor behind an industrializing economy. With legislation banning Chinese from many professions, Chinese entered those that non-Chinese Canadians did not want to do, such as laundry shops or salmon processing. Skilled or semi-skilled, Chinese Canadians labored in British Columbia sawmills and canneries; others became market gardeners or grocers, pedlars, shopkeepers, and restaurateurs. In the late 1920s, it was estimated that there were only five married Chinese women in Calgary, and six in Edmonton.

The data used in the report, however, proved to be inaccurate. The Canadian Bureau for International Education revealed that there were only 55,000 foreign students in Canada at all levels of education, and only 20,000 full-time foreign university students. By 2010, 36,580 immigrants from the Philippines surpassed the 30,195 from the PRC. Filipinos retained their status as the largest immigrant group to Canada in 2011 with 34,991, against the PRC with 28,696.

See also

  • Chinese head tax in Canada
  • Chinese head tax in Newfoundland
  • Chinese Immigration Act, 1923
  • Immigration to Canada
  • Chinese Canadians in British Columbia
  • Chinese Canadians in Ontario
  • Asiatic Exclusion League
  • Lost Years: A People's Struggle for Justice

References

Further reading

  • (It is a discussion on the Toronto Chinese's view on Canada recognizing the PRC in 1969–1970).
  • (A thorough discussion of Chinese immigration and life in BC, railway politics and a detailed profile of the political agendas and personalities of the time).
  • Lost Years
  • Chinese Canadian Redress
  • Chinese Canadian National Council

Library resources

  • Chinese Canadian Genealogy at the Vancouver Public Library
  • Chinese-Canadians: Profiles from a Community - Vancouver Public Library wiki
  • Chinese Immigration in BC - An archival collection from the UBC Library Digital Collections documenting Chinese settlement in British Columbia
  • Historic Chinese Language Materials in British Columbia, Asian Library and the Centre for Chinese Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
  • Multicultural Canada website - includes eight full-text searchable Chinese newspapers from B.C. and Ontario, publications relating to immigration, photographs, and the records of Victoria's Chinese Benevolent Association and the Cheekungtong (Chinese Freemasons) of Victoria and Vancouver
  • The Early Chinese Canadians 1858-1947, Library and Archives Canada