During the early decades of the 20^th century there was a lot of immigration from China. The majority of this immigration was to larger urban centres such as Vancouver and Toronto. Though the Chinese contributed to many areas of the Canadian economy they were not respected; instead, they were discriminated against and blamed for many of the country’s problems. Efforts were taken to restrict the levels of immigration, and many acts were passed over many years to limit numbers of Chinese immigrants. Though many communities across Canada voiced concerns over high levels of Chinese immigration, this problem came to a head in Vancouver, BC. In the Chinese Immigration Act (1923)¹ there were unfair rules placed around when and how a person of Chinese descent could immigrate to Canada. Rules include paying a fee (known as the Head Tax), weight to person ratios of tonnage/displacement (for every 250 tons of cargo, one Chinese person would be authorized to immigrate²), and put into a registry.³  Most immigrants moved into neighbourhoods that were primarily the same ethnic origin. ‘Chinatowns’ sprang up in cities, and the residents of these Chinatowns were not allowed to buy property outside of the Chinatown. Work opportunities for Chinese-Canadians outside of Chinatowns was also limited, and would yield a portion of the pay for the same work as a white man completed. Though Chinese-Canadians were a large market, they were not a desired one. Chinese-Canadian communities had to be incredibly self-sufficient to thrive. Chinatowns transformed themselves into capitalistic micro-societies, using values from their former society to thrive in their new one.⁴ Chinese workers contributed to the economy by buying goods, selling goods, manufacturing goods, and building infrastructure that benefited the entire country, such as the Canadian Pacific Railway, where many Chinese workers lost their lives. There is a saying that a Chinese worker died for every kilometer of track laid. Immigration is key to growing a country like Canada. The large workforce of Chinese-Canadians however did not contribute towards many advances because of the lack of opportunities they faced. Taking hard, dangerous work that white men did not want let the employers get away with putting them into incredibly unsafe work environments, without having to adapt to new challenges or create new technologies to make the jobs safer. Nowadays people recognize the contribution that Chinese-Canadians have made to the country, and just how wrongly these people were treated in the past.

Sources

• Library and Archives Canada. Statutes of Canada. An Act Respecting Chinese Immigration, 1923. Ottawa: SC 13-14 George V, Chapter 38.

• Roy, Patricia. The Oriental Question: Consolidating a White Man’s Province, 1914-1941(Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2003), 57; Con et al., 76.

• Ibid., 136.

• Yee, Paul. (1984). Business Devices from Two Worlds: The Chinese in Early Vancouver. BC Studies, 62, 44-67.