Canada prepares for a Multicultural future

Canada prepares for a Multicultural future

Chinese immigrants have flocked to Canada’s west coast and transformed Vancouver into Canada’s very own Asian metropolis. The days of concern over the city being turned into ‘Hongcouver’ have gone. What does the future hold for Canada’s Asian population?

Shoppers stroll casually past a Lamborghini store in Richmond’s Aberdeen Centre – a major Asian mall in this once sleepy Vancouver suburb known for its farmland and fishing village.

Outside the shopping centre, people are queuing at the many Chinese restaurants. In the local supermarkets, butchers are picking live seafood out of fish tanks, chopping off the heads, then gutting and packaging them up under the watchful eye of customers, almost exclusively Chinese-Canadian.

Richmond is North America’s most Asian city – 50% of residents here identify themselves as Chinese. But it’s not just here that the Chinese community in British Columbia (BC) – some 407,000 strong – has left its mark. All across Vancouver, Chinese-Canadians have helped shape the local landscape.

Increasing trade

There are the little things. Casa Gelato – an Italian ice-cream shop with a huge local following – sells Asian-inspired flavours such as green tea, durian and lychee. The Vancouver Sun newspaper puts out an online Mandarin edition, Taiyangbao. The province’s auto insurance corporation serves drivers in 170 languages – Mandarin and Cantonese being the most in-demand.

“Economic growth is obvious and easy to measure,” says Thomas Tam, the CEO of Success, an immigrant service based in Vancouver’s historic Chinatown.

For the first time in 2011, the Pacific Rim dislodged the US as British Columbia’s biggest trade partner. With the collapse of the US housing market, lumber exports have fallen. But demand for coal and natural gas to fuel China’s factories is skyrocketing.

Exports to China reached CAN$5.1bn ($5bn/£3.17bn) in 2011, nearly five times their value in 2001. Other booming industries include agrifoods, minerals, container traffic, tourism and education. The economic boost has driven a CAN$22bn ($21.6bn/£13.7bn) upgrade in infrastructure along trade corridors with Asia.

“Within the last 20 years, we have expanded our airport twice, had a big facelift for our port, and seen the biggest-ever highway construction,” he says. “Because of the impact of immigration, Canada as a whole is more resilient to economic recession and that’s undeniable.”

For centuries, Chinese immigrants have come to Canada for economic opportunities. It began with the gold rush in northern and central BC in 1858. In the 1880s, some 6,500 Chinese migrants were directly employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), settling in towns along the railway route, all the way to the terminus in Vancouver, where the fledgling Chinatown took root (now the third-largest in North America).

But resentment grew among the white working classes, who saw the migrants as cheap labour, the so-called “yellow peril” stealing jobs and sullying society. In 1885, the federal government enacted the first anti-Chinese legislation, imposing a head tax of CAN$50 on every migrant worker.

Under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923, immigration ground to a halt. The ban was lifted in 1947 – due in part to the contribution of Chinese-Canadian soldiers in WWII – but Mao’s red revolution closed the door at the other end.

Sharp backlash

The next significant wave of migrants came in the 1980s and 90s. But they weren’t about to do manual labour or settle in Chinatown with the so-called Chi-eppies (Chinese elderly people) and Chi-lippies (Chinese low-income people).

This was a largely wealthy class of Hong Kong Chinese who snapped up homes in the priciest neighbourhoods, sent their children to the best schools, and kicked off a construction boom which transformed downtown Vancouver into a Hong Kong-style city of skyscrapers.

Newspaper headlines and some warned of an “Asian invasion” while the bitter elite coined the phrase ‘Hongcouver’ to express their dismay at the perceived Asian-isation of their city.

“The wealth of the newcomers was an irritation to some in the local community,” says historian John Douglas Belshaw, a professor at the University of Victoria. But attitudes soon began to change, he says.

“The elite says, ‘Our bread’s buttered on this side. We can sell a ton of real estate to this community and they’re kind of like us. These people like their whiskey straight’.”

Mandarin increase

The Hong Kong wave subsided after the British handover to China in 1997. Since then, immigrants from Mainland China, and to a lesser extent, Taiwan are leading the westward charge.

Mandarin is edging out Cantonese on the streets of the city. Overall, nearly one in five Vancouverites is now of Chinese origin – the biggest migrant community by far, with some 12,400 new arrivals each year.

Privately, there have been grumblings. In the safety of living rooms or the anonymity of online forums, old-time Vancouverites blame the Chinese for the city’s sky-high property prices, although experts say there’s little evidence to back up the fears.

Language is another flashpoint, especially when it comes to older migrants. “There used to be a time when immigrants to this country were required to know the language,” whispers a woman in a doctor’s clinic, as the receptionist struggles to ask an elderly Chinese man when he last took his heart medication. A family member has to be contacted by phone before the queue gets moving again.

Thomas Tam says people need to treat the changing society as an opportunity

There’s concern too that foreign students are taking up places at university, bringing much-needed bags of cash in foreign student fees. A similar problem is playing out in schools, some say.

“My son wants out of private school,” says one parent who asked not to be named. His teenager has become one of the few white students at an exclusive Christian academy in a Vancouver suburb. “All these Asian kids are playing the piano and violin in the evenings. My kid plays hockey,” he says.

It’s not uncommon to find only one or two white students in Vancouver classrooms, says Mr Tam in his Chinatown office, especially in courses like finance or engineering.

He says he gives the same advice to all young people – Asian and non-Asian – struggling to find their place: “Take this as an opportunity rather than a challenge.

Christy ClarkBritish Columbia Premier

“The future is in Asia and Vancouver has a very good advantage, which is that of all the Canadian cities, we are the closest to the Asia Pacific Rim.”

That reality is reflected in the BC government’s economic plan, aptly titled Canada starts here – a clear reference to BC as the Pacific gateway, a full three sailing days closer than anywhere else in North America.

“Our government is focused on making sure British Columbians are first in line to do business with Asia to create jobs here at home,” says Premier Christy Clark.

“Vancouver and British Columbia are a natural place for many Asian families because of our diversity. There are countless personal and cultural connections here and our economy and province is richer, more vibrant and attractive for newcomers as a result,” her office said in a statement.

Toronto, with a population of 2.79 million people (5.5 million in the GTA – Greater Toronto Area) is heralded as one of the most multicultural cities in the world and is ranked as the safest large metropolitan area in North America by Places Rated Almanac. Over 140 languages and dialects are spoken here, and just over 30% of Toronto residents speak a language other than English or French at home.

• In 2006, the City of Toronto was home to 8 per cent of Canada’s population, 30% of all recent immigrants and 20 per cent of all immigrants.
• Between 2001 and 2006, Canada received 1,109,980 international immigrants. The City of Toronto welcomed about one quarter of all immigrants (267,855) to Canada during this period of about 55,000 annually.
• Half of Toronto’s population (1,237,720) was born outside of Canada, up from 48% in 1996.
• In 2006, half of all immigrants to the City of Toronto have lived in Canada for less than 15 years.
• In 2006, more than half of all immigrants living in the City were age 25 and over; 7% were pre-school age 5 and under; 16% were school age 6 to 14; and 22% were youth 15 to 24.
• In 2006 the City of Toronto had 45% of the GTA’s population in 2006, and was home to:
  • 52.4% of all GTA immigrants;
  • 36% of all immigrants living in Ontario;
  • 20% of all immigrants living in Canada;
  • 42.4% of all visible minorities in Ontario;
  • 22.9% of all visible minorities in Canada.
• 47% of Toronto’s population (1,162,635 people) reported themselves as being part of a visible minority, up from 42.8% (1,051,125) in 2001.
• The City of Toronto’s visible minority population increased by 10.6% since 2001, and by 31.8% since 1996.
• The top five visible minority groups in Toronto were:
  • South Asian at 298,372 or 12.0% of our population;
  • Chinese at 283,075 or 11.4%;
  • Black at 208,555 or 8.4%;
  • Filipino at 102,555 or 4.1%;
  • Latin American at 64,860 or 2.6%.

Visible Minorities

“Visible minority” is defined by Statistics Canada as “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour”

• Across Canada there has been a four-fold increase since 1981 in people who identify themselves as visible minorities – up from 1.1 million in 1981 to almost 5 million in 2006.
• Nationally, 96% of the visible minority population live in a metropolitan area compared with 68% of the total population.
• Ethnic Origin

Regardless of where people were born, or when they came to Canada, everyone reports on their ethnic background or heritage. Respondents are permitted to report more than one ethnic origin if appropriate and this is happening more frequently. People more likely to report multiple origins include those from European backgrounds whose ancestors have lived in Canada for several generations. In general, groups with a more recent history in Canada were more likely to report single responses.

• Toronto’s rich multi-cultural diversity is expressed by the more than 200 distinct ethnic origins residents identified in their response to the 2006 Census.
• In 2006, 28% of all ethnic origin responses in Toronto were European; 19% identified themselves with the British Isles (including England, Scotland, and Ireland); 16% as East or Southeast Asian; and 10% as South Asian in origin.

Language

• Toronto remains a mosaic of many languages. In 2006, forty-seven percent of the population had a mother tongue in a language other than English or French.
• The top 5 mother tongue languages in 2006 were:
  • Chinese (420,000);
  • Italian (195,000);
  • Punjabi (138,000);
  • Tagalog/Pilipino (114,000);
  • Portuguese (113,000).
• Diversity can also be measured by the extent in which people speak another language other than English or French in the home. Thirty-one percent of City residents had a home language other than English or French. The top non-official home languages were: Chinese, Tamil, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
• Among Chinese speakers who identified a specific dialect, two-thirds spoke Cantonese and one-third spoke Mandarin.
• Since 1996, the number of persons with Tamil as a home language has surpassed those who speak Italian while Spanish as a home language has overtaken Portuguese.
• 5% of the population has no knowledge of either official language, a slight decline from 6 per cent in 1996.
• 2% of Torontonians indicated multiple mother tongues other than French and English.

Aboriginal Peoples

Aboriginal Identity refers to those persons who reported identifying with at least one Aboriginal group (North American Indian, Métis or Inuit), or those who reported being a Treaty Indian or a Registered Indian as defined by the Indian Act of Canada, or those who reported they were members of an Indian band or First Nation.

Census counts for aboriginal identity include persons living in private households only. Individuals who lived in collective residences, institutions or were homeless at the time of the ennumeration are not reflected. The results of the 2006 Census may be undercounting actual population numbers. The number of urban aboriginal persons reported by the Census has historically been sharply lower than estimates from agencies serving this community. In 2006, Aboriginal agencies estimated that there were approximately 70,000 Aboriginal people living in the City of Toronto.

Canada and Provinces

• In 2006, there were 1,172,785 aboriginals in Canada. Aboriginals accounted for 3.8% of the total population of 31,241,030.
• Nationally, 59.5% of aboriginals were North American Indian, 33.2% were Métis, 4.3% were Inuit, 0.7% had multiple aboriginal identities and 2.3% were other aboriginal responses.
• From 2001-2006, the aboriginal population in Canada increased by 196,475. Over this period, aboriginal population grew by 20.1%, a rate five times that of the non-aboriginal population.
• Across the country, the highest concentration of Aboriginal population can be found in Nunavut (85%), Northwest Territories (50.3%), Yukon Territory (25.1%), Manitoba (15.5%) and Saskatchewan (14.9%).

Ontario

• While aboriginals comprise only 2% of its population, in absolute numbers, Ontario had the largest aboriginal population of any province or territory. In 2006, there were 242,490 aboriginal persons living in Ontario, representing 20.7% of the Canadian total.
• From 2001-2006, the aboriginal population of Ontario increased by 28.%, a rate faster than that of Canada as whole. Over this period, the number of aboriginals living in Ontario grew by 54,175 persons.
• Aboriginals are increasingly living off reserve. According to the census, 54% of aboriginal lived in or near a city.
• Despite this, only 15.7% of aboriginals lived in one of the country’s six major metropolitan areas. Among these, Edmonton had the largest aboriginal population (52,100 persons) followed by Vancouver (40,310), Toronto (26,576), Calgary (26,575), Ottawa (20,590) and Montreal (17,865).

The Greater Toronto Area and City of Toronto

Note: Agencies serving the Aboriginal community in Toronto estimate that there are 70,000 residents who belong to this community.

• In 2006, there were 31,910 aboriginal person living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). This represents 2.7% of all aboriginal persons in Canada and 13.2% of those in Ontario. From 2001-2006, the aboriginal population in the GTA went from 23.950 to 31,910, an increase of 33.2%.
• The aboriginal population of the GTA has a lower median age (31.7 years) than the non-aboriginal population (37.3 years). The GTA aboriginal population includes higher proportions of children (22.1% vs 18.7%) and youth (16% vs 13.4%). The proportion of seniors, meanwhile, is significantly lower (4.6% vs 11.4%).
• At the same time, women outnumber men in all age groups except those fourteen years and younger.
• 13,605 persons (0.5%) of persons in the City of Toronto were aboriginal. Aboriginals in the City comprise 42.6% of the aboriginal population in GTA. From 2001-2006, aboriginals in the City increases by 2,235 (19.7%).
• Among aboriginals in the City, 67.1% were North American Indians, 26.8% Métis, and 1.4% Inuit.

Markham is Canada’s most diverse community, according to Statistics Canada

More than 70 per cent of Markham’s population comes from visible minorities, according to Statistics Canada’s National Household Survey.

Real estate agents Jacqueline and Jim Wong have lived in their quiet residential Markham neighbourhood for 14 years.

Over that time they’ve seen the demographics of their community change greatly, particularly in the past five years with the increase of Chinese and South Asian people moving to their city and buying homes.

Jacqueline Wong, who emigrated from Malaysia more than 30 years ago, points to her own street as an example. About 85% of the people who have bought homes in recent months are Chinese. The draw: “They feel very comfortable with Markham.”

What’s more, there’s no municipal land transfer tax, it’s close to Toronto, housing is more affordable and it’s very safe, she said.

“It’s a great community,” added her husband, Jim Wong, who came to Canada from a small village in China in 1960. “It’s very attractive for young families.”

Safety and a sense of peace was the magnet for Ramanathan Lambotharan, a Sri Lankan family physician, who has lived and worked in Markham for over a decade.

“I think Markham is an amazing place to live,” he said. “The feeling that comes to mind is security and it’s truly multicultural.”

Neither the Wongs nor Lambotharan are surprised by the fact that Markham is now Canada’s most diverse community with the highest proportion of visible minorities than any other city, according to Statistics Canada’s National Household Survey.

A total of 72.3% of the population comes from visible minorities. People from China make up the bulk of the community at 52.9%.

Two other emerging visible minority groups are prevalent in Markham — the South Asian population with 26.4% and the black community with 4.5%.

In 2006, according to Statistics Canada, Markham’s Chinese population was at 34.1% and South Asian at 17.2%.

Other GTA communities — Brampton, Mississauga and Toronto — aren’t far behind when it comes to visible minorities.

And while some dispute the accuracy of the National Household Survey —many groups suggest it underestimates visible minorities and foreign born individuals — no one disputes that the face of Markham is evolving.

Go anywhere in Markham and the region’s diversity can be seen in the faces in shopping malls and those behind the wheels of cars that tear along congested Highway 7.

And signs on many of the strip malls along Highway 7 are bilingual —English and Chinese.

There are even some Chinese roads, like Sun Yat Sen Ave., Filipino streets, like Rizal Ave., and South Asian byways, such as Karachi Dr. and New Delhi Cres.

“I do believe that we did a lot of things to accommodate new immigrants when they move to Markham,” said Regional Councillor Joe Li.

“We make them comfortable. We’re the only municipality that hosts a national day for every community. When you walk into the city hall, you see the diverse workforce in the city and if you look at council you can see the diversity there, too.”

Markham council has three ethnic Chinese members from different parts of the world and one Sri Lankan councillor — that’s four out of 13, Li proudly points out.

What’s more, many people tell him they feel at home in the region. They see familiar faces, can converse in their home language, can shop and eat like they did back home, he said.

And so far, there is no tension within the growing South Asian community. “They live side by side in harmony.”