Chinese Assimilation In Canada

Canada is viewed as a land of immigrants, disregarding aboriginal peoples, and yet Canada has a history of racism. The Chinese entered Canada during different times and were greeted with different extremes depending on the social context at that point of time. The Chinese were welcomed during the gold rush in British Columbia as well as when needing labour to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. Then restrictive policies started to be placed such as the increasing tax and finally in 1923 the ban of any Chinese person from entering into Canada with few exceptions. This shift, as well be discussed, was a result of fear of the Chinese taking from the economy and that their presence will affect the white Anglo-Canadian population. Therefore Canada …show more content…
As Gunter states, “close ties to China was a response to conditions in Canada, not a cause of ‘unassimilability’ ”. There was a collective view that Chinese were ‘aliens’ and would always remain so. The negative stereotypes of Chinese immigrants created a drift between Canadians that the government wanted to keep getting bigger, ignoring the similarities we actually have. There were positive interactions that occurred among the Chinese and Canadians but these experiences were often ignored or bypassed as it was not the idea governments wanted Canadians to …show more content…
The Chinese state that it “is not the immigration restrictions, but that it was done in a humiliating manner and did not apply to any other country.” Canada did not turn away immigrants because of normal reasons such as poor health or a criminal record (both determinatal to the safety of Canadians), but because they were of Orient ethnicity. An Act Respecting Chinese Immigration of 1923 laid out rules restricting the immigration of Chinese people to enter Canada. The only people we were allowed to enter were government representatives, children who were born in Canada and students and still these exceptions had extreme restrictions as well. Along with immigration policies, other government regulations were put in place, as discussed previously: deportation if found with drugs, restrictions on businesses and land ownership and as well as enfranchisement. John A. Macdonald justified the enfranchisement of the Chinese (started in British Columbia but expanded) by stating “Chinese have no “British instinct” and their mind not suited for democracy” . Yet the argument of having ‘no British instinct’ could be argued for the province of Quebec as well, hence discrimination being of race not