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History of immigration in canada
Discrimination against asian and european immigrants canada
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The first Chinese immigrants travelled to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush in British Columbia. The next group of immigrants from China were labourers to work in Canada. They were mainly brought in to help build the Canadian Pacific transcontinental railway. In the year the railway was completed the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 and a head tax was created to control the increasing amount of immigrants. This was mainly due to the pressure from British Columbia, where they felt that the immigrants were taking away jobs. Due to this many of the Chinese immigrating to Canada faced a lot of discrimination. The Canadian head tax era lasted from 1885 to 1922 and the Exclusion era lasted from 1923 to 1946. The purpose of the head tax was to discourage …show more content…
The land in Canada was rocky, which made work difficult and dangerous. They did not have many workers who were willing to do this dangerous work. Canada decided that they would accept more immigrants because they were desperate for work. Between 1881 and 1884, about 17,000 Chinese immigrated to British Columbia to work as labourers on the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Chinese workers worked for $1.00 a day while white workers were paid around $1.50 to $2.50 per day. Chinese workers were given the most dangerous work to do. Many Chinese workers died working, as they cleared and graded the railway's roadbed and created tunnels by exploding through the …show more content…
The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885 and the economy was still in recession. Many citizens like the former Chinese railway workers were unemployed, thus this created resentment. Prejudice towards the Chinese spread and in 1884 the Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration was formed. This was formed to lessen the pressure of the anti-Chinese from British Columbia and to perceive that the restrictions imposed on the Chinese were justified. The council general and the consul were the only Chinese people consulted. The commissioners asked questions to citizens in British Columbia about the Chinese immigrants. Even though they were prejudiced there were exceptions. Some testimonies for example, Andrew Onderdonk stated that they are “sober, economical, and law-abiding: they are not drunken, extravagant, or turbulent. The development of the country without them would be retarded and many industries abandoned [without them].” The superintendent of the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company Mr. Samuel Robins said that even though many people were adverse to the Chinese he stated that “The presence of the Chinese has no doubt contributed to the development of the province… In fact, wage are high enough to attract the best class of white labor. Of nearly 400 white laborers employed by my company, not one earns less that $2 a day… [the Chinese Laborers] earn from $1 to
One particular ethnic group that suffered severe discrimination was the Chinese people. They first came to America for several reasons. One of them was the gold rush in California in 1849, in which they were included in a group of immigrants called the “Forty-Niners” (179). From gold mining, they switched to other jobs with resulted in the rise of anti-Chinese sentiments. People felt that Chinese people were taking the jobs away from them, because Chinese people worked for much smaller salaries that businesses preferred. This mindset gave way to the creation of The Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882, which prohibits more Chinese immigrants from coming to America. In addition, the act states “no State or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship”. Like the Naturalization Act, the Chinese Exclusion Act was created to hinder Chinese people from becoming citizens so that America could remain homogenously white (186). It also aimed to stop Chinese people from establishing a bigger community in the country in hopes of eliminating the threat of competition to their white counterparts (186). Like African-Americans, Chinese people were considered racially inferior and have struggled to prove that they were worthy to be called true Americans, rather than
The Canadian Pacific Railway was the first transcontinental railway built to connect Canada from coast to coast. (Canadian Pacific Para. 9) The construction almost delayed completely because of John A. MacDonald losing power, but it was finally continued with the help of a syndicate. (Canadian Pacific Para. 4) Due to the insufficient amount of adequate workers in British Columbia, Chinese contract workers were imported to help construct the track with minimal pay and harsh conditions. (Canada Para. 1) Chinese-Canadians were discriminated by being given the most dangerous job, no food or shelter provided, and the least pay. Unfortunately, when the track was completed, the Exclusion Act for Chinese immigrants was established to stop immigration from China, (Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre Para. 5) while also making it impossible for family members from China to immigrate. (Calgary Chinese Cultural Centre Para. 11)
And so thousands of Chinese flocked from China to America, in search for work in the gold mines. After the profits from gold mining decreased because most of the easily obtainable gold had been found, an estimated 10,000 Chinese left the mines and were in search of jobs. From independent miners who had worked for themselves, many Chinese immigrants now became wage earners who worked for bosses. A growing number of Chinese were working in businesses owned by whites. But earning wages instead of prospecting did not discourage Chinese from moving to America. A paycheck of up to $30 could be made working for the railroad, which was 10 times as much than could be earned in China.
This paper by Scott Carson is extremely useful in that shows all the different forces that came together to cause the Central Pacific railroad to begin hiring the Chinese railroad workers such as labor queuing, demand side
Many came for gold and job opportunities, believing that their stay would be temporary but it became permanent. The Chinese were originally welcomed to California being thought of as exclaimed by Leland Stanford, president of Central Pacific Railroad, “quiet, peaceable, industrious, economical-ready and apt to learn all the different kinds of work” (Takaki 181). It did not take long for nativism and white resentment to settle in though. The Chinese, who started as miners, were taxed heavily; and as profits declined, went to work the railroad under dangerous conditions; and then when that was done, work as farm laborers at low wages, open as laundry as it took little capital and little English, to self-employment. Something to note is that the “Chinese laundryman” was an American phenomenon as laundry work was a women’s occupation in China and one of few occupations open to the Chinese (Takaki 185). Chinese immigrants were barred from naturalized citizenship, put under a status of racial inferiority like blacks and Indians as with “Like blacks, Chinese men were viewed as threats to white racial purity” (188). Then in 1882, due to economic contraction and racism Chinese were banned from entering the U.S. through the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Chinese were targets of racial attacks, even with the enactment of the 1870 Civil Rights Act meaning equal protection under federal law thanks to Chinese merchants lobbying Congress. Chinese tradition and culture as well as U.S. condition and laws limited the migration of women. Due to all of this, Chinese found strength in ethnic solidarity as through the Chinese Six Companies, which is considered a racial project. Thanks to the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, the Chinese fought the discriminatory laws by claiming citizenship by birth since the fires
Zong L. & Perry, B. (2011). Chinese immigrants in Canada and social injustice: From overt to
The period of 1914 to 1939, Canada’s immigration policy got very unfair. Changes were made to the Immigration Act in 1914 that allowed the rejection of anyone from any race that was deemed unsuitable for Canada’s requirements. Also, in that same year, the Komagata Maru came to the coast of Vancouver. It was a ship that carried many from Punjab, India. The ship wasn’t allowed to dock and passengers weren’t allowed to disembark off the ship. The ship hadn’t sailed directly to B.C. from India so only 24 passengers were allowed to disembark; most of them were doctors or Canadian citizens already. Another act to keep out unwanted immigrants from Canada was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923. This act came into effect on July 1st, 1923. It banned all Chinese immigrants from entering Canada, except merchants, diplomats and foreign students. Before the Chinese Exclusion Act was put into place, the Chinese had to pay a head tax of $500 just to get into the country. The numbers of Japanese immigrants were also restricted. The Canadian government restricted only 150 Japanese immigrants to come to Canada in a year. In 1925, the government relaxed restrictions on immigrants coming from many countrie...
Farmers lost basically everything and looked elsewhere for employment. In 1860 the earned pay for a Chinese laborer in China was around $3-$5 a month. However, if a Chinese worked on the railroad system in the U.S. the potential earning could range anywhere from $25-$30 a month. With the conditions imposed in their homeland $25 to $30 a month was like gold. Therefore, Chinese immigrants (mostly men) took refuge in the United States in hopes of working in the west temporarily. Some worked in mining and other areas while the majority were attracted to the railroad system.
After the Gold Rush had concluded, Chinese immigrants were needed for employment such as, rail road construction and mining. The immigrants were accepted because they were hard workers. According to Schaefer (2015),
Non-Chinese laborers often required much higher wages to support their wives and children in the United
After the first wave of Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States in the early 1840s during the California Gold Rush, many Chinese people continued to travel across the Pacific escaping poor conditions in China with hopes and ambitions for a better life in America. Soon after the first wave, many more Chinese immigrants began to arrive into the 1860s on the Pacific coast for work in other areas such as the railroad industry. The immigrants noticed an increasing demand for their labor because of their readiness to work for low wages. Many of those who arrived wanted to go home at some point, and therefore there was no push for naturalization...
The Chinese immigrant experience has traveled through times of hardships, under the English man. They have struggled to keep themselves alive through racism, work, and acceptance. Although many have come to Canada for their lives’ and their children’s to be successful, and safe. It could not be just given until adversity gave them the life they hoped to one day life for. In the starting time of 1858, the Chinese community had started coming to different parts of Canada considering the push and pull factors that had led them here. Because of the lack of workers in the British Columbia region, the Chinese were able to receive jobs in gold mining. Most Chinese were told to build roads, clear areas, and construct highways, but were paid little because of racism. The Chinese today are considered one of the most successful races in Canada because of the push and pull factors that they had come across, the racism that declined them and the community of the Chinese at the present time.
The government took several steps to prepare for immigrants in the west, for the size of a population that they wanted, a certain infrastructure was needed. In 1870 they begin buying rights to the land from the Hudson Bay Company, at the same time Britain handed the rights to much of the land to the colony. Between 1871 and 1877 the government negotiated several treaties (called the Numbered Treaties, 1-7) with the aboriginal and Métis peoples who populated the area. They created an infrastructure of laws and created the RCMP to police the area. In 1872 with the Dominion Lands Act, colonists could buy 160 acres for 10$, of which they retained full possession if they occupied the land for 3 years. They also kept some of the territories to sell at full price or use for other projects; for example, when Canadian Pacific built the railroad in 1885, the government gave them 10.4 million hectares, on top of paying them 63 500 000$ for their work and lending the company 35 000 000$.
Canadians were frustrating, wonderful, and hard. Soldiers returning from the war expected jobs, but were faced with unemployment, inflation and strikes. Inflation had doubled the cost of living where wages had not and those fortunate to be employed still faced immense financial difficulty. Many people joined unions for better pay and working conditions, 1919 saw the most strikes at a staggering three hundred and six, people were angry and discontented. The 1920s were a time of crime corruption and extreme poverty, yet by mid era difficult conditions began to improve. Foreign investors gained confidence in Canada and as a result new industries were developed, The twenties really did 'roar' and with this boom of change Canada underwent the transformation that was the gateway to the future.
The two countries I have chosen to compare are China and Canada. Their systems of government are very different and have different powers and rolls in their country. Canada has a system of government very similar to our own. While china's government appears to be similar as well, but it is quite different. Canada's government democratic and is parliamentary in form but, very much like our own. Like all large governments it is representative democracy.