Chinese Workers In Canada In The Early Twentieth Century

Introduction: Everyone in the world is biologically the same and therefore, should be treated equally. However, this was not the case for the Chinese workers in Canada in the early twentieth century as they were often the targets of racism and exclusion in the workplace by hostile labour leaders. This paper will be arguing that the labour leaders’ hostility towards Chinese workers and immigration was due to their beliefs that the Chinese would ruin Canadian traditions and they would leave many white workers without a job. In addition, the labour leaders also thought that the Chinese workers were a portrayal of the industrial capitalist society. As a result, labour leaders thought it was there duty to be protect their community of the Chinese

“It is well known that the Asiatic and the western peoples cannot assimilate. When they come in contact either one or the other must predominate. The introduction of the Asiatic into western civilization has a marked deleterious effect and vice versa” (Spencer, 2005). In addition, “Sir John A McDonald stated that ‘an alien race in every sense that would not and could not be expected to assimilate with Arian population’” (Baureiss, 1987). The idea presented by politicians and labour leaders that the Chinese were unassimilable into the Canadian lifestyle had a tremendous effect on the way individuals interacted with the Chinese. Many “unionists portrayed Asian immigration as a threat to the general welfare of Canadian communities” (Goutor, 2007, 555). This propaganda against the Chinese not being able to change according to the culture and being a danger to Canadians caused the hostility towards the Chinese to increase. Not long after, many labour leaders started to believe their hostility and exclusion towards the Chinese was them “defending traditional right and customs” (Spencer, 2005).of the Anglo-Canadian lifestyle. Labour leaders began to think of themselves “as guardians of Canada’s moral and social fabric” (Goutor, 2007, 555) by preventing the Chinese from degrading the lifestyle of Canadians. Many people associated the Chinese

This thinking lead to “a consensus among labour sources that white labour simply could not compete with ‘Orientals’” (Goutor, 2007). This belief that the Chinese were unfair competition caused them to “perceive the Chinese as a threat, since they were prepared to work under conditions and for wages unacceptable to white labourers” ( Baureiss, 1987).Labour leaders also viewed the Chinese as “nothing less than slaves, and above all, as forcing the working people out of industries…[by the] cheapness of their labour” (Goutor, 2007, 550). In order to save the jobs of fellow workers labour leaders were often vocal about the fact that “Asian workers ‘accepted’ low wages and ‘degraded’ working conditions that white workers would not tolerate”( Goutor, 2007, 554) and “continued to insist that exclusion was the only means of protecting the jobs of ‘native’ workers” (Goutor, 2007, 554). As the years passed, hostility towards Chinese workers continued to raise as “Asian immigration was perceived as undercutting the standards of living of Canadian workers, or ‘driving them out’ of industries all together” (Goutor, 2007, 554). Labour leader were also vocal about there already being too much unemployment in Canada that Chinese workers were not needed. This was another tactic used by labour leader to prevent Asian immigration and further