It has been a long journey for Chinese immigrants before settling in Canada - By: Dom Koup

It has not been as easy task for the thousands of Chinese who have moved to Canada to make this country their home. They have suffered a lot before attaining this task. But few of the current generation know about the sacrifices made by their forefathers which have made this possible. Attempting to visualize why the Chinese immigrate to Canada in such great numbers is not so difficult a task. Pupils of history are apparent to the fact that the first batch of Chinese immigrants to Canada went to that country as early as in the 19th century.

The Canadian government was quick to realize the potentialities of the Chinese immigrants, as far as their mining skills were concerned, and therefore did not stop their influx to their land. Though building of the Canadian Pacific Railway line involved lots of danger, the Chinese immigrants did not fuss about it and worked actively to complete the project in quick time. Nevertheless, the Canadian government did not desire them to stay back once the job of building the railway line was completed. A hard time for the Chinese who had immigrated to Canada was shortly to follow.

Various types of problems were enforced on these Chinese immigrants by the Canadian government with the prime one being the infamous head tax. The Chinese Immigration Act was primarily introduced in the year 1885 and the head tax was levied soon after. Once the railway line was accomplished, the Canadian government desired to stop the inflow of Chinese citizens and it was keeping this in mind that the act was introduced. The flow of the Chinese immigrants stayed composed by the tax of $50 that the Canadian government had brought in by way of the act, as the regime found out to their consternation.

To determine that the flow of Chinese immigrants was put to an end, the Canadian government raised the tax to $100 per individual and then enhanced it to $500 per head. The taxes that were inflicted after the completion of the railway chore were finally nullified by a new Chinese Immigration Act that allowed people of Chinese citizenship to immigrate to Canada. This new act did not mean that all Chinese citizens could immigrate to Canada and only clergies, students and business people along with certain specific exceptions were granted to immigrate to Canada.

Chinese immigrants who were responsible for making the rail line were often subjugated to attacks by local citizens who feared that they would threaten their jobs, but things have changed a lot. The fact that the Chinese citizens were willing to work at prices as low as 50% compared to that being charged by their Canadian twins were the main reason of the attacks on them. Even though they are denied some of the cream jobs that are reserved only for the Canadian citizens, they are quite happy with their laundry and hotel business.

About the Author

Dominic Koupland moved to Canada more than a decade ago and currently owns a bistro in Quebec with his Canadian wife.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Dom-Koup/92307

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