Chinese Workers In Canada

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

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

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