Chinese Workers In Canada

During the nineteenth century, China experienced a lot of political and social disruption. Many Chinese decided to immigrate to the east coast of the United States due to the attraction of the gold rush. Once they came, the Chinese were rejected by the Americans, but some was still able to prosper for gold along the Fraser River in Western Canada. During that period, Canada desperately needed a transportation system that would connect the east and west coast and strengthen their national identity. This was a hard task because British Columbia’s topography is mountainous, which makes the construction both dangerous and difficult. Furthermore, there was also a shortage of workers at the time. In order to fill in these gaps, Canada decided to

It was proven to be not an easy task as the Chinese were often socio-economic discriminated, receiving racial hostility, having the lack of capital and couldn't understand English and French. Thousands of Chinese workers decided to return to China, but the majority could not afford the cost of the return ticket back home. Many were forced to stay in British Columbia, specifically in Victoria and Vancouver. The rest of the Chinese would settle in small towns along the railway line or become gardeners, grocers, cooks, servants, farm workers, or miners in Alberta. With limited resources and no real hopes, the Chinese Canadian community was placed at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder for a long period of time. Running laundry facilities became the main living principal for the Chinese near the eastern Rockies, Quebec, the Maritimes and Newfoundland. Opening laundry businesses required little wealth, and had the ability to work long hours. From 1890 to 1950, a majority of the Chinese immigrants practiced this sector. The life of a launderer was very difficult, harsh and low paying. It was an unforgettable chapter in the history of Sino-Canadians as the early Chinese immigrants aged during the late 1940s to the 1960s. For many descendants, the laundry business is a symbol not just of difficult living conditions, but of survival, endurance, patience and sacrifice in

In fact their assimilation to Canadian culture represents one of the worst chapters in racial history. White people were frightened by their cultural differences and customs that they denied the Chinese to access many public places, such as restaurants and cinemas. Some Canadians went to the extent of believing that the Chinese had come to steal their jobs, thereby threatening them physically. Others developed false or exaggerated ideas about Chinese lifestyle. The Chinese were frequently accused of having poor hygiene and carried disease because of its overcrowding country. Chinese workers were paid less than white workers because many people assumed that they needed less money to live, accepted a lower quality diet, had poorer hygiene, were more prone to disease and were dishonest and corrupt. Furthermore, Chinese workers suffered from both social isolation as the authorities denied them the right to bring family members in from China. This was a secret way for the authorities that the Chinese would someday be naturally extinct from Canada. The Chinese were also forced to live in separate neighbourhoods that were called, "Chinatowns." In most Canadian provinces, many laws prevented Asian immigrants from hiring white women. The White Women’s Labour Law of Saskatchewan was very unambiguous about this. For example, a racist movement in 1907, the Asiatic Exclusion League, unleashed