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Chinese Immigrants To Canada

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During the early 20th century, Asian immigrants who came to Canada faced a great deal of backlash from Canadian society. Among these men and women who came overseas, the Chinese suffered the brunt of the racial discrimination that ran rampant in Canada, and were treated distinguishably worse than any other group of immigrants. Although many other immigrants were met with prejudice and racial stereotyping on arrival, there was no other group that experienced the same level of organized racism as Chinese immigrants did. Discriminatory acts were not only conducted on a communal and societal level, but also found its way into Canadian politics. What resulted from this was a national effort to limit the Chinese from both entering Canada as well …show more content…

It was widely believed that Chinese immigrants were “forcing the working people out of industries by the cheapness of their labour,” and therefore were a “great menace” to both Canadians and Canadian values (Goutor, 2007, 550). The portrayal of Chinese immigrants inherently having a lower set of living standards was accepted by mainstream society; they were seen as having loose morals and social habits, which is what made them able to accept and survive on the low wages they were offered. “Asian immigration was perceived as undercutting the standards of living of Canadian workers,” living and working in conditions that “civilized Canadians” would never accept (Goutor, 2007, 554). It’s clear that much of the narrative for economic reasons against Asian immigration was closely tied with the existing prejudices in people’s minds. The exploitation and mistreatment that Asian immigrants faced in the labour market were ignored and many took on a racist perspective that placed the blame on the immigrants and their allegedly less civilized …show more content…

Chinese immigrants were not only denounced for their “negative impact” on Canada’s economy, but as a greater threat towards Canada’s culture. As such, many community leaders, labour organization leaders and even government officials called for exclusionary measures against Chinese immigrants, ranging from stripping them of their ability to organize to implementing harsh limitations on immigration and business conduct. It was assumed by labour leaders that “Asian workers were impossible to organize, and therefore felt they had no choice but to demand exclusionary policies,” regardless of the “Asian involvement in labour militancy” which closely aligned with the goals of Canadian labour unions (Goutor, 2007, 554). At the time, many other policies were also enacted to severely limit the already-scarce amount of freedom that Chinese immigrants had, one of which was the “Act to Prevent the Employment of Female Labour in Certain Capacities” which was a statute that “made it a criminal offense for Chinese men to employ white women” (Backhouse, 1996, 315). The act was put into motion by the propaganda-fed fear of Chinese men, who were “regularly portrayed as sexual predators [that] sought to take advantage of white women” (Goutor, 2007, 556). The Chinese Immigration Act came into effect in 1923,

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