History
Canada has a very long history of East Asian immigration over the past 100 years. During the 19th century, many Chinese arrived to take part in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Chinese who came from Guangdong Province blasted and chiseled the treacherous western stretch of railway through the Canadian Rockies. Japanese also had arrived in the 1890s and became fishermen and merchants in British Columbia. In 1923, the federal government passed the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, which banned all Chinese immigration. With this act, all other non-whites were restricted to come. In 1947, the act was repealed.
During and after the Vietnam War, a large wave of Vietnamese refugees began arriving in Canada. The Canadian Parliament created the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada in 1985 to better address issues surrounding Canada-Asia relations, including trade, citizenship and immigration. When Hong Kong reverted to mainland Chinese rule, people emigrated and found new homes in Canada.
In recent decades, a large number of Indians from South Asia have come to Canada.
Today, Asian Canadians form a significant minority within the population, and over 3 million Asians call Canada their home.
Read more about this topic: Asian Canadian
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“The history of reform is always identical; it is the comparison of the idea with the fact. Our modes of living are not agreeable to our imagination. We suspect they are unworthy. We arraign our daily employments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.”
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“When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)