Research Paper on Chinese Immigration to Canada Essay Example Essay Example

Research Paper on Chinese Immigration to Canada Essay Example Paper Research on Chinese Immigration to Canada Essay Introduction Centuries ago leaving China to go overseas was a great crime because only the enemy and deliberate criminal of the nation would choose to abandon and move away from the greatest civilization on Earth. (1) In 18th century there was even a law proclaimed by the emperor stating that a person who went abroad had to come home in order to be publicly beheaded. Leaving China was also regarded as un-Confucian. Sons were meant to stay in the home village, to keep the ancestral graves clean and the clan’s lineage unbroken. (1) But no matter how problematic it was to leave China, Chinese people for many centuries, have been emigrating and creating distinctively Chinese communities outside their Mainland China, even as they adjust to the laws and acculturate to the foreign cultures and in which they put down roots. The Chinese community in Canada has a very old and reach history, the first Chinese baby boy who was a real Canadian was born in 1861. (2) The first appearances of Chinese in C anada can be dated to 1788, when Chinese shipwrights were employed at Nootka Sound to built the first European-type vessel in the Pacific Northwest, that was afterwards named North West America. However, Chinese people first appeared in large numbers in the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1849 as part of the huge â€Å"Gold Rush swept†. A decade later, â€Å"California’s gold veins were drying up as fast as anti-Oriental feeling was growing.† When the word of a golden strike filtered down in the Fraser River Valley in 1858, Chinese prospectors were among those who spread the rumor north. Unlike the California goldfields, where Chinese were persecuted and humiliated, the Chinese in British Columbia were protected by edict of Governor James Douglas, who proclaimed that the Chinese had the same rights as all others, including â€Å"First Nations peoples†, to work and reside in the country (colony). Even though Chinese workers were officially protected by the B ritish law they still had to face persecutions and humiliations, because all kinds of conflicts were continually appearing between them and the white people One such conflict even turned into the Rock Creek War in the Kettle River valley. (3) Research on Chinese Immigration to Canada Essay Body Paragraphs The workers from China were the main labor force in bulidng the Canadian Pacific Railway that was constructed by Andrew Onderdonk in 1880. Decding to join the confereation in 1871 British Columbia stated one of condtiones to be that the â€Å"Dominion government build a railway linking B.C. with eastern Canada within 10 years.† As the governemtn of Canada wanted to cut back the spdenings, it chose to hire the immigratns from China to buil the railway. However, after the building of Canadian Pacific railroad was finished in 1885, Canada had no need in the Chinese labor force anymore. As a result, the Chinese Immigration Act was passed that was putting a â€Å"Head Tax† of $50 on any Chinese immigrant coming to Canada. After the 1885 legislation failed to deter Chinese immigration to Canada, the government of Canada passed The Chinese Immigration Act, 1900 to increase the tax to $100, and The Chinese Immigration Act, 1904 furthered increased the landing fees to $500 (equi valent to $8000 in 2003 – as compared to the Right of Landing Fee, or Right of Permanent Residence Fee, of merely $975 per person paid by new immigrants in 1995-2005, and further reduced to $490 in 2006.)(3) The Chinese Immigration Act, 1923, that is better known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, replaced prohibitive fees with an outright ban on Chinese immigration to Canada with the exceptions of merchants, diplomats, students, and â€Å"special circumstances† cases. (3) During the Great Depression, life was even tougher for the Chinese than it was for other Canadians, for example they received much less relief payments than other Canadians. And as any additional immigration was prohibited by the Chinese Exclusion Act Chinese men had to deal with the hardships of life alone being far away from their wives and children. Census data from 1931 shows that there were 1240 men to every 100 women in Chinese-Canadian communities. To protest The Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese-Cana dians closed their businesses and boycotted Dominion Day celebrations every July 1st, which became known as â€Å"Humiliation Day† by the Chinese-Canadians. (6) During the Second World War than 500 Chinese Canadian men served in the Canadian Army. However, only in 1947 Chinese Canadians gained the right to vote in federal elections. In 1959 the boarders of Canada got opened for the wives and children of the men who were at that time working in Canada and that contributed greatly to the developing of the Chinese community. Chinese Indonesian s first arrived in Canada in 1960s during anti-Chinese riots in Indonesia. From 1970s – 1999, many more Chinese Indonesians settled in Canada. After the American intervention in Vietnam a lot of Chinese people from Vietnam, Laos, and Kampuchea came to Canada as refugees. Early Chinese Canadians have close relationships with them as a result of their Chinese heritage because they lived mostly in Quebec. There were also Chinese people coming form Latin America, nowadays they are mostly settled in Victoria, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. But the was fled from the Somoza that was ruled by a dictator and was effected by the earthquake in 1980’s. As most countries that are experiencing a huge flow of immigration it took Canada quite a long time to lift the restrictions against the Chinese-Canadians and grant them full rights and powers of Canadian citizens. After the end of WWII Canada signed the United Nations Charter of Human Rights. The Canadian government had to immediately cancel the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was undemocratic and inappropriate for the UN. As stated before, in that same year, 1947, Chinese-Canadians were finally granted the right to vote in federal elections. But only after a pass of 20 years the points system for selecting immigrants was adopted and the Chinese began to be admitted under the same criteria as any other applicants. (3) The years 1978 and 1985 were the years of great change in the immigrant laws that promoted the arrival of wealthy entrepreneurs from Hong Kong and Taiwan. â€Å"They had to show a net worth of at least $500,000 and investment in a Canadian business venture of at least $250,000.† The changes were introduced just as Hong Kong money was growing twitchy about the approach of the colony’s July 1997 handover to China. (1) After many years of organized calls for an official Canadian government public apology and redress to the historic Head tax, the minority Conservative government of Stephen Harper announced as part of their pre-election campaign, an official apology. â€Å"On Thursday, June 22, 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered a message of redress in the House of Commons, calling it a â€Å"grave injustice†.† A number of well-educated Chinese arrived to Canada as refugees in search of rescue. Since the mid-20th century, most new Chinese Canadians come from university-educated families, one of w hose most essential values is still quality education. These newcomers are a major part of the â€Å"Brain gain† the inverse of the infamous â€Å"Brain drain†, i.e., Canadians leaving to the United States of America, which Chinese have also been a part of. (3) However, the majority of the Chinese who came to Canada from the mid-19th century, up to the 1960s, were from Guangdong province where the dialect was spoken. When the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed after the Second World War, the wives and children of these early immigrants were allowed to come to join their husbands and fathers. Many of this group were from peasant backgrounds, they were the Lao Huaqiao. Many of them ran businesses and later their children inherited them and continued and family cases. In Canada if you don’t speak English or French it is most likely that you speak Chinese that is shown by the latest survey conducted by the Canadian government. Chinese has become and number 3 languag e in Canada and the amount of people using it is growing rapidly. According to Nouvelles d’Europe from 1996 to 2001, the population whose mother tongue is Chinese grew 18 percent and reached 870,000 – about 2.9 percent out of 31.4 million of the population in Canada, a rise 0.3 percent over the original Chinese proportion of 2.6 percent. (4) Canada is a country of diversity. In addition to Aboriginal people and the founding British and French groups, there are a wide variety of ethnic groups represented in the Canadian population, including large numbers of German, Italian, Dutch, Ukrainian, Chinese, Black, and Indo-Pakistani people, among others (Kelly, 1995; Renaud Badets, 1993). Around 10% of the adult population of Canada is minorities, and the figure is expected to rise in the future (Kelly, 1995). Such studies and researches contribute toward understanding and â€Å"promoting positive relations† among the varied ethnic groups from different geographical a nd cultural backgrounds who are now calling themselves Canadian. (6) In 1990s more than half of the immigrants who came to the country with a business related purpose were from Hong Kong or Taiwan. In recent decades, however, most new Chinese Canadians have actually been middle-class rather than super-rich. Indeed, in the past 50 years, more than half the Chinese who have immigrated to Canada have been in white-collar occupations. They have tended to settle on the outskirts of big cities, mostly Toronto and Vancouver. The last national survey had shown that the Chinese population is around 920,000 right now and keeps on growing. The appearance of Chinese Diaspora was one of the great events in the modern Canadian history, and the story of its sojourners and migrant workers was one of â€Å"pain, courage, and enterprise†. Immigration is a very important aspect in the development of the country because it brings diversity, and Canada is the best example of this. Because highly educated and upwardly mobile, the recent arrivals have transformed and will keep transforming the Canadian society. Work Cited We will write a custom essay sample on Research Paper on Chinese Immigration to Canada Essay Example specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Research Paper on Chinese Immigration to Canada Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Research Paper on Chinese Immigration to Canada Essay Example specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer

Biography of Nikita Khrushchev

Biography of Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Khrushchev (April 15, 1894- September 11, 1971) was the leader of the Soviet Union during a critical decade of the Cold War. His leadership style and expressive personality came to represent Russians hostility toward the United States in the eyes of the American public. Khrushchevs aggressive stance against the West culminated in the standoff with the United States during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Fast Facts: Nikita Khrushchev Full Name: Nikita Sergeyevich KhrushchevKnown for: Leader of the Soviet Union (1953–1964)Born: April 15, 1894, in Kalinovka, RussiaDied: September 11, 1971 in Moscow, RussiaSpouses Name: Nina Petrovna Khrushchev Early Life Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was born April 15, 1894, in Kalinovka, a village in southern Russia. His family was poor, and his father at times worked as a miner. By the age of 20 Khrushchev had become a skilled metalworker. He hoped to become an engineer, and married an educated woman who encouraged his ambitions. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Khrushchevs plans changed profoundly as he joined the Bolsheviks and began a political career. During the 1920s he rose from obscurity to a position as an apparatchik in the Ukrainian Communist Party. In 1929, Khrushchev moved to Moscow and took a position with the Stalin Industrial Academy. He rose to positions of increasing political power in the Communist Party and was undoubtedly complicit in the violent purges of the Stalin regime. During World War II, Khrushchev became a political commissar in the Red Army. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, Khrushchev worked at rebuilding Ukraine, which had been devastated during the war. He began to gain attention, even to observers in the West. In 1947 The New York Times published an essay by journalist Harrison Salisbury headlined The 14 Men Who Run Russia. It contained a passage on Khrushchev, which noted that his current job was to bring the Ukraine fully into the Soviet fold and that, in order to do so, he was carrying out a violent purge. In 1949, Stalin brought Khrushchev back to Moscow. Khrushchev became involved in the political intrigue within the Kremlin which coincided with the Soviet dictators failing health. Rise to Power Following Stalins death on March 5, 1953, Khrushchev began his own rise to the top of the Soviet power structure. To outside observers, he was not viewed as a favorite. The New York Times published a front-page article following Stalins death citing four men expected to succeed the Soviet leader. Georgy Malenkov was presumed to be the next Soviet leader. Khrushchev was mentioned as one of about a dozen figures believed to hold power within the Kremlin. In the years immediately following Stalins death, Khrushchev managed to outmaneuver his rivals, including notable figures such as Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov. By 1955, he had consolidated his own power and was essentially leading the Soviet Union. Khrushchev chose not to become another Stalin, and actively encouraged the process of de-Stalinization that followed the dictators death. The role of the secret police was curtailed. Khrushchev was involved in the plot which ousted the feared head of the secret police, Lavrenti Beria (who was tried and shot). The terror of the Stalin years was denounced, with Khrushchev evading his own responsibility for purges. In the realm of foreign affairs, Khrushchev aggressively challenged the United States and its allies. In a famous outburst aimed at Western ambassadors in Poland in 1956, Khrushchev said the Soviets would not have to resort to war to defeat its adversaries. In a quote that became legendary, Khrushchev bellowed, Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you. On the World Stage As Khrushchev enacted his reforms within the Soviet Union, the Cold War defined the era internationally. The United States, led by World War II hero President Dwight Eisenhower, sought to contain what was viewed as Russian communist aggression in trouble spots around the world. In July 1959, a relative thaw in Soviet-American relations occurred when an American trade fair opened in Moscow. Vice president Richard Nixon traveled to Moscow and had a confrontation with Khrushchev that seemed to define the tensions between the superpowers. The two men, standing next to a display of kitchen appliances, debated the relative virtues of communism and capitalism. The rhetoric was tough, but news reports noted that no one lost their temper. The public argument became instantly famous as The Kitchen Debate, and was reported as a tough discussion between determined adversaries. Americans got an idea of Khrushchevs stubborn nature. A few months later, in September 1959, Khrushchev accepted an invitation to visit the United States. He stopped in Washington, D.C., before traveling to New York City, where he addressed the United Nations. He then flew to Los Angeles, where the trip seemed to veer out of control. After expressing abrupt greetings to local officials who welcomed him, he was taken to a movie studio. With Frank Sinatra acting as the master of ceremonies, dancers from the film Can Can performed for him. The mood turned bitter, however, when Khrushchev was informed that he would not be allowed to visit Disneyland. The official reason was that local police couldnt guarantee Khrushchevs safety on the long drive to the amusement park. The Soviet leader, who was not used to being told where he could go, erupted in anger. At one point he bellowed, according to news reports, Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken control of the place that can destroy me? At one appearance in Los Angeles, the mayor of Los Angeles, made reference to Khrushchevs famous we will bury you remark from three years earlier. Khrushchev felt he had been insulted, and threatened to return immediately to Russia. In Iowa, Khrushchev enjoyed his first hot dog. Getty Images   Khrushchev took a train northward to San Francisco, and the trip turned happier. He praised the city and engaged in friendly banter with local officials. He then flew to Des Moines, Iowa, where he toured American farms and happily posed for the cameras. He then visited Pittsburgh, where he debated with American labor leaders. After returning to Washington, he visited Camp David for meetings with President Eisenhower. At one point, Eisenhower and Khrushchev visited the presidents farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Khrushchevs tour of America was a media sensation. A photo of Khrushchev visiting an Iowa farm, smiling broadly as he waved an ear of corn, appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine. An essay in the issue explained that Khrushchev, despite appearing friendly at times during his trip, was a difficult and unyielding adversary. The meetings with Eisenhower had not gone very well. The following year, Khrushchev returned to New York to appear at the United Nations. In an incident that became legendary, he disrupted the proceedings of the General Assembly. During a speech by a diplomat from the Philippines, which Khrushchev took as insulting to the Soviet Union, he removed his shoe and began rhythmically banging it against his desktop. To Khrushchev, the incident with the shoe was essentially playful. Yet it was portrayed as front-page news that seemed to illuminate Khrushchevs unpredictable and threatening nature. Cuban Missile Crisis Serious conflicts with the United States followed. In May 1960, an American U2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet territory and the pilot was captured. The incident provoked a crisis, as President Eisenhower and allied leaders had been planning for a scheduled summit meeting with Khrushchev. The summit occurred, but it went badly. Khrushchev accused the United States of aggression against the Soviet Union. The meeting essentially collapsed with nothing accomplished. (The Americans and Soviets eventually made a deal to swap the U2 planes pilot for an imprisoned Russian spy in America, Rudolf Abel.) The early months of the Kennedy administration were marked by accelerated tensions with Khrushchev. The failed Bay of Pigs Invasion created problems, and a June 1961 summit between Kennedy and Khrushchev in Vienna was difficult and produced no real progress. President Kennedy and Khrushchev at their Vienna summit.   Getty Images In October 1962, Khrushchev and Kennedy became forever linked in history as the world suddenly seemed to be on the brink of nuclear war. A CIA spy plane over Cuba had taken photographs which showed launch facilities for nuclear missiles. The threat to Americas national security was profound. The missiles, if launched, could strike American cities with virtually no warning. The crisis simmered for two weeks, with the public becoming aware of the threat of war when President Kennedy gave a televised speech on October 22, 1962. Negotiations with the Soviet Union eventually helped defuse the crisis, and the Russians ultimately removed the missiles from Cuba. In the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchevs role in the Soviet power structure began to decline. His efforts to move on from the dark years of Stalins brutal dictatorship were generally admired, but his domestic policies were often seen as disorganized. In the realm of international affairs, rivals in the Kremlin viewed him as erratic. Fall From Power and Death In 1964 Khrushchev was essentially deposed. In a Kremlin power play, he was stripped of his power and forced to go into retirement. Khrushchev lived a comfortable retired life in a house outside Moscow, but his name was purposely forgotten. In secret, he worked on a memoir, a copy of which was smuggled out to the West. Soviet officials denounced the memoir as a forgery. It is considered an unreliable narration of events, yet it is believed to be Khrushchevs own work. On September 11, 1971, Khrushchev died four days after suffering a heart attack. Though he died in a Kremlin hospital, his front-page obituary in The New York Times noted that the Soviet government had not issued an official statement on his passing. In the countries he had delighted in antagonizing, Khrushchevs death was treated as major news. However, in the Soviet Union, it was largely ignored. The New York Times reported that a small item in Pravda, the official government newspaper, reported his death, but avoided any praise of the man who had dominated Soviet life for a decade. Sources: Khrushchev, Nikita. UXL Encyclopedia of World Biography, edited by Laura B. Tyle, vol. 6, UXL, 2003, pp. 1083-1086. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev. Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed., vol. 8, Gale, 2004, pp. 539-540. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Taubman, William. Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeyevich. Encyclopedia of Russian History, edited by James R. Millar, vol. 2, Macmillan Reference USA, 2004, pp. 745-749. Gale Virtual Reference Library.