Kingdom on territories neighboring Hong Kong ap-
proached, the British began to believe that they
could not maintain Hong Kong and that they should
negotiate its return to China. In December, 1984,
the United Kingdom and China signed an agree-
ment under which Hong Kong would become a spe-
cial administrative region of the Republic of China
in 1997.
Although the agreement between the two nations
stipulated that Hong Kong would retain its capitalist
system for at least fifty years after the turnover, many
in Hong Kong were worried about the prospect of
communist rule. Canada was an especially appealing
location for resettlement, especially for Hong Kong’s
professional and business class, because it offered a
high standard of living and favorable immigration
policies to immigrants who could contribute to the
Canadian economy. Although there had been very
little immigration from Hong Kong to Canada be-
fore the 1960’s, during the 1970’s people from Hong
Kong rose to constitute the eighth highest propor-
tion of Canadian immigrants. In the 1980’s, with
Israel and the United States
China, the small island of Hong Kong became the
number-one source of migration to the North Amer
ican nation. Immigrants to Canada from Hong Kong
rose from 12,580 during the 1960’s, to 41,270 during
the 1970’s, to 76,980 during the 1980’s.
The people of India, meanwhile, did not face the
political concerns faced by the people of Hong
Kong. Nevertheless, India had a large class of highly
educated professionals and businesspeople. In In-
dia, another British colony, fluency in English was
also widespread. While immigration from India to
Canada did not attract as much media attention as
did immigration from Hong Kong, India was not far
behind the island in the movement of its natives to
the North American nation. The 25,080 immigrants
from India in 1961-1970 rose to 67,375 in 1971-1980
and remained at approximately the same level
(68,080) from 1981-1990.
Southeast Asian Refugees The special category
for refugees that was created by the Immigration Act
of 1976 made Canada a place of welcome for refu-
gees fleeing Southeast Asia following the end of the
Vietnam War in 1975. Southeast Asian refugees did
not settle in Canada in the same numbers that they
settled in the United States, but the growth in their
rate of immigration was notable nonetheless. In
1975, Canada admitted 2,269 people from Vietnam.
As in the United States, it was believed that this in-
flux of refugees would be a one-time event. However,
as refugees continued to flee from the Southeast
Asian country, Canada began a government-spon-
sored program of refugee resettlement in 1979. The
first Vietnamese refugees to be welcomed under this
program arrived by air at Toronto’s Pearson Na-
tional Airport in July, 1979, from refugee camps in
Hong Kong. During 1979, just under 20,000 Viet-
namese resettled in Canada. Government programs
attempted to use private sponsors to resettle these
new arrivals around the country.
The numbers of Vietnamese arriving in Canada
went up to 25,541 in 1980. From 1981 to 1990, a total
of 65,490 people from Vietnam immigrated to Can-
ada. As the Vietnamese Canadian population grew,
its members increasingly left the scattered locations
where they had initially been settled and moved to
large cities, where they formed ethnic communities.
Among other places, large Vietnamese communities
emerged in Ottawa and Vancouver.
Impact The trends in immigration seen during the
1980’s made Canada a more ethnically diverse soci-
ety. The nation was extremely concerned with diver-
sity and cultural rights in the early 1980’s as it en-
acted a new constitution. However, Canadians’ focus
at that time was almost exclusively on the interrela-
tions of British Canadians, French Canadians, and
First Nations peoples. By the end of the decade,
many other groups had made their presence known
within Canada’s diversifying population. By the end
of the twentieth century, for example, one out of ev-
ery thirty Canadians was of Chinese descent. New
ethnic communities formed in many of Canada’s
large southern cities, redefining the nation’s urban
culture.
Further Reading
Cameron, Elspeth.Multiculturalism and Immigration
in Canada: An Introductor y Reader. Toronto: Cana-
dian Scholars’ Press, 2004. Collection of readings
that provides an introduction to the history of
multicultural ideology in Canada and shows the
connection of immigration issues to issues of
multiculturalism.
Folson, Rose Baaba.Calculated Kindness: Global Re-
structuring, Immigration, and Settlement in Canada.
Halifax, N.S.: Fernwood, 2004. Set of case studies
of immigrants that disapprovingly argues immi-504 Immigration to Canada The Eighties in America