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Introduction
The immigration of Chinese into Canada has been taking place since the 18th century. Currently, there are about 1.5 million Chinese living in Canada. The first batch of Chinese immigrants worked as laborers and helped build the Canadian railway.
The immigration of Chinese from the greater China to Canada has led to the growth of a multi-generational Chinese community in Canada (Guo & Devoretz, 2006). Chinese immigrants in Canada face challenges due to differences in religion, socio-historical and geo-political aspects. This paper seeks to establish how the socio historical aspect shapes a Chinese family that immigrates to Canada.
Social Alienation
Canada formulated exclusionary policies early in the 20th century to tame Chinese immigration into Canada. The policies promoted widespread racial discrimination against Chinese Canadians. Today, several segments of the dominant culture still treat Chinese Canadians as foreigners (Zhang, 2010). Most Canadians who belong to the dominant culture grow up with the perceptions that Chinese are culturally distinct and racially foreign (Guo & Devoretz, 2006).
Therefore any new Chinese family immigrating to Canada will be made to feel the deep seated cultural stereotype. In the worst scenario, a Chinese family trying to settle in Canada will be subjected to different forms of racial abuse such as name calling. This is however not always the case as there are other good people in Canada who will welcome an immigrant family and make them feel at home.
Chances are however high that a new immigrant family will be subjected to acts of racism. As a corrective measure, a new immigrant family will look for other fellow immigrants to get psychological, material support and to reinforce their identity.
Older members of an immigrant Chinese family will be surprised to discover that they cannot secure employment with the credentials they acquired in China. Such a family will find it difficult to make a living. It will then become apparent to them that in order to survive in Canada they must first gain the Canadian experience.
Indeed, a study carried out in 2004 revealed that Chinese immigrants reported experiencing different types of racial discrimination. About 30% of them reported to have undergone racial discrimination in terms of employment (Dasgupta, 2005).
The desolate situation experienced will see educated members of a family going back to the basics to rebuild themselves and learn Canadian habits (Guo & Devoretz, 2006). The family will slowly adapt to the new environment until they find a more stable footing. Normally, the first thing a family needs to do is to enroll for English classes, particularly if its members have no educational background in English (Always the case).
For an adult, learning a new language is not that easy, however, as a Chinese immigrant in Canada, he/she will be forced to devote his time and energy to learning English if he/she wishes to survive in the new society. A new family will remain hopeful as they experience the new way of life. Most will be interested in experiencing how different the Canadian society functions.
A family will strive to come to terms with the realities of the new society while at the same time maintaining their traditional Chinese identities. There are certain benevolent funds that have been facilitated by Chinese Canadians to serve the needs of new immigrants (Dasgupta, 2005). This implies that a new family may get some assistance from other Chinese Canadians in adapting to the new life.
The cultural gap will slowly close as the family learns to communicate in English and interacts with friends and neighbors belonging to the dominant culture. Children and younger Chinese adapt more quickly to the Canadian way of life as compared to their parents or older members of the family.
Adapting to the minority group status
A new Chinese family that has immigrated to Canada will find itself being regarded as a part of a visible minority group. Normally, the new status will be hard to accept as the family will have just come from a nearly homogenous populous society. There will be no visible Chinese in all senior positions of the government and other corporate institutions (Zhang, 2010).
The family will adapt to the living patterns of other Chinese families that immigrated to Canada many years ago. Its important to note that history of the Chinese immigration to Canada is often troubled, and this has left a long lasting scar that continues to affect Chinese Canadians to this date. For instance, a new Chinese immigrant family will learn from others that it needs to stay away from politics so as not to be labeled as trouble makers (Guo & Devoretz, 2006).
The deep seated feeling of inferiority and alienation will soon crop up into a new immigrant family as a result of interaction with other Chinese families. Studies have shown that some Canadian Chinese go as far as discouraging their children from pursuing certain courses such as political science and law (Guo & Devoretz, 2006).
This is however understood due to the fact that the Chinese immigrants were historically denied chances to pursue such courses. Chances are high that a new Chinese family will pick up these habits and prevent their children from pursuing such professions.
The minority status will also mean that the new Chinese family will be less involved in politics. Historically, Chinese Canadians were shunned from political participation in Canada (Guo & Devoretz, 2006). There are currently a good number of Chinese Canadians holding political offices in Canada. However, they are too few to make any meaningful impact on Canadian politics.
Parenting challenges
Normally, older Chinese who immigrate to Canada come with traditional parenting systems that are based on Chinese philosophy. For instance, most new Chinese families entering Canada are culturally influenced by the teachings of Confucian.
Its important to note that Confucianism is often regarded as the most influential philosophy in the Chinese culture (Clayton, 2011). Confucian ethics stipulate the expectations of child rearing and the techniques that should be used, in addition to specifying what can be regarded as quality values in children (Guo & Devoretz, 2006, p. 6).
A Chinese family that has immigrated to Canada will raise children who are struggling to strike a balance between the two cultures. Western societies emphasize independence, individual achievement and personal growth (Clayton, 2011, p. 6).
The role of the parents is mainly to assist their children to attain self sufficiency, self control and the ability to make their own decisions. On the other hand, the Chinese culture prioritizes the needs of a group and fosters a collectivist approach as opposed to the needs, wishes and desires of an individual (Clayton, 2011, p. 12).
Studies have shown that Chinese parents usually put a greater emphasis on proper conduct, obedience, acceptance of social obligations and moral training as opposed to the development of childrens independence, assertiveness and creativity (Clayton, 2011, p.5).
When a new immigrant Chinese family chooses to stick to the Chinese child rearing methods, different types of problems are often seen to arise. This is due to the fact that children will be more comfortable with the norms of the dominant culture.
This results into a feeling of frustration and confusion by children or young people. Such children may also face difficulties while trying to integrate with the larger society. This challenge is difficult to address as Chinese parents do not agree to relax their culturally informed collective approach to child rearing when they move to Canada.
Gaining a sense of belonging
After spending a few years in Canada, a Chinese immigrant family will begin to feel some sense of belonging. An ethnic diversity survey conducted in 2006 showed that Canadians of Chinese origin had a strong sense of belonging to Canada (Dasgupta, 2005). The survey also showed that Chinese Canadians had a strong sense of belonging to their cultural group (Zhang, 2010, p. 5).
Similarly, after staying in Canada for some time, a new immigrant family will begin to feel at home and thus start participating in the societal processes such as voting while still maintaining conduct with its cultural group. This constitutes the last stage of adapting to the Canadian way of life by a new Chinese immigrant family.
Conclusion
This paper sought to use the socio-historical aspect to explain the shaping of one family group as they immigrate to Canada. It has been established that a typical Chinese family immigrating to Canada will often undergo social alienation, adaptation to the minority group status, parenting challenges, gaining a sense of belonging.
References
Clayton, C. L. (2011). Contemporary British Chinese Parenting: Beyond Cultural Values. Childhoods Today , 5(1):1-25.
Dasgupta, A. (2005). Hyphenated Canadians: Mixing Cultures, Blending indentities. Vancouver : New Canadian Magazine.
Guo, S., & Devoretz, D. (2006). Chinese Immigrants in Vancouver: Quo Vadis. Bonn: University of Calgary.
Zhang, K. (2010). Flows of People and the Canada China Relations. Toronto: Canadian International Council.
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