The occupational changes of Chinese immigrants in Canada with specific reference to Halifax, Nova Scotia 1885-1923

Abstract

This thesis examines the changing occupational patterns of Chinese immigrants in Canada from 1858 to 1923. The thesis, which is based primarily on a review of the existing historiography of Chinese immigration and Chinese immigration to Canada, argues that after that completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway both external social forces and internal ethnic solidarity affected the occupations of Chinese immigrants. The examination of social, economic and political conditions in both China and Canada suggest that restrictive legislation and institutional discrimination experienced by Chinese immigrants were not the sole reasons for the Chinese clustering in particular occupations, such as laundry and restaurant businesses. The urbanized host society created a job market for such service industries, in which Chinese immigrants could be employed, while the immigrants' ethnic and cultural background, as well as close clan relations helped them to both establish their businesses and foster their concentration in them. In considering the particular case of Halifax, the thesis argues that despite some local variation the experience of this small isolated Chinese population in eastern Canada conforms to the broad pattern of external and internal influences seen more clearly in urban contexts in western Canada.