The Rise and Fall of Chinese Immigration to Canada: Newcomers from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China1 and Mainland China, 1980–20002

ABSTRACT An emerging perspective in the study of global diasporas stresses the effect of economic globalization and migration shifts in reshaping the population and identifying the formation of diaspora communities. This paper analyses the immigration patterns from Hong Kong and mainland China to Canada between the 1980s and 1990s, and shows that the migration shifts have been influenced by political and economic forces in Hong Kong and China, as well as changes in Canada's immigration policy. The imminent return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 and its uncertain political future in the 1990s were often cited as the main reasons for Hong Kong's large emigration in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In reality, the rising volume of Hong Kong emigration was prompted by the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident in China and its aftermath, and by the booming economy of Hong Kong in the early 1990s that created the means for many middle‐class Chinese to emigrate. At the same time, Canada's expansion of the Business Immigration Program in the mid‐1980s also benefited immigrant entrepreneurs from Hong Kong. In contrast, the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 did not deter the economic growth of China. Immigration from China rose after 1989 when Canada allowed Chinese students studying in Canada to immigrate, but it was after the mid‐1990s that immigration from China expanded due to Canada's greater emphasis on admitting economic immigrants and to China's growing middle class. The continuous arrival of well‐educated and urban‐based immigrants from China is likely to change the population composition and identity complexity of the Chinese community in Canada.