Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter Four
Geography (still) Matters:
Homo
Economicus
and the Business
Immigration Programme
The last chapter revealed the substantial wealth associated with the move-
ments of financial and human capital from East Asia over the past 25 years,
flows invited by Canada's cavalier Asia-Pacific strategy. Ethnic Chinese immi-
grants in general reported available funds at landing five times greater per
capita than immigrants from the rest of the world (Wong and Ho 2006). On
average entrepreneurs headed for British Columbia demonstrated to the sat-
isfaction of immigration officers that their 'total money' in the mid-1990s
amounted to over $1 million, while investors raised the stake to a mean of
over $2 million. Vancouver is home to the wealthiest immigrants, is the most
popular location for newcomers landing with business visas and so has been
the principal beneficiary of these movements of people and capital. It was
widely believed that British Columbia escaped the deep recession in the early
1990s in part because of the spending power of its wealthy immigrants.
The affluence of new immigrants from East Asia has been an abiding
stereotype in the media and popular culture and has led to recognition by
advertising and sales departments of a new consumer sub-market. The con-
sumer enthusiasm of the Hong Kong population has been identified in the
former colony (Cheng 2001; Lui 2001; Mathews 2001), and this predispo-
sition has carried over into the Canadian market. Home purchase has been
preferred to renting, even in the nation's most expensive housing market.
Within only five years of settlement, the probability of ownership among
Asian immigrants in Vancouver was already as high as 0.70, well above the
probability of 0.57 for Canadian-born (Laryea 1999). Luxury car dealers
have been moving European and Japanese imports, especially Mercedes,
Audi, BMW and Lexus models, from their lots with commendable speed
with Chinese immigrants their favoured clients.
1
Media and marketing
consultancies have profiled the distinctive configuration of the Chinese
immigrant consumer (Ng 1996). According to Aida Liang, Chair of the
