Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The demographic profile of the respondents in these exploratory inter-
views was not exceptional. Among the 30 people interviewed, seven
interviews were with a man, eleven with a woman, five with a husband and
wife jointly, and one interview included two men who came to my house
together. The group's median length of residence in Canada was six years,
and 40 the median age at landing. Seven of the women were part of astro-
naut families with their husbands away, while two couples had recently ter-
minated such an arrangement. Eight household heads had landed through
the investor category, eight arrived through the entrepreneur class, two were
in the self-employed stream, and six were admitted as independent skilled
workers. These categories proved to be somewhat porous, as respondents
acknowledged they selected whatever entry class they were advised, usually
by a consultant, would be the most likely route to gain entry.
Respondents were given their choice of language for our semi-directed
conversation; I conducted 14 interviews in English, while the remaining ten
were completed by research assistants in Cantonese or Mandarin.
What we heard scrambled our expectations. Although these were not new
arrivals - remember, the median time since landing was six years - the first
six interviews I conducted, located via three separate entry points into the
immigrant population, revealed that neither the household head nor any
immediate family members was working in Canada. For sure, the investors
had made their financial commitments, and others had passive stakes in real
estate or the stock market, but none was gainfully employed. Some had
taken early retirement, some were astronaut households with active careers
and ventures in East Asia, others again were waiting for a business opportu-
nity that was yet to materialize. Later interviews were deliberately weighted
towards economic immigrants who were employed or self-employed, but
nonetheless of the 24 households, only one-half contained a member work-
ing in Canada. Five respondents owned a store or fast-food outlet, three
others were in a trans-Pacific import-export business, three had part-time
jobs, and one was an office manager.
This performance level fell so far below the expectations of business
immigration scenarios that some time was taken in the interviews trying to
understand the decision-making and circumstances that had contributed
to such modest outcomes. Confirming pre-migration anxieties, there was
unanimous sentiment among all respondents that economic success in
Canada, even limited success, was extremely difficult to achieve. One of my
first interviews was with Mr. Chow, who lived at a prestigious address in the
elite Shaughnessy neighbourhood.
3
Highly qualified with a British advanced
degree, he had owned a very successful business in Hong Kong and moved
to Canada with self-employed immigrant status - reserved for the wealthi-
est applicants - in his mid-forties. He has not been involved in economic
activity in Vancouver, other than passive real estate investment, though he
