Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
their consumption expenditures; their investment, typically to a five-year
Quebec plan, summarizes their productive economic activity.
The economic apprehensions of immigrants, hesitant outside business
participation, are repeated and thereby confirmed by respondents who are
doing business in Vancouver. Almost every one of them found the going
very difficult. Mrs. Ko, who entered Canada from Taipei with her husband
as an investor, has an import-export business. She is disillusioned as a result
of the conditions she has encountered:
When we first came here, we were told this country is open for us in terms of
business. When we got here we found that we were not needed… Our 20-30
years' working experience are not needed here, they are not recognized.
She claimed she has advised relatives not to migrate to Canada, and 'they
threw away the application form'.
We had to adjust to the situation of being unemployed. We had to start our
business from scratch. We could hardly face it… We just tried to make enough
to cover our expenses… It's more stressful here… We really don't know what
to do, we are kind of, at a loss, we are confused.
Because of language difficulties and their own business experience, the
couple is working within an ethnic enclave economy. But this economy is
overcrowded, and they find the competition to be fierce (cf. Wong and Ng
1998; Ley 2006). With an unprofitable business, they continue to live on
savings six years after landing. Repeating an experience James (1999) dis-
covered in his interviews with traders, entry to the broader economy faces
resistance from buyers and sellers alike: 'they seem only to trust those who
have grown up, those educated here locally'.
Mrs. Chuang had also been in Canada for six years at the time of the
interview. Entering through the entrepreneur stream, she and her husband
opened a health food store. A teacher in accounting at a business school in
Taipei, like Mrs. Ko she had high hopes initially for economic success.
Inability to speak English has been a greater problem than they expected,
and adjustment has been difficult and has led to family arguments. The
Chuangs also find that heavy competition in the ethnic enclave economy is
crippling their business: 'Here people have to 'steal' customers from each
other. We are not able to make a reasonable profit'. They are clearing only a
little over a thousand dollars a month, business is getting worse, and Mr.
Chuang is trying out real estate.
Mrs. Wang is even less satisfied. Her family studied immigration options
carefully, checking the United States, Singapore and Western Europe, and
visited Vancouver three times before submitting their application. Perhaps it
