Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Not only was the family uninformed but they also received overly optimistic
advice from their immigration consultant. They brought half a million dol-
lars to settle and set up a business. Not speaking any English at all, they
moved to the Chinese-Canadian ethnoburb of Richmond. Withdrawal from
their operations in China took some time, and although they had planned
to establish a garment factory in Canada, they ran out of time in terms of
their two-year visa deadline, and started a simpler business. 'The two years
were too short. We had to rush into something. We had no time to plan, how
to start, no time. How could we run a successful business in two years? The
business failed, we lost all of our money. I invested $100,000 but we lost it
all in two years.' The working language of the restaurant was Cantonese,
and it depended on the co-ethnic enclave community for its customers. But
the sector was saturated, competition was fierce, failures were common-
place. Mrs. Chan is bitter as well as depressed:
No one would want to invest here. Who cares how good your benefits are
when they have no chance to make money? Many of my friends do not want
to come after hearing our experience. They would choose to pay for their
children's education [here] instead of bringing the whole family over. The
foreign assets disclosure law is a killing policy. A lot of people have run away
from Canada after getting their citizenship.
Mrs. Chan and her family are now living from their Hong Kong derived
savings. Her husband works part-time at a friend's restaurant. Not only are
they disillusioned, but also 'Among my friends, none is successful'. While
they once considered building a life in Canada, their experience has soured
them. 'I don't like this place.'
The terms and conditions of the BIP do appear unduly disciplinary, if not
punitive. The two-year condition is unrealistic; BIP managers I spoke to had
pressed for a longer probationary period or indeed no time limit at all.
18
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high failure rate exists in non-immigrant small business even without many
of the barriers confronted by business immigrants. For immigrant entrepre-
neurs, with poor or no English, unfamiliar with the regulatory economic
culture of Canada, the expectations of the BIP trigger a financial, and some-
times a human disaster, waiting to happen (Smart 1994).
From Ethnography to Data Bases
Using other sources it is possible to extend these findings from ethnographic
samples to broader populations. Larger statistical samples confirm the out-
comes observed so far and expand the validity of the results, adding the
authority of large data bases to the interpretations derived from more inten-
sive ethnographic fieldwork.
