Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
democratic state, 'it is clear that such numbers do not merely inscribe a
pre-existing reality. They constitute it' (Rose 1991: 676).
The CIC statistics for 2005 show the remarkable bounty emerging from
the immigrant investor stream with almost a billion dollars (gross) of 'fully
paid subscriptions' in Canada that year (CIC 2006). Quebec has always
done best as a recipient of investments as it set up guarantees and safeguards
for funds while in the rest of Canada there were substantial losses for some
years as a result of questionable investment projects and practices. Over a
20-year period of the investor stream (1986-2005), $8.7 billion has been
registered in subscriptions, over $5 billion in Quebec. British Columbia has
received smaller benefits, something over $500 million, and Ontario even
less (CIC 2006). But while their investments are parked in Quebec funds,
the investors themselves much prefer to live in Vancouver. 3 Turning to the
more active entrepreneur stream, the numbers landing in Canada have
declined substantially since their heyday in the 1990s. In 2005 only 505
entrepreneurs had their 'terms and conditions lifted' (i.e. their business ven-
tures approved), opening up the path to citizenship; 31 percent of these were
living in British Columbia. Entrepreneur ventures in BC represented invest-
ments of over $25 million in 2005, and created 171 full-time positions and
175 part-time jobs (CIC 2006). Numbers had been much higher in the
1990s during the peak years of arrivals. Data from the Vancouver CIC office
for the period 1990-98 recorded over a billion dollars of business investment
in BC from start-ups or companies acquired by immigrant entrepreneurs
together with the creation or maintenance of over 25,000 jobs (CIC 1999).
The magic of large numbers readily envelops such statistics. By any stand-
ard they represent a substantial infusion of working capital and knowledgeable
capitalists into British Columbia. The Greater Vancouver economy has been
the overwhelming beneficiary, for typically 90 percent of business class new-
comers in the province have located in the metropolitan region. 4 Faceless
statistics were substantiated by detailed interviews in 2002 with immigrants
who had landed through the entrepreneur stream and were living in Greater
Vancouver. Among the 90 entrepreneurs we interviewed, a third each came
from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea, and they had lived in Canada an
average of 8-9 years (Ley 2006). 5 They reported a median investment of
$125,000 in their initial business, with the overall total of $25 million inflated
by a few very large capital outlays. They also met their employment objectives.
Again a couple of successful outcomes raised the overall tally, so that 477 full
or part-time jobs were created or retained by the 90 ventures; the median
business employed two full-time workers and one part-time. From the state's
perspective these are very satisfactory numbers, confirming the success of the
Business Immigration Programme. 6
Nor did the business consume all of the available household finances
of entrepreneurs. The 90 households reported median funds of $400,000
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