Hacker News Reader

Comment by bovermyer | Hacker News Reader

Does Canada have a large Chinese immigrant population? I'm curious as to why these would be on campaign ads.

Vancouver is special since it's popular destination for rich people from hong kong/china to hide their wealth. They buy up a lot of property:

> Chinese investors bought about 70% of free-standing houses on the west side of Vancouver in a six-month period

And 40% of the population is chinese:

> 40% of the residents of a large portion of Southeast Vancouver are Chinese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Canadians_in_Greater_V...

> And 40% of the population is chinese:

>> 40% of the residents of a large portion of Southeast Vancouver are Chinese.

So... 40% of the population of Vancouver are not Chinese, as you seem to imply with your intro to a quote that specifically contradicts your implication?

Yea I probably shouldn't have used a quote there. The number ranges from 20% to 50% depending on which part of vancouver you look at. Point is that they aren't a minority there.

Serious question, is 25% really not considered a minority?

As an average across Vancouver, are Chinese really 25%+ of the population?

Assuming your parent meant "not a small minority". I don't have numbers in front of me, but having lived in and near Vancouver most of my life, I wouldn't be surprised if close to that percentage had Chinese origins. Regardless, it's enough people that it's certainly worth candidates' time to consider them.

> The 2011 Census found the racial and ethnic makeup of Vancouver was:

European Canadian: 46.2% Chinese: 27.7% South Asian: 6% Filipino: 6% Southeast Asian: 3% Japanese: 1.7% Latin American: 1.6% Mixed visible minority: 1.5% Korean: 1.5% Aboriginal: 2% (1.3% First Nations, 0.6% Metis) West Asian: 1.2% Black: 1% Arab: 0.5%

http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/vancouver-popu...

And some suburbs have a much higher percentage. Richmond (pop ~200k) has over 50% of it's population claim Chinese descent, and

> Nearly three quarters (74.1 per cent) of Richmondites identify with having some sort of Asian origin.

https://www.richmond-news.com/news/chinese-reach-majority-in...

[edit] - Which I think is awesome, in part because of the absolutely amazing food/restaurants we have here :)

Your question presupposes that folks of Chinese descent in Canada are immigrants. There's been a strong Chinese community in the area since before 1900. As a comparison, my great-great grandparents emigrated from Italy in the 1920s. It's quite typical for Canadians to retain their cultural identity and ancestral language post-immigration; the notable exception being indigenous peoples who were forced to assimilate. Where my family immigrated to the US and abandoned our language, I later immigrated to Canada, I was shocked to discover an Italian community where folks are still raising their kids to speak Italian after generations.

This is even more surprising. Thank you for correcting my assumption, this is fascinating.

Yes, but these kids learn some spoken Italian (actually very often in the '20's and until maybe the '70's some specific italian dialect) while they have education ad everyday experiences outside the family in either French or English.

So, besides the high percentage of Chinese people in Vancouver, isn't the point about how many of them can vote but cannot read English?

This post ain't about "Canada". It's about Metro Vancouver.

I think to say it has "a large Chinese immigrant population" would probably be an understatement? None-Chinese would be a minority in Richmond for example.

Yes, people of Chinese origin are the second largest single visible minority group in the country, at about 4.5% of population. South Asian origin is about 5.5%.

These are all from the Vancouver greater metro area, which was 20.6% of Chinese ancestry based on 2016 census data. (Richmond, one of the cities in that metro area, is 53% Chinese ancestry, and Burnaby, where several of the examples are from, is 33.9% Chinese ancestry.)

Yes, particularly in BC where the author is from.

Richmond, BC is North America's most Asian city.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-radio-and-tv-18149316

Cupertino, CA has that beat at 66%

https://statisticalatlas.com/place/California/Cupertino/Race...

Richmond has entire malls where you will not find any English language. I do not believe that is the case in Cupertino. Also, Canada's approach to multiculturalism allows this to flourish, whereas America's "melting pot" almost makes minority heritage a quiet shame. Even though the US Census says Cupertino is "66% Asian" I just don't think it is at all the same as Richmond, which has large areas that really feel like you're in a Chinese city.

The BBC article is probably using Asian to mean Chinese (or nearby), while Cupertino's statistics will count Indian (and nearby) in that total too.

> count Indian (and nearby)

... So, they count Asian as Asian?

I understand what you mean, but when Vancouver locals say "asian", they really mean "east asian" (Chinese/Japanese/Korea). I live in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb, where ethnic Indian is about 30%-40% of population. The local newspaper often refers them as "South Asian community".

But I'm surprised that BBC use "Asian" to refer "East Asian". I'm under the impression that in UK, they use "Asian" to refer "South Asian".

UK person here. Many (most?) people would say you were "Asian" of you were from anywhere in Asia apart from the Indian subcontinent.

Around these parts, "Asian" is shorthand for "East Asian", ie Chinese, etc. "South Asian" is sometimes used for the Indian subcontinent, although oddly enough around here people from India often refer to themselves as "EI", meaning "East Indian". I guess it's all contextual.

For sure, Richmond is the most East Asian city in North America.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com