Asians living in Toronto, from Hong Kong 1997? (houses, neighbourhoods)

[SuperKirby]

An older Chinese lady told me that when China reowned Hong Kong in 1997, the chinese were afraid of the communist coming into their town of Hong Kong.
So these rich Hong Kong folk decided to all go to Toronto and buy what they could in cash.
She also told me the White Torontonions were not happy about this at all.

Can anyone elaborate? This lady spoke in an accent, i might have heard wrong. =)

I know there is a lot more to why there are many Asian's living in Toronto. Anyone know a more accurate story? or fact?
And when I try to google chinese-toronto immigration, everything is written in chinese so I can't read it!

[Robynator]

What you heard was a simple generalization about possibly the largest Hong Kong immigration to Canada and the resulting xenophobia experienced by some Canadians.

Many wealthy Hong Kong immigrants moved to Canada in the late 80's and 90's to avoid the uncertain future of Hong Kong post 1997. The great majority of them actually moved to Vancouver and settled in places like Richmond and Vancouver's Shaughnessy and Kerrisdale neighbourhoods. Some also moved to Toronto.

Unlike previous immigration waves to Canada, what made this particular situation unique was that the majority of the Hong Kong immigrants were incredibly wealthy. These weren't peasants - many of the immigrants were millionaires and purchased large houses and mansions in affluent areas - affluent areas that were quite possibly only used to having affluent white families live there. So when you have tens of thousands of rich, Cantonese-speaking, Hong Kong immigrants arriving in previous white, socially-conservative neighbourhoods - people take notice.

Another reason people took notice was that certain demographics shifted dramatically, as if overnight. In Richmond, BC, where there had always been a small working class Chinese community of families who immigrated generations before... nowadays 50-60% of the population is Chinese, the majority from Hong Kong. A good chunk of the city of Richmond changed to cater to the new demographic, so you have entire city blocks of Asian shopping plazas, Hong Kong style businesses/Cantonese restaurants, etc. All in the span of one decade. At the time that it was happening, a lot of locals felt "displaced", although those sentiments seemed to have passed, and now people celebrate the Hong Kong connection.

[Urban Peasant]

Originally Posted by Robynator

What you heard was a simple generalization about possibly the largest Hong Kong immigration to Canada and the resulting xenophobia experienced by some Canadians.

Many wealthy Hong Kong immigrants moved to Canada in the late 80's and 90's to avoid the uncertain future of Hong Kong post 1997. The great majority of them actually moved to Vancouver and settled in places like Richmond and Vancouver's Shaughnessy and Kerrisdale neighbourhoods. Some also moved to Toronto.

Unlike previous immigration waves to Canada, what made this particular situation unique was that the majority of the Hong Kong immigrants were incredibly wealthy. These weren't peasants - many of the immigrants were millionaires and purchased large houses and mansions in affluent areas - affluent areas that were quite possibly only used to having affluent white families live there. So when you have tens of thousands of rich, Cantonese-speaking, Hong Kong immigrants arriving in previous white, socially-conservative neighbourhoods - people take notice.

Another reason people took notice was that certain demographics shifted dramatically, as if overnight. In Richmond, BC, where there had always been a small working class Chinese community of families who immigrated generations before... nowadays 50-60% of the population is Chinese, the majority from Hong Kong. A good chunk of the city of Richmond changed to cater to the new demographic, so you have entire city blocks of Asian shopping plazas, Hong Kong style businesses/Cantonese restaurants, etc. All in the span of one decade. At the time that it was happening, a lot of locals felt "displaced", although those sentiments seemed to have passed, and now people celebrate the Hong Kong connection.

Interesting news about Canadian cities. I haven't been to Vancouver but I have visited Toronto no less than four times and I am always awed by the excessively large Chinese population in the entire metro area. There seems to be a mini-Chinatown in practically every city and town. In some places like Richmond Hill, practically every shopping center in town has at least one Chinese grocery store and a couple of restaurants or tea houses. My family was not at all surprised and my mother (who is from Hong Kong) once said that Chinese residents in Toronto even refer to their city as "Little Hong Kong" just as Chinese in San Francisco referred to SF as "Little China" in the old days. I never got the feeling that there was animosity from previous locals though, although I would understand if there was.

[afici0nad0]

your impressions of toronto wrt to the chinese population will be very similiar if/when you decide to visit vancouver.

in vancouver/richmond, you may feel that the chinese population is even more concentrated than those communities in toronto/gta, due to the overall population differences between toronto/gta and vancouver/gvrd.

the only time our family felt any resentment from other colors was during a fishing trip to peterborough, ontario, about 10 years ago (~2hours east of toronto). very isolated incident, with kids name calling. apparently, as one local resident had advised us, these kids were known within the community to cause trouble like that, and was definitely not tolerated by the local residents.

[stiga9]

thats great stuff guys. Interesting to know.

[evanusc]

Originally Posted by Urban Peasant

I never got the feeling that there was animosity from previous locals though, although I would understand if there was.

Why would the locals have problems with that? The Chinese are hardworking people who like to keep to themselves and seldom cause any trouble in local communities. Plus they are mostly legal immigrants who have the same right as the "previous locals", aren't they?
Just imagine if all the Chinese are gone, what Toronto and Vancouver will look like.

[stiga9]

is this the same reason lots of Chinese are in Cali, houston, NY?

[mellabella]

Some say they drove up realestate values because they were a large group of people with lots of money.