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Visible minority the majority in Vancouver suburb, 2001 census shows
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Visible minority the majority in Vancouver suburb, 2001 census shows
By AMY CARMICHAEL
RICHMOND, B.C. (CP) - In the Canadian Tire and Mark's Work Warehouse outlets in this sprawling Vancouver suburb, Cantonese and Mandarin are spoken more often than English.
A blur of Chinese dialects, along with Japanese and a smattering of other Asian languages, take over completely inside the string of Asian malls that line the main roads of Richmond, where more than half the residents are visible minorities and most hail from Asia.
Richmond stood out this week in data from the 2001 census released by Statistics Canada as the municipality with the highest concentration of people from China. It has also attracted more immigrants in the last 10 years than any other Canadian destination.
The city of 164,000 is evidence of the changing profile of immigrants to Canada, says David Baxter, executive director of the Urban Futures Institute.
As a result of changes to immigration policy in the 1980s, people coming to Canada today have skills and money.
"Many are professionals, they want space, a big house, a clean, safe neighbourhood," Baxter said.
Places such as Richmond and Markham, Ont., just north of Toronto, are ideal settlement spots because the houses are more affordable and still within commuting distance to the big cities.
"These immigrants are truly living the suburban dream," Baxter says.
While Richmond and Markham, which ranks alongside Vancouver and Toronto for high concentrations of visible minorities, are generally regarded as multiculturalism success stories, it would be untrue to say that everyone gets along.
Sucking bubble tea through a fat straw, Kevin Yam, 16, says there are divisions between Chinese kids who were born in Canada, those who just moved here and can't speak English, other minorities and the established non-Asian residents.
"I hang out mostly with people like me who came from Hong Kong," says Yam while shopping in the Yaohan Centre, a Chinese mall.
"It's like I never left, and that makes it really hard to learn English."
In the Yaohan Centre and a myriad of other malls just like it in Richmond and Markham, almost every face is Asian. The clothes are imported from Hong Kong, the candy from China, electronics from Taiwan.
Non-Asian girls shop for clothes; the fashion is several seasons ahead of what Western stores carry.
The food shops are popular with everyone. Oreo cookies are on the shelves beside Lychee pudding. Doritos can be found next to shrimp crackers and cuttlefish chips.
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie says the Asian night markets held during Chinese New Year draw 100,000 people and are a celebration that showcases the success of the integration between all the cultural groups.
But the ethnic influx hit rapidly, much of it in the last 10 years, and there have been growing pains and complaints from long-time residents.
During the mid 1990s, the non-Asian community in Richmond swamped city hall with complaints over the fact many of the signs on businesses and advertisements appeared only in Asian languages. In some malls, for example, prices and store names could not be found in English.
Money became a unifier on that issue, with business owners eventually realizing they would draw twice as many customers if they reached out in two languages.
Brodie says the city receives far fewer complaints on the issue now. New malls are being built with an emphasis on appealing to a diverse community instead of only the Chinese.
In their conversations with the city, Fairchild Development Ltd., which is renovating the Aberdeen Centre mall, said appealing to a variety of cultures was a major part of its business plan.
At the Chinese Cultural Centre in Markham, manager Miranda Mak pushes clients to reach out to the other ethnic groups.
"Chinese culture is a shy culture in general, but we are very adaptable," Mak says. "People coming here know Canada is a multicultural country.
"This message is firm in our mind that we have to get along with everyone."
To that end, she scolds people for speaking one of the Chinese languages in the presence of people who don't speak them.
"It's rude!" she says.
Mary Watkins says it doesn't bother her. She has lived in Richmond for 25 years and watched it transform.
"The people who didn't like what was happening, for the most part, they just left," says Watkins. "Those of us who stayed enjoy the different food and learning about different cultures."
Canadians had better get comfortable with it, says Baxter, because immigration is Canada's future. Economically, it's the best way for the country to grow.
In the next 25 years, Richmond and Markham will likely spawn other cities just like them.
As part of the cycle, the children of the most recent wave of immigrants are expected to disperse throughout the region until the majority of Canadian municipalities have a truly multicultural face.
In another generation, says Baxter, people will no longer be measuring the ratio of visible minorities, they will just accept that the face of Canada is colourful.
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