Teaching and Learning in "Hong Kong, Canada"

As can be seen in the quotation that opens this commentary, there is some anxiety about the number of Hong Kong immigrants who have come to live in Toronto. The headline printed over Vanessa Lu's report in The Toronto Star characterized Hong Kong immigrants as people who were "changing the city's face" from one that had historically been mostly European and White to one that was increasingly Chinese.¹ The title of the report, "Hong Kong, Canada," was typed in enormous bold-faced letters that dominated the page on which the story appeared. The headline shaped what Canadians were to make of this latest "wave" of immigration. Canada was being invaded by large number of immigrants from Hong Kong. We were no longer living in Canada; we were living in "Hong Kong, Canada."

The discourse of invasion that emerged from the "Hong Kong, Canada" feature can be related to a perceived threat of shifting economic power bases in Canada. In her contribution to the feature, demographics reporter Elaine Carey began her article with the following lead:

They're younger, more educated and they hold better jobs than the average person in the greater Toronto area. They're the 142,300 Hong Kong immigrants who have flocked to the GTA, largely in the past 20 years. They now make up 15 per cent of all new immigrants to Canada each year—an average of about 40,000—making them the largest group from any one country, as well as the wealthiest.²

There was much reporting about the wealth that some Hong Kong immigrants bring into Canada throughout the "Hong Kong, Canada" feature. For example, there was a picture of the owner of Toronto's Metropolitan Hotel, sandwiched between two headlines: "To Canada, With Cash" and "Hong Kong Money Likes GTA." There was also a description of how Hong Kong immigrants had "changed the look of much of the city" by financing the building of 50 "Chinese malls" in the Greater Toronto Area.³ However, what was missing from the "Hong Kong, Canada" feature was any detailed reporting on the immigration policies that brought Hong Kong capital into Canada or the fact that, overall, Hong Kong immigrants are poorer than Canadian-born people and other immigrants. At the very end of her article, Carey reported that 25% of all immigrants from Hong Kong live below the low-income cut-offs compared with 15% of those who were born in Canada and 19% of all immigrants. Highlighted in a different way, with pictures of Hong Kong immigrant families struggling to make ends meet in a new country, such statistics could have done much to challenge the idea that all Hong Kong immigrants were wealthy. Buried at the very end of the article, however, the statistics on the poverty of 25% of Hong Kong immigrants did not make much of an impact on the reader. The Star's discourse of invasion went unchallenged, and made its way into a Northside art classroom through Evelyn's art journal entries.

¹ See The Toronto Star, November 10, 1996, p. B1. The perception that Toronto's "face" has been mostly European and White ignores the historical and contemporary presence of Canada's Aboriginal/First Nations people who have always been part of the city's face. It also ignores the historical presence of non-European and non-White immigrants who have not only been part of the city's face since the beginning of what Aboriginal scholars call "the contact period," but who have contributed to the building of the city and the country.

² See "Skilled, Young, Wealthy and Loyal to Canada," The Toronto Star, November 10, 1996, p. B4.

³ See The Toronto Star, November 10, 1996, pp.Bl and B4. "Chinese malls" are shopping malls in which the names of stores are written in Chinese. Sometimes store signs are bilingual, written in both Chinese and English.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

المجمع العلمي للقرآن الكريم يصدر الكتاب الثاني من سلسلة يخشى

قسم الشعائر يكرّم أصحاب المواكب المشاركة في إحياء ذكرى شهادة السيدة الزهراء (عليها السلام)

جامعة العميد تستقبل طلبة المراحل الأولى المقبولين ضمن كلياتها للعام الدراسي الجديد

سماحة السيد الصافي يكرّم طلبة حفظ القرآن الكريم المتفوّقين ويؤكّد دور التدبّر في الهداية والتكامل

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

طبيب يكشف تأثير برودة الشتاء على النوم

دون أن تعلم.. 10 عادات يومية تسرع شيخوخة جسمك

تقرير: النيكوتين خطر على القلب مهما كانت الطريقة

أيهما أفضل لصحتك.. زبدة الفول السوداني أم النوتيلا؟

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

السعودية تدشن أكبر نظام لتخزين الكهرباء بالبطاريات في العالم !

بأمر تنفيذي.. ترامب يؤكد هدف عودة الأميركيين إلى القمر في عام 2028

بعيدا عن البشر.. "قتال جوي في الفضاء" بين أميركا والصين

كشف مذهل في قاع "برمودا" !

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Parents with Learning Disabilities CONCLUSION

PROVISION OF SUPPORT

CARING FOR CHILDREN

EUGENICS AND ETHICAL ISSUES

PARENTING

DISCRIMINATION AND DIVERSITY

THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Parents with Learning Disabilities

Legislation and Learning Disabilities CONCLUSION

LEGAL SAFEGUARDS

MENTAL CAPACITY ACT 2005

THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 1998