A Comparison of Standard of Living Rates of First and Second Generation Chinese Immigrants in the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area from a Spatial Perspective Thesis Advisor s Name: Trudi Bunting Permission to put a copy as a sample Geog393 proposal: No By: Michael Brown ID: 99045019 Course: Geog 393 Date: April 8,2002
1 Problem Statement: The thesis proposal presented in this paper can be place within the more general topic of immigration. Before explaining the details of this exact thesis proposal, it is important to discuss the general context of immigration and its increasing importance in Canadian society. Canada attracts immigrants from many different parts of the world and throughout Canada s history, immigration has made up a substantial proportion of the population (Ghosh, J. & Pyrce, V. J., 1999). Over the last few decades of the twentieth century, the natural increase rate has been dropping in Canada (Figure 1). If natural increase were the only component of population growth, the Canada s overall population numbers would be decreasing. In our capitalist societies current government have yet to determine an effective way to sustain economic growth within countries where population is decreasing. As a result countries such as Canada must turn to other sources to keep there overall population growth rate at least stable if not increasing slightly. In the last few decades the main alternative to this problem has been to allow more immigrants into the country. Evidence of this can be seen in Canada s population growth rate at the end of the twentieth century which was approximately composed of 50% natural increase and 50% net immigration (Figure 2). With these drastic increases in immigrants, the relative importance of immigration with regards to Canada s future should be apparent. Other specific incidents, such as the September 11 th Terrorist Attacks, have also increased the relative importance of immigration and have resulted in the re-examining of current immigration policies of countries around the world. Therefore, the broad goal of this proposed thesis is to add to the increasing knowledge base on immigration.
2 In many situations around the world, when immigrants move from a less developed country to a more developed country, they initially have to endure hard times. There are many barriers which these new immigrants must face such as language problems, economic troubles, and racism. For the most part, second generations of these immigrants do not have to deal with a lot of these same problems, or at least not to the same extreme as their parents and, as a result, in many cases they possess a standard of living that is similar to the average citizen in that particular country. In the literature on immigration, the above statements are considered to be obvious and are usually taken as a general rule of thumb. In this thesis proposal, the approach taken has been in the form of a case study of Vancouver, Canada from a spatial perspective. It was felt that the above general rule of thumb does not hold as strongly for the Chinese immigrants of this specific region of Canada. The problem statement was presented in the form of a hypothesis stating that first generation immigrants in Vancouver, specifically the Chinese immigrants which includes immigrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, must endure many of the hardships mentioned earlier; however, in many cases, the second generation of these immigrants possess a standard of living which is actually higher than the average Canadian citizen. Obviously, by stating a hypothesis, this thesis will be taking a scientific approach to solving the problem. In trying to test this hypothesis, a great deal of statistical data will be needed to estimate standards of living for both first and second generation Chinese immigrants. Spatial data will be present to show the distribution of each of these immigration generations across Vancouver area. Other qualitative data from previous
3 similar research will also be considered to help verify the hypothesis. Assuming the hypothesis holds, the paper will then shift to a more humanistic approach and go on to highlight and discuss some of the key reasons why Vancouver s Chinese immigrant population has been able to adapt to the mainstream Canadian economy so well. These factors will then be analyzed to determine whether or not they were unique to this specific case study, of Vancouver s Chinese immigrant population, or if some other more general factors can be inferred. Finally, if these general factors exist, it is hoped that they could then be applied to other cities in Canada, in order to help bring forth these same kind of above average standard of living results for other groups of immigrants. The proposed thesis is relevant for a variety of reasons. As mentioned earlier, this paper will add to the overall knowledge base of the increasingly important topic of immigration. With respect to the specific city in the case study, this paper will be very relevant, as new immigrant density in and around the city of Vancouver has increased dramatically over the last three decades (Figure 2). Following the restructuring of the formerly bias Canadian immigration policy in the 1960s, the majority of Canada s immigrants are no longer Europeans but rather have an Asian origin (Figure 5). Due to Vancouver s close proximity to the Pacific, the percentage of Asian immigrants is even greater then the percentage in the rest of Canada and recently Vancouver has been given the nick-name Canada s Hong Kong (Le-Corre, Philippe, 1994). Most importantly, this thesis proposal is relevant because the study of second generation immigrants is an important aspect of immigration which has not been taken into consideration by many of the previous studies.
4 Status of Research: The topic of immigration has become increasingly important for all developed countries around the world, and, as a result, in recent years a great deal of literature has been written on this broad topic. Evidence of the youthful nature of this literature can be seen by the publication dates of many of the articles: most of the articles have been published within the last ten years. This proposal will discuss past articles on immigration in three phases: literature that deals with the broad topic of immigration; literature that deals with issues within immigration that are similar in nature to this proposal s specific subject matter; and, finally, literature which is very similar to this thesis proposal. With regards to geography the topic of immigration has had large effects on such study areas as demographics, planning, and urban form. As mentioned earlier in this proposal, the importance of immigration today is increasing for a variety of reasons. In explaining the general context of immigration, this proposal is only going to examine immigration from a Canadian perspective. The complexities involved in explaining immigration with regards to all the countries in which this issue is important is beyond the scope of this undergraduate proposal. Prior to the 1960s, immigration was an important tool which lead to the settlement of Canada s vast countryside. During this time, however, the Canadian immigration policy was bias, favouring European immigrants over those from other countries. In the early 1960s, changes were made, and, by 1967, a new immigration act was established which introduced a points system that evaluated immigrants solely on the basis of their ability to contribute to the Canadian economy (Bunting, Class Notes). As a result of this
5 level playing field, many immigrants entering into Canada today are well educated and posses a variety of higher-level skills (Figure 6). A more recent landmark work was David Foot s book, Boom, Bust & Echo. The main goal of this book was to explain the power of understanding demographics. Prior to its release in the 1990s, many educated Canadians knew that the demographics of their country was an important issue; however, it was not until after this book was released that the entire Canadian public became much more concerned with the reality of the situation. How does this book relate with immigration one might ask? Foot s book emphasized the declining natural increase rate and demonstrated that, in the future, there would be a lack of labourers to support the needs of the retired baby boomers. The obvious solution to this problem would be increased immigration. The Canadian government had already recognized this trend as immigration levels in Canada have recently more then doubled, from approximately 100,000 immigrants annually during the early 1980s to 250,000 annually during the early 1990s (Bunting, Class Notes). Foot s book helped the Canadian public to understand the importance of the Canadian government s actions of increased immigration over the last few decades. In order to better understand the context of this specific thesis proposal, one must also consider past literature of similar nature within the field of immigration. Two forms of immigration literature which have been considered by this proposal are Daniel Hilbert s article entitled Focus: Immigration to Canada, and David Ley and Annick Germain s article entitled Immigration and the Changing Social Geography of Large Canadian Cities. Both articles emphasize the fact that, today the three largest metropolitans in Canada -- Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver -- are the destination of the
6 majority of new immigrants. These papers also make it clear that there are various types of immigrants (Figure 6) and that these top three cities in Canada also are the destinations of over 80% of all business class immigrants (Hiebert, 1994). Both papers provide a good overview of immigration in Canada; however, for the initial purpose of this study, they may too broad. Three articles on immigration which focus on the same region as this proposals case study, Vancouver, Canada, are Myths and meanings of immigration and the metropolis by David Ley, Immigration in Gateway Cities: Sydney and Vancouver in Comparative Perspective by Murphy and Ley, and Reworking democracy: contemporary immigration and community politics in Vancouver s Chinatown by Katharyne Mitchell. The first article, by David Ley, mentions some of the more general themes in immigration similar to the ones discussed earlier in this proposal but also mentions another theme of variable geography of immigration which applies to [immigrant] entry classes (Ley, 1999). This article also states that Vancouver is unique compared to Toronto or Montreal as it has been the preferred destination for the wealthiest classes of immigrants (Ley, 1999). This theme will be important to take into consideration when analyzing first and second generation stand of living levels in this proposal. The second article written, by Ley and Murphy, demonstrates another approach at looking at immigration through the form of a comparison with another similar city to Vancouver. This article is very detailed and addresses a wide variety of issues within the field of immigration such as the extent [in which] contemporary immigration is reshaping urban spatial structure, the globalization of urban housing markets in these gateway cities, the gendering of immigration, and women s mobilization to secure
7 necessary services (Ley D. & Murphy P., 2001). The comparative nature of this article is effective and is something that will be taken into consideration in this thesis when analyzing the factors of second generation success for Vancouver s Chinese immigrant group compared to other cities in Canada. The third article, by Katharyne Mitchell, again focuses specifically on the Vancouver region; however, it proposes that there are complex political ramifications of large-scale immigration and that in many previous studies these political issues have been overlooked by emphasizing economic issues such as the effects of recent immigration on labour markets, consumption patters and/or the establishment of immigrant enclaves (Mitchell, 1998). This perspective on immigration is very interesting and, as a result of this enlightenment political issues will also be considered in this thesis proposal to a minimum extent; however, as the majority of the components of standard of living are economic in nature. Locating articles which focused on second generation immigrant groups was very difficult, as very little study has been done on this specific aspect of immigration. One of the papers which was found was entitled Second generation decline? Children of immigrants, past and present - a reconsideration written by J. Perlmann and R. Waldinger. This work argued that the contemporary second generation is on the road to the upward mobility and assimilation that, in retrospect, characterized the second generation of earlier immigrations (Perlmann, 1997). It made this argument through a historical review of second generation upward mobility in the past and, then, a comparison between past and present second generation immigrants. Some of the empirical procedures which presented quantitative data will be considered in this thesis
8 proposal; however, most of the methods adopted in this paper were theoretical in nature and presented a lot of qualitative data. Also, this article was written in an American context, so the dominant immigrant groups in the United States, such as Mexicans were discussed in great detail. Resultantly, much of the information presented in this paper is not comparable with results from a Canadian immigrant study, since the number of Mexican immigrants in Canada is low. Therefore, to help develop the specific thesis proposal of this paper, past research studies of a more specific nature must be considered. Two sources which may provide research studies which are very similar to this thesis proposal are an article written by D. Hiebert entitled Immigration and the changing social geography of Greater Vancouver and a federal research project known as the Metropolis Project. The former is a study which has been published in the academic journal, BC Studies. After having read the abstract of this report, it appears that this report may be very similar in nature to the proposal presented in this paper; however, a hard copy of this report has not yet been obtain since this journal is not readily available locally. When a hard copy of this report is obtained, it is felt that Hiebert s study will help substantially in developing a general research procedure for this report. The latter source, the Metropolis Project, is available online and is described as an international research project on immigrant integration and the impact of immigrants on urban centers (http://canada.metropolis.net), with specific centers of excellence established in Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver. This source has just recently been discovered and will be examined in much more detail in the future. It is expected that a great deal of similar information will be discovered in the archives of immigration reports available on this website.
9 Research Procedure: The following research procedure may not describe certain methodologies in the greatest of detail, and as a result much of this section of the proposal is still open to criticism from external sources. There are two main reasons for this lack of detail: the time line given for this proposal did not allow for all possible sources of information to be gathered and considered (evidence of this is shown in not yet being able to obtain D. Hiebert s report mentioned earlier); secondly, due to the lack of prior research on second generation immigrants, no very similar study examples could be found to act as a procedural guideline to follow, for this specific thesis proposal. Being open to constructive criticism is very important for this paper and for the field of geography, as the lack of acceptance of criticism has been one of the main faults of geography in the past. When considering the general approach or framework taken by this proposal, the most dominate will be the statistical analysis of government data. There were many reasons why this general approach was taken. First of all, much of the information needed to calculate standard of living levels can be found in census reports or other forms of government data. Government data in the past has demonstrated strong levels of accuracy and has had a general acceptance throughout the country. Other private sources of data in many cases have underlying biases, and for this reason may not be as accurate as government data, and are definitely not considered generally accepted sources. Government data is also much easier to obtain then private data. The use of private data is not being totally rule out; however, but rather it will be kept to a minimum for the purposes of this report.
10 The second part of this proposal involves a detail discussion on the results of the statistical analysis, and any general factors that can be inferred from the results. This part of the thesis may touch upon a few different general approaches such as reasoned logical argument, and a comparison of different cases/places. The reasoned logical argument will be used to infer generic characteristics verses, unique locational characteristics as to why Vancouver s Chinese immigrant population has been able to adapt to the mainstream Canadian economy so well. The comparison of different places framework will be used to discuss if these general factors could then be applied to other cities in Canada, in order to help bring forth these same kind of above average standard of living results for other groups of immigrants. Due to the fact that these last two frameworks will be only used in the last section of the thesis, the detail and information needed for these approach will be much less then the statistical analysis of government data approach used to solve the main problem statement. Now that the general framework of the report as been discuss, it is important to understand the information which will be need for this specific thesis. The information needed to prove the hypothesis mentioned in the above problem statement will primarily come from government data. Data will be obtained from both federal and provincial governments. The federal government data source is Statistics Canada, and the provincial government source is BC Stats, which is a website maintained by the Ministry of Management Services of the government of British Columbia. The new 2001 census data must be used for this proposal since for the first time since the 1971 Census, the 2001 Census asked a question on the birthplace of parents. Responses to this question can be used to assess the socio-economic conditions of second-generation Canadians (that is, the Canadian-born children of foreign-born parents) (Statistics
11 Canada, 1). This critical component of the 2001 Canadian census is not being released until January 21, 2003 (Statistics Canada, 2). As a result of this date, the second generation analysis of this thesis will be slightly delayed. The apparent negative nature of this delay can be turned around into a possible advantage; however, as more time will now be available for further develop of the planning stages of thesis. The federal government census provides a wide variety of statistics which can be used to calculate a standard of living level. Basic types of information which will be look at will include income levels, education levels, real estate values, and a variety of other less dominate social and economic characteristics of individuals, families and households. The standard of living levels which will be calculated from these fields will then be compared with other census information such as immigration, citizenship, and language composition to isolate the three Chinese immigrant groups from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. The other source of government information from the provincial government of British Columbia contains census data; however, much of the data presented from this source is not in its raw nature, as it was from the federal source. Much of the information is presented in the form of charts, graphs and tables. These forms of data presentation demonstrate a wide variety of trends in the data which have already been isolated by passed studies. Much of these trends take into account information from previous census year such as 1996, 1991, and 1986. The information available from this source will be used to compliment information from federal sources. Other sources of information such as direct field measurements, questionnaires, and participant observation are not relevant for this specific thesis proposal. Most of
12 these sources of information can only be provided from direct contact with the case study city of Vancouver, Canada. At this point in time the opportunity for funded direct field work in the Vancouver area has not been explored. As mentioned in the title of this thesis proposal, the study of first and second generation Chinese immigrants in the Vancouver area will be undertaken from a spatial perspective. The tool which will be used to demonstrate the spatial nature of this thesis statement will be a simple geographic information system (GIS). As a result of selecting this tool much of the data collected in this thesis proposal will be presented in the form of maps; however, graphs and charts will also be used to support the data presented in these maps. It is felt that maps are a very efficient way of displaying information to the readers of a thesis, and in many cases they make an academic paper much easier to comprehend. The field of GIS is also an area of geography in which the authour of this thesis proposal has some expertise. The first step needed in developing the GIS is to obtain a previously geo-coded base layer of the Vancouver area census tracts. An example of this can be seen in figure 7 of the appendix. This source of information should not be too difficult to obtain. The information from different fields of the 2001 census mentioned earlier will then be inputted into the GIS. This will allow for a multitude of maps to be produced showing the spatial distribution of various census characteristics of first and second generation Chinese immigrants. A formula will then be produced (which has yet to be determined) to estimate a standard of living level based on these census characteristics. The results of this formula can also be entered into the GIS. Two maps will then be produced showing the relative level of standard of living of first generation Chinese immigrants, versus
13 second generation immigrants. These maps will not only present the spatial distribution between each immigrant generation but will also demonstrate the spatial distribution within each immigrant generation, with regards to their standard of living level. Analysis of these two maps can then occur, which should result in a great number of trends being inferred. Finally, the hypothesis of this thesis will be addressed, by calculating an overall Canadian standard of living level and comparing this with the average standard of living level of all second generation Chinese immigrants in the Vancouver area. The following chart presents a time frame of when various tasks that are necessary for the completion of the thesis will be undertaken. Chart of Task to be Completed Time Period Co-op Term 3 April 2002 - September 2002 School Term 3B September 2002- December 2002 School Term 4A Enroll - Geog490A January 2003 - April 2003 Co-op Term 4 & 5 May 2003 - December 2003 School Term 4B Enroll - Geog490B January 2004 - April 2004 Task to Be Completed - Gather more information (BC Studies report, more analysis of Metropolis Project) - Seek out further procedural advice from other professionals in this field of geography - Search for Geo-coded base layers of Vancouver area census tracts - Review research procedure discussed in this thesis proposal - Restructure research procedure if needed - Formalize a more detailed plan of how new released 2001 census data will be incorporated into this thesis - Verify GIS procedure with a professour at the University of Waterloo who specializes in GIS - Gather newly release 2001 census data. - Enter appropriate census data into GIS - Calculate standard of living formula estimates - Produce maps from GIS - Perform Analysis on these maps - Formalize Report - Compute estimate of Canadian standard of living level - Complete discussion and conclusion process of thesis - Complete thesis - Proof-read/edit thesis - Get constructive opinions about thesis - Make any last minute changes or revision - Hand in final copy
14 References: British Columbia Provincial Government. BC Stats. Online. Internet March 22, 2002 Available http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/ Bunting, T. E. Class Notes Urban Growth and Regional Development. Online. Internet. March 5, 2002. Available http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca//crs/geog350 Foot, David. Boom, Bust & Echo. Macfarlane, Walter & Ross: Toronto ON, 1996 Federal Government of Canada. The Metropolis Project. Online. Internet. March 30, 2002. Available http://canada.metropolis.net Ghosh, J. & Pyrce, V. J. (1999). Canadian immigration policy: Responses to changing trends. Geography, 84 (3), pg. 233-240. Hiebert, D. (1999). Immigration and the changing social geography of Greater Vancouver. BC Studies, 121, pg. 35-82. Hiebert, D. (1994).Canadian immigration: Policy, politics, geography. The Canadian Geographer, 38, pg. 254-270. Kempen, R. van & Őzüekren, A. Ş. (1998). Ethnic segregation in cities. Urban Studies, 35 (10), pg. 1631-1656. Le-Corre, Philippe (1994). Canada's Hong Kong: Vancouver is being revitalised by Chinese immigrants. Far Eastern Economic Review, Vol. 157, pg. 36-7. Ley, D. & Annick Germain (2000). Immigration and the Changing Social Geography of Large Canadian Cities. Plan, Vol. 40 pg. 29-32. Ley, D. (1999). Myths and meanings of immigration and the metropolis. The Canadian Geographer, 43, pg. 2-19.
15 Ley, D. & Hiebert, D. (2001). Immigration policy as population policy. The Canadian Geographer, 45 (1), pg. 120-125. Ley, D. & Murphy, P. (Eds.). (2001). Immigration in Gateway Cities: Sydney and Vancouver in Comparative Perspective. Progress in Planning: Vol. 55 (3) pg.119-194, New York: Pergamon. Ley, D. & Smith, H. (2000). Relations between deprivation and immigrant groups in large Canadian cities. Urban Studies, 37 (1), pg. 37-62. Mitchell, Katharyne (1998). Reworking democracy: contemporary immigration and community politics in Vancouver s Chinatown. Political geography, Vol. 17(6), pg. 729-750 Perlmann-J., Waldinger-R. (1997). Second generation decline? Children of immigrants, past and present - a reconsideration. International-Migration-Review. 31(4): pg 893-922. Smith, Heather & Key, David (1997). Is there an immigrant underclass in Canadian cities? Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis. pg. 1 74. Statistics Canada. Online. Internet March 24, 2002. Available http://www.statcan.ca -1. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/release/abstract.cfm?focus=8&u=1-2. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/release/uprel.cfm
16 Outline for the Completed Thesis: Title Page 1 Table of Contents 2 Chapter 1: Introduction..3-10 General overview of Immigration..3-6 Specific Problem Statement... 7 Relevance of this Study.....8-10 Chapter 2: Literature Review...11-22 General Studies on Immigration..11-15 Specific Studies on Immigration in Vancouver....16-19 Specific Studies of Second Generation Chinese Immigration in Vancouver...20-22 Chapter 3: Methodology..23-34 Explanation of Geographic Information System used.23-25 Explanation of 2001 Census data used in study..26-31 Explanation of Standard of Living Estimates..32-34 Chapter 4: Results.....35-45 Specific 20001 Census data field maps analysis..35-38 First and Second Generation Immigrant, Standard of Living map analysis...39-42 Second Generation Immigrant vs. Canadian Standard of Living analysis..43-45 Chapter 5: Discussion/Conclusion...46-55 Specific Case Study Conclusion...46-48 Discussion of General Trends from Case Study..49-53 Discussion of Applicability of General Trends from Case Study 54-55 References 56-58
Appendix
Figure 1 - Net Annual Growth Rate Trends in Canada Source: Bunting, T. E. Class Notes Figure 2 Immigration Growth Rate Trends in Canada Source: Bunting, T. E. Class Notes
Figure 3/4 - Immigrant Population Density Change In Vancouver (CMA) Source: Ley, D. & Murphy, P. (Eds.) (2001)
Figure 5 Origins of Canada s Recent Immigrants Source: Bunting, T. E. Class Notes Figure 6 Source: Bunting, T. E. Class Notes
Figure 7