Push Factora to British Columbia
At the time of Chinese immigration, Canada was a new nation. She needed workers to work in industries and build settlements. Considering the distance from Europe, and eastern North America, British Columbia’s best option of low cost labor was China’s large source of eager workers (Library and Archives Canada). China was also very interested in the gold that was being found in Canada. When gold was found in the Fraser River Valley, thousands of people, including the Chinese were coming from California after the end of the California Gold Rush (Library and Archives Canada). During the Caribou Gold Rush, the first Chinese community was established in the gold mining town of Barkerville (University of British Columbia). Approximately 5,000 Chinese people were living Barkerville in the 1860s, but because of racial discrimination, Chinese prospectors made less then their white competitors (University of British Columbia). The reason why so many Chinese were attracted to British Columbia was because of the Gold Rushes that took place there. When news spread about the Fraser River Gold Rush, the Chinese were flooding into British Columbia quickly since most of them were leaving California after the California Gold Rush (University of British) Another group of Chinese arrived after the British Columbia Gold Rush. Once all the gold was gone, Chinese stayed so that they can get jobs like gardeners, and construction workers. Many Chinese got jobs in helping construct the Canadian Pacific Railway. Once it was fully complete, about 1’000 Chinese returned back to China. The rest however, stayed and set up small businesses in British Columbia (Moments of Chinese Canadian History).
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