Leaving Hong Kong for Vancouver, Canada’s latest immigrants find familiarity and novelty
- Surge in migration fuelled by turmoil and uncertainty calls to mind anxious run-up to 1997 when Beijing took over the former British colony
- Permanent residency tied to education lures newest emigrees from Hong Kong to city where one in four residents is of Chinese origin
Vancouver, no stranger to Cantonese customs, is seeing a steady uptick in its dim sum gatherings, barbecues, picnics and hiking excursions to welcome hundreds of new Hong Kong emigrees streaming into the Canadian city.
Hosted by church groups and NGOs among other support networks, the outings target transplanted families who have children of all ages as well as single adults in their 20s and 30s eager to chart a new life in the west coast seaport.
The surge in migration calls to mind the wave of Hongkongers who relocated to Vancouver and other destinations in the run-up to 1997, when Beijing formally took over the former British colony. Eventually population figures in the bustling entrepot stabilised. But that rapidly changed in recent years.
Emigration accelerated after widespread and largely peaceful demonstrations across the city in 2019 turned more disruptive and at times violent.
