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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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052289
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05228900.029
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1990-09-17
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WORLD, Page 51CANADAProsperity and ParochialismAsian immigrants fuel both boom and backlash in VancouverBy James L. Graff/VANCOUVER
Set like a jewel between snow-covered mountains and deep
Pacific Ocean inlets, Vancouver, Canada's third largest city and
site of the 1986 world's fair, has inspired great pride among its
residents. Unfortunately, intense pride sometimes degenerates into
parochialism -- or worse. A city alderman intervened recently to
stop local merchants from selling T shirts with the slogan
HONGCOUVER, B.C. '89. "When I go out I'm absolutely surrounded by
Asiatics," complained longtime Vancouver resident John Smythe at
a public hearing on immigration last month. "If the doors are wide
open, what's going to happen to the Caucasians?"
Fueling the racist rhetoric is the fact that Vancouver's
prosperity has been boosted by the heightened inflow of immigrants
and money from Hong Kong. Encouraged by Canada's relatively liberal
immigration policies, more and more Hong Kong Chinese are arriving
in Vancouver to put down roots before 1997, when the British colony
reverts to Chinese sovereignty. That does not please some of
greater Vancouver's 1.4 million residents, who see the influx --
5,000 Hong Kong immigrants came to the region last year -- as a
threat to their life-style. Critics grouse about an "Asian
invasion" that has sent housing costs skyrocketing 50% in the past
year, making Vancouver the hottest real estate market in Canada.
Hong Kong accounted for more than 22% of the 22,765 immigrants
who arrived in British Columbia last year, and a major portion of
the foreign investment. Just over 2,000 Hong Kong families brought
more than $689 million with them, mostly to Vancouver. Other Hong
Kong investors have poured millions into the city, a surge that
was dramatized a year ago, when the choice 204-acre site of Expo
86 was sold for $260 million to Li Ka-shing, patriarch of one of
Hong Kong's biggest trading families.
Local real estate analysts estimate that Hong Kong investors
are involved in 60% of new condominium construction and 25% of all
apartment-building sales this year. Asians purchased more than $420
million worth of commercial real estate alone last year. Total
Vancouver real estate holdings of Hong Kong Chinese: $2.1 billion.
For old-time residents, the problem seems to be less the buying
binge than the perception that their neighborhoods are being
offered on international markets far removed from local buyers. The
unease crested last December, when condominium units developed in
Vancouver by Li were snapped up in Hong Kong within 2 1/2 hours of
the offering -- before they were even put up for sale in Canada.
Says Susan Alexander, a member of a local group that is demanding
stiffer government controls on foreign real estate buyers: "Our
housing is being treated like a commodity on the stock exchange."
Alexander is being evicted from a three-story, 20-unit apartment
complex that will be replaced by a twelve-story, twelve-unit luxury
condominium development.
The business community, on the other hand, contends that Asians
are being unfairly singled out. Asian migrants account for about
20% of immigration to Vancouver; most of the remainder are arrivals
from other Canadian provinces. Says Michael Goldberg, executive
director of Vancouver's International Financial Center: "Without
the Hong Kong people coming, we're not going to create jobs, and
if our kids don't work, we won't have to worry about them buying
houses." Mayor Gordon Campbell, a former real estate developer,
agrees. Says he: "The city is starting to get the critical mass it
needs for a more robust economy, and foreign investment is a big
part of that."
The debate has left the new immigrants baffled and uneasy. Says
Tom Chan, 42, a textile manufacturer and retailer who came to
Vancouver from Hong Kong with his family a year and a half ago: "I
tell my friends not to overreact, but now our people feel they have
to be defensive." To mitigate the criticism, Asian developers are
volunteering to advertise available housing units in Vancouver
before offering them abroad. In a different goodwill gesture, one
Hong Kong family anonymously donated $8.43 million to the
University of British Columbia for a new international
performing-arts center.
Vancouver's 130,000-strong Chinese community, third largest on
the west coast of North America, after Los Angeles and San
Francisco, has faced worse troubles in the past, including a near
total ban on Chinese immigration from 1923 to 1947. Nonetheless,
the latest contretemps rankles. Says Hanson Lau, a radio producer
and a Vancouver resident for 23 years: "You don't hear anyone
talking about the Canadians who sold their houses to the Hong Kong
Chinese at a profit. Sooner or later, people are going to have to
face the fact that the city is grown up -- whether they like it or
not."