ABSTRACT
People of Chinese origin have been resident in Vancouver since the founding of the city in 1886, and Hong Kong has been a major point of departure for Chinese emigrants from the Pearl River delta region to Canada since Chinese communities were first established in western Canada in the mid-nineteenth century. In the contemporary period, as Skeldon pointed out in chapter 2, individuals of Chinese origin have been one of the largest components of the flow of international migrants to Canada. Former residents of Hong Kong, who identify with Hong Kong and what it has come to represent in terms of a cultural identity, have been the dominant element in the flow of Chinese migrants to Canada as a whole since the late 1960s. They have been especially notable in the flow of international migrants to British Columbia which, for all intents and purposes, has meant the Vancouver region.'
