ABSTRACT
Human migration is an age-old phenomenon, although the level and direction of movement have always been dictated by economic factors and government policies at home and abroad.1 In terms of Chinese migration, Wang (1991) identifies four groups of Chinese migrants. The first, huashang, Chinese traders, left China for other Asian countries as early as the Sung dynasty (960-1279). The second, huagong, Chinese labourers, left in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, mainly for North America, Australia and New Zealand, some becoming gold miners. A third group, huayi, consists of Chinese with nonChinese nationality such as the Chinese-Canadians I discuss here. A fourth group, huaqiao, sojourners, remain overseas only temporarily. In the mass emigration from Hong Kong in the early 1990s,2 many emigrants cited the reversion of sovereignty to China in 1997 as the main reason for their departure, mentioning concerns about what the future might hold for civil rights, individual liberty, the legal system and living standards (Wong 1992).
