TRUTH BE TOLD
PROUD TO BE SOUTH ASIAN
South Asians bring education, skills, and international experience to Canadian workforce. Image credit: BROOKE CAGLE on Unsplash.
By DR VICKI BISMILLA
Canada passed the Immigration Act in 1869 to protect immigrants coming to Canada to ensure that they were not taken advantage of upon arrival.
The back story is that this protection was intended to protect European immigrants to Canada. In 1897, racialized troops from the colonies in Asia and South Asia serving in British forces (a sad irony) learned about British people settling in Canada’s British Columbia.
And so began the Asian and South Asian migration to BC.
The Canadian government started charging a $500 head tax on Chinese men, a huge sum at the time, curbing immigration and causing a serious skilled labour shortage.
Sikhs serving in the British Hong Kong Regiment, disbanded in 1902, started arriving in BC and by 1908, nearly 5000 Sikhs had settled in BC.
In 1907, South Asians were disenfranchised and not allowed to vote, starting the politics of fear and racism.
In January 1908, Canada passed an order prohibiting immigration of anyone who did not travel on a continuous journey to Canada, knowing full well that there were no ships sailing directly from India to Canada.
They had, effectively, barred Indian immigration.
They added a $200 tax on any family reunification for immigrants thus thwarting wives and families from coming.
By 1910 the Immigration Act was changed to completely exclude immigrants by race aimed specifically to exclude South Asians.
In 1914, Komagata Maru, the ship with Sikh immigrants, was turned away from the port of Vancouver based on the continuous journey rule.
More on the assiduous political obstruction to Indian immigration can be found at History of South Asians in Canada: Timeline (www.southasiancanadianheritage.ca).
But South Asians struggled and survived the government’s racist policies by working hard, very hard, in harsh slave-like conditions.
They built gurdwaras, temples and mosques and started businesses in logging, grocery stores and fuel dealerships, proving to be good settlers with strong moral and work ethics.
They started moving east to other provinces and establishing their worth.
In 1929, Dr Pandhia, a Gandhi mentee, convinced Ottawa to not deport “illegal” South Asian immigrants. By 1942, South Asian workers had Union support and protection.
South Asian women started to join the work force and became important parts of Canada’s economy. More girls and women were getting an education and the government was persuaded to allow family reunification immigration.
And by the time the vicious Idi Amin expelled Indians from Uganda in 1972, many of those outstanding business people made Canada home, contributed to the economy and provided employment to Canadians.
By the 1980s South Asians were entering Canadian politics and being elected to government.
South Asians joined police forces and entered all areas of professional careers as well as professional Canadian sports teams.
In 1986 the turban ban was lifted and Canadian Sikhs joined the Canadian armed forces and the RCMP.
Fast forward to the recent COVID pandemic and we saw the extreme disadvantages experienced by South Asians who make up a large percentage of frontline teams like factory workers, cleaners, assembly line workers, nurses and PSWs.
Moreover, media jumped to the conclusion that areas with a predominance of South Asians were ignoring vaccination mandates and hence naïvely blamed them for the spread of COVID.
Many workers could not afford to miss work and lax protection from employers meant that these vulnerable workers were becoming infected. Vaccine access to these communities was different than more affluent communities.
Socioeconomic struggles, food insecurities, medical issues, family stresses are all high in minimally employed communities like those of many frontline South Asian workers.
It is not known how many South Asians actually knew about, applied for or accessed the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit.
The government agencies lacked cultural competencies to reach out appropriately to these vulnerable communities.
As we know, South Asian Canadians occupy the full range of professions in Canada from those requiring the top level of academic qualifications and professional training to those serving on the front-line service jobs.
We have immigrated from diverse lands such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Fiji, the Caribbean, Bhutan, the Maldives, East and South Africa.
But when it comes to descriptions or race profiles or Statistics Canada data, we are all one, South Asians.
That is neither good nor bad, it just is.
The Council of Agencies Serving South Asians and The United Way of Greater Toronto data shows that “based on the 2016 census data from Statistic Canada, South Asians represent the largest visible minority population in Toronto at 338, 965 or 25 per cent of all visible minorities which make up over half of the city.
They mostly reside in the East and West of Toronto.
From the 2016 census, Toronto, followed by Montreal and Vancouver, was identified as the dominant residency choice for immigrants to settle in Canada.
Their data showed that South Asians are not being paid commensurate with their education level and professional qualifications.
South Asians are spending 20 per cent of their pay on upgrading their education and only 21 per cent have full time jobs. 25 per cent with PhDs and 27 per cent with Master’s degrees are earning less than $30,000.
This is startling especially since many of us have worked with non-racialized people who only have undergrad degrees and hold high executive positions in educational fields, government and other occupations.
The report shows that the median earnings for Canadians with Bachelor’s degrees is $85, 645 and with college diplomas it is $67,576.
So what happened to these highly educated highly qualified South Asians? (See report at Needs-Assessment-Report.pdf, cassa.on.ca).
Here is the problem according to the report: “Over 30 per cent of the respondents surveyed indicated that they did not know their employment rights on a scale with varying levels of employment rights awareness.
“This includes people in sectors such as natural resources, arts and culture, education, natural/applied sciences, and management; with the largest number of people feeling unsafe at work in the arts and culture sector.
“Specifically, 40 per cent of those with no income, 35 per cent of those with income under $30,000; 35-64 per cent of those with $30-$70,000; and 66 per cent of those with income under $80,000, indicated that they were not aware of their employment rights.”
This is an important report. Please read it and if you can advise people you know who are being underpaid, underemployed, denied employment or taken advantage of in other ways at the workplace that they need to safely pursue fair treatment.
This can be very difficult to do, and the utmost care needs to be taken when starting to make inquiries.
I have said in previous columns that it is important to find policy and procedure documents at your workplace and read them carefully; it is important to find people especially in HR whom you can trust to ask questions; people in the union, if there is one, whom you can trust to play fair; and those in your family or friends circle who can mentor you.
This is especially difficult for people (and particularly women) who are struggling in unprotected work like factories, piecework, house cleaning, childcare and other precarious employment categories.
May they each find a mentor who can help to level their employment field and improve their access to a livelihood.
• Dr Vicki Bismilla is a retired Superintendent of Schools and retired college Vice-President, Academic, and Chief Learning Officer. She has authored two books.