south Asians meet canadians
learn about their journey to Canada
introduction
The South Asians are the one who are originates from the southern parts of Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka). They’re also referred to as Indo - Canadians or East Indians. There were more than 1.6 million South Asian Canadians in Canada, in the year of 2011. Out of which one million people were found with an Indian ancestry, followed by people with Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Punjabi ancestry. People come from South Asia to Canada to have a fresh start. It is estimated that about 20 million people are living outside from their homeland.
Effect of migration
Approximately 80% of the migrants were South Asians. The first South Asian immigrants arrived and landed in Vancouver in 1903, out of which most of them were Sikhs. Initially they had faced a lot of racism. After the racism restrictions were removed from immigration regulations in 1960s, that's where the South Asian population started migrating more and also became culturally diverse. Two-thirds of South Asian immigrants were highly classified as qualified professionals. One common thing among all the South Asians is that they come from a very big joint family and extremely give more importance to their family relations, religion and culture. People migrate to Canada to get financially stable and to have a better future.
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Festivals
Instrument
Temples
Economical problems faced by South Asians when first came to Canada
Some South Asians were exclusively involved with the lumber industry like Sikhs, in British Columbia. They worked as workers and mill owners. The government declared that all the South Asians will have equal rights along with white people without color discrimination. This has increased population in blue and white colored jobs in Canada. Blue colored jobs are like general labor and white colored jobs are like highly classified jobs. It was very important for the South Asians to get a good job to have a better living in a foreign country. Initially most of the South Asians struggled a lot to get a good job because it was a new country and the language they were not familiar with.
Social Interaction
There was only limited interaction with the South Asians who were limited to work. Their communication skill were weak due to language problems. Canada had offered a helping hand to all the new immigrants by offering free English classes for those who cannot speak English. There are different radio and television programs that telecast about Indo-Canadian culture. It was easy for some South Asians to communicate with in their community. They have to face many changes in their lives in many factors like language, employment, climate, school etc.. They were new to Canada’s Culture. They didn’t know about popular music or television shows. They were so confused and found it difficult to adapt to their new dressing style according to their peer. Due to which the South Asians were scared to socialize