Tibetan Canadians

In 2016, the Tibetan population in Canada was recorded as being 8,040.[1]

The majority of Tibetan-Canadians live in the Toronto metropolitan area. In 2016, there were 6,035 Tibetan-Canadians living in the Greater Toronto Area.[1] There is a sizable Tibetan community with Tibetan businesses and restaurants, known as Little Tibet, in the Parkdale neighborhood in Toronto, in the area bound by Queen St. W. to the north, the Gardiner Expressway to the west and south, and Atlantic Ave. to the east. There is also a growing Tibetan community in South Etobicoke.[3]

Tibetans that have migrated to Canada and other countries have been subjected to a complex and violent history. Being under the rule of the Dalai Lama, Tibet was seen as a contained region on the global scale. This was true between the years 1912 to 1950 when China was in WW1, WW2, and Civil War.[4] During the same period of time, this was independent Tibet even the 14th Dalai Lama was approved by China to be exempted from lot-drawing process using Golden Urn in 1940.[5][6]

The official religion of Tibet which was formally incorporated into the jurisdiction of China in the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th century, was Buddhism Tibet.[7]

In 1950, China occupied Tibet causing the Tibetan government to also be under Chinese jurisdiction. Throughout the years, culture and religion took an impact from Chinese control which was expressed through the ruination of religious statues of Tibet and the destruction of buildings that represented the Tibetan culture [4]

In 1959, around 87,000 were killed during Chinese rule.[7] Tibetans that practiced their religion were killed. At least 80 000 Tibetans and the Dalai Lama left Tibet to Nepal but were denied access.[8] Then they found refuge in India.[4] India took them, however had difficulty to give imperative services and help needed to Tibetan refugees. However, there were more migration patterns towards India in the 1980s and 1990s.[8]

During the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees in 1951, India did not sign this convention. This entailed that Tibetans living in India had little rights and hence tried to find another place for resettlement.[4]

In 1970 and 1971, 240 Tibetan refugees settled into Canada from India. The resettlement of Tibetan refugees was viewed by the Canadian government as a pilot project to evaluate what the country would do in the future regarding refugee aid. It was after a direct plea from the Dalai Lama to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in 1966 that launched Canada's slow process to bring 60 families into their country. The first Tibetans to arrive from the resettlement group were Tsering Dorjee Wangkhang and Jampa Dorjee Drongotsang when they landed in Toronto on October 15, 1970. The two settled in Batawa, Ontario where the first Tibetan community was planned to be located. Wangkhang and Drongotsang both started working at the Bata shoe factory. Factory owner Thomas Bata had gone to India, one of the countries where Tibetans were exiled, and took the initiative to employ three to four refugees in his company.[9]

In 2007, a two-year immigration program to bring 2,000 Tibetan refugees to Canada was organized by Prime Minister Stephen Harper after a plea by the Dalai Lama. The first 21 Tibetans flew from India to Vancouver International Airport and were expected to settle into the Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Sunshine Coast areas.[10]

Canada originally declined Tibetan refugees to settle as a group, however this changed with consultations and national meeting with the Prime minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau. This involved the one of the previous high commissioners to India called James George. James George's impact on Pierre Elliot Trudeau helped immigration officials to be more lenient with refuge policies for Tibetans.[8]

In the 1960s, the Canadian government accepts Tibetan refugees under a few conditions. These conditions were set under the Tibetan Refugee program. This was an experimental program that would let 228 Tibetans enter Canada quickly and at a lower cost.[8]

It took a decade for the first Tibetan migrants to set foot in Canada. The Canadian government officials did not want Tibetans to settle in a group but on individual basis and family basis. This means that only young families and single people coming as laborers were approved to seek refuge in Canada. Additionally, Canadian immigration officials were concerned about Tibetans nomadic lifestyles and establishing/settling themselves as a group. This would pose a challenge on the integration process. If group settlement had been approved, the integration process would have been much more difficult and permanency of integration would also be a challenge for newcomers and pose issues on the governmental level.[8] Canadian immigration officials were worried that it would pose problems. Such problems were isolation and dependence within members of the same ethnic community. Additionally, learning one of the official languages of Canada was another problem that could arise and could affect integration directly (Logan & Murdie, 2014). Moreover, immigration officials chose younger Tibetan immigrants over older immigrant groups because integration would be easier regarding the process of learning one of the official languages. Therefore, finding a job and reaching out if one needs help or services would also be affected positively.[11]

Tibetan immigrants were also selected from towns and villages because knowing their nomadic lifestyle, immigrant officials wanted Tibetans that had sedentary patterns. Tibetans also needed to have a certain level of high education.[11]

Integration was facilitated through “group processing” which involves refugees and the state work together to aid resettlement into Canada.[11]

The neighbourhood of Parkdale in Toronto contains the largest concentration of Tibetan immigrants and refugees in Canada. As of the 2006 Canadian Census, around 11% of Parkdale residents were of Tibetan ethnicity, comprising 1,985 persons (62% of Toronto's total Tibetan population and 42% of Tibetans in all of Canada).[4] According to global population estimates, this makes the Parkdale Tibetan community the largest outside of Tibet and its surrounding area.[12]

Most of the housing in the area consists of high-rise apartment buildings and single-family homes. Compared to much of the Toronto core, rent prices in Parkdale are affordable, and the area provides many amenities and services to recent immigrants and at-risk populations. Additionally, public transit offers accessibility to the city centre of Toronto.[4]

• Bhutila Karpoche, member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and the first person of Tibetan descent ever elected to public office in North America

• Tibetan Americans
• Tibet
• Tibetan people
• World Tibet News
• East Asian Canadians