Author: Yan Desjardins, Founder & Executive Director

Canada and Vietnam: where did it all start?

Canada is a vibrant multicultural country that welcomes newcomers from around the globe. But did you know that Canada and Vietnam share deep bilateral relationships and strong people to people ties? For example, while we are still waiting for the 2021 census results to be released, in 2016, Canada counted more than 240,000 Vietnamese Canadians!

Most of the Vietnamese immigration to Canada started in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Canada resettled more than 60,000 refugees during the post-Vietnam war era. To this day, Vietnamese continue to immigrate to Canada under the skilled category, and others choose to immigrate to Canada for the whole family. Thus, it is no surprise that the ties between Canadians and Vietnamese have grown more substantial and more profound.

Today, many Vietnamese families elect Canada as a prime destination for students, many of which decide to reside in Canada after graduation. Did you know that many institutions offer scholarships to study in Canada? Skilled immigration also counts for a large portion of the Vietnamese movement to Canada.

Where do Vietnamese live in Canada?

Most of the Vietnamese diaspora is located in 4 main provinces: Ontario (107,000+), Québec (43,000+) British-Columbia (41,000+) and Alberta (36,000+). It is no surprise that most Vietnamese Canadians live in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, and Calgary.

What do Vietnamese do in Canada?

Vietnamese have integrated well into Canadian society. The Vietnamese Canadian community continues to contribute notably to the economic, cultural, and social-political prosperity of Canada. Many Vietnamese Canadians have marked Canada’s history. Here are some examples:

• Thanh Hai Ngo, the first Vietnamese Canadian appointed to the Senate of Canada;
• Eve-Mary Thai Thi Lac, the first Vietnamese Canadian woman elected to the House of Commons;
• UNESCO goodwill ambassador Kim Phúc;
• Carol Huynh was a gold medalist at the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing and a bronze medalist at the 2012 Summer Games in London.

Vietnamese in Canada work in sectors such as service, manufacturing, scientific/pharmaceutical, and other technical occupations. But Vietnamese Canadians are also business owners like grocery stores, manufacturing, and restaurants. So you can easily find fantastic Phở and other delicious dishes in all of Canada’s largest cities.

Where do we go from here?

Since the 1986 economic reform of Vietnam, Doi Moi, Canada, and Vietnam have strengthened their relationships. The Canadian Embassy in Hanoi was opened in 1994 and the consulate in Ho Chi Minh City in 1997, while the diplomatic relationships between the two countries were established in 1973. For more than 40 years now, Canada and Vietnam have continued to grow together.

With Canada opening doors to a larger immigration intake that will reach over 420,000 in the years to come, it is inevitable that ties between the two countries will continue to grow, making Canada’s socio-cultural society even richer.

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