Chinese Muslims in Canada: a demographic profile and a preliminary test of ethnic saliency

Abstract

To date, there has been little to no literature examining Chinese Muslim immigrants to Western nations. Recognizing the dearth of such literature, this research presents what appears to be the first-ever descriptive statistical picture of Chinese Muslims migrating to and residing in Canada. By examining how this immigrant population compares to and fares against non-Muslim Chinese and non-Chinese Muslims in Canada with Canadian census data in 1991 and 2001, the research provides preliminary analysis on the saliency of originating Chinese Muslim ethnicity in immigration outcomes. The current findings suggest that with the intersection of cultural and religious identities, Chinese Muslim may experience a different assimilation process compared to non-Muslim Chinese and non-Chinese Muslims.

Keywords:

• Chinese Muslims
• immigration process
• ethnic saliency
• ethnic identity
• cultural capital
• assimilation

Notes

1. Chen and Kerr, “Allah in China,” 62.

2. Chuah, “Muslims in China,” 155; Gladney, Muslim Chinese, Ch. 1–2; Ethnic Identity in China, Ch. 1–2; Dislocating China, all chapters; Dillon, China’s Muslim Hui, all chapters; Israeli, Islam in China, Introduction, Ch. 1, 5, 7; Lipman, Familiar Strangers, all chapters; and Gillette, Between Mecca and Beijing, all chapters.

3. Alles, “The Chinese-speaking Muslims,” 121; Ma, “Shifting Identities: Chinese Muslims,” 89; Forbes, “The ‘Panthay’ Muslims of Burma,” 384; Jacobsen “Islam …Processes of Minorisation,” 71; and Mujani et al., “The Chinese Muslim Community,” 417.

4. Guo and DeVoretz, “Changing Face of Chinese Immigrants,” 275.

5. Fei, “Plurality and Unity,” 1.

6. National Bureau of Statistics of China.

7. Cadge and Ecklund, “Immigration and Religion,” 359.

8. Fuligni, Witkow and Garcia, “Ethnic Identity …Academic Adjustment,” 799; Zhou and Kim, “Community Forces,” 1.

9. See as an example Ma and Carter (eds.), The Chinese Diaspora, all chapters.

10. Guest, God in Chinatown; Ng, “Seeking Christian Tutelage,” 195; Yang, “ABC and XYZ,”189; and Yang, Chinese Christians in America, all chapters.

11. Israeli, Muslim Minorities; Islam in China, Introduction and Ch. 5.

12. Minnesota Population Center.

13. Literature focusing on Chinese Muslim ethnic groups has centered largely on identity in the Chinese context and the related outcome for assimilation patterns in the PRC and is splintered into two competing camps. See Mackerras, “Some Issues of Ethnic,” for a more detailed discussion on the ethnicity vs. religion debate within Chinese Muslim studies.

14. White, Fong, and Cai, “The segregation of Asian-origin,” 148.

15. Massey, “Patterns and Processes,” 11, 16.

16. Massey et al., Worlds in Motion, Ch. 2.

17. Goosen, “Chinese Canadians in Toronto,” 12–13.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Galpin Internationalization Grant from Quinnipiac University [2014].

Notes on contributors

Xi Chen

Xi Chen is an assistant professor of sociology at Quinnipiac University. She completed her Ph.D. in 2009 in sociology at Texas A&M University. She worked as a research scientist at the Department of Economics at Yale University from 2007 to 2011. Her research areas include immigration, economic inequality, and spatial analysis. Her article ‘Using luminosity data as a proxy for economic statistics’, 2011, was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.