Everybody comes from somewhere else and that's the way we *like* it

[flemmings]

The thing about TO is, every two years you discover where your neighbours locate their souls. (I originally wrote 'what nationality your neighbours are' only of course we're all Canadian only of course Canadian is just a catch-all category for census and taxation purposes.) That said- there's a Swede down the street. How very unusual for Around Here with its concentration of I Ching castings and green-white-red.

Comments

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

*sad* The genuine multi-culturalism is one of the many things I miss about Toronto. Halifax is many pleasant things, but that's not one of them. :/ (I'm a Nova Scotian, but my husband and I lived in TO for a couple of years before we got married.)

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Really? Somehow I'd assumed that all large Canadian cities were an immigrant magnet. (It's the only way to explain those poor frozen Sikhs and Pakistanis who somehow wound up in Edmonton.) What does Halifax run to, people-wise?

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

*checks* Apparently we've got a population of about 374,000 (which is a bit lower than I'd thought--I've never checked before, and just kept hearing a vague "half a million or so" estimate from people). Which isn't all that big, but we're still the largest city east of . . . Montreal, I guess.

We do have (AFAIK) a steady rate of immigration from most corners of the world, but it's not enough to make much of a visible difference, at least not yet. You can certainly *find* people from almost anywhere here, but walking along the streets in downtown Halifax, the majority of people you'll likely see are white. We do have a fairly high black population as well, but it seems to vary a LOT by neighborhood. And I can't think of any other ethnic groups that have a really strong representation, despite having some tight-knit communities.

I think we're really just too far east to attract a lot of immigration, since we're not geographically close to anything but western Europe. We have a lot of foreign *students* come from all over, because we have such a ridiculous number of universities (I think there are eleven in the province, and three of those are in downtown Halifax), but I don't get the impression that a lot of students choose to stay here once they're finished school. :/

Mind you, that's all off the top of my head, and my sense of local history and demographics isn't necessarily the best, so take it with a grain of salt. I can only compare against Toronto, really, since the only other cities I've been to for more than a couple of days were Hilo and Hong Kong, which . . . are rather different. ^_^

[mauvecloud.livejournal.com]

*Looks at the user info*
Hmm. Growing up watching Hong Kong movies in the years approaching 1-9-9-7, I always thought T'uo-lon-to was somewhere in Hong Kong. But then, I used to believe that Kah-na-ta was a satellite of Hong Kong too =P

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

When I began to be semi-literate in kanji, enough that Chinese signs and posters started to have y'know meaning, I used to wonder about this "many + dialogues + many + (different word every time)" string that kept cropping up until I thought to read it in on-yomi. Ta-ron-ta. Close enough for country.

But then, I used to believe that Kah-na-ta was a satellite of Hong Kong too =P

In the years approaching 1-9-9-7 I believe it was. Certainly the Dep't of Immigration did nothing to discourage the idea. "Give us your rich, your entrepeneurial, your moneyed masses yearning to bring their businesses here be free." To the extent that some of my acquaintance seemed to believe that the streets of HK were paved in millionaires and the poor people obviously lived in... Macao or somewhere.

[mauvecloud.livejournal.com]

From what is said, it seems that the locations of souls have diversified somewhat in this century, which I suppose is a Good Thing. Off top of egghead, Melbourne is South-Asia/Middle-East heavy, while Sydney is tipped towards East-Asia/Southeast Asia. (Where are the kyuuute Germans? Where goes the passionate Gallic people?)

the streets of HK were paved in millionaires and the poor people obviously lived in... Macao or somewhere.

There is only one (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Ka_Shing) rich man in HK, and he is not even cantonese.

There is one (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Ho) rich man in Macao, but yeah, he was born in HK.