Chinese Head Tax

The first federal anti-Chinese bill was passed in 1885. It took the form of a Head tax of $50 imposed, with few exceptions, upon every person of Chinese origin entering the country. No other group was targeted in this way.

The Head Tax was increased to $100 in 1900 and to $500 in 1903. $500 was equivalent to two years wages of a Chinese labour at the time. Meanwhile, Chinese were denied Canadian citizenship. In all, the Federal Government collected $23 million from the Chinese through the Head Tax.

Efforts to control Chinese immigration, including the administration of head tax, were overseen by a federal Chief Controller of Chinese Immigration.

Despite the Head Tax, Chinese immigrants continued to come to Canada. In 1923, the Canadian Parliament passed the Chinese Immigration Act excluding all but a few Chinese immigrants from entering Canada.

The head tax on Chinese Immigrants was introduced by the Dominion (federal) government in the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885. Initially, an amount of $10 was proposed, but due to anti-Chinese agitation, this was amended to $50 before the bill’s final passage. The Chinese Immigration Act of 1900 (which went into effect on January 1, 1902) increased the tax to $100, and finally, in the Chinese Immigration Act of 1903, it was raised to $500. Some Chinese were exempt. For example, under the 1903 legislation, there were six classes of persons who did not have to pay: merchants and their families, diplomats, clergymen, tourists, students, and men of science.

Since 1984, the Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) has been seeking redress on behalf of the surviving Head Tax payers and their relatives.

The Impact of the Head Tax and Exclusion Act

In addition to the Head Tax and Exclusion Act, Chinese immigrants faced other forms of discrimination in their social, economic and political lives. The most devastating impact of the Head Tax and the Exclusion Act, however, was found in the development of Chinese Canadian family. During the exclusion era, early Chinese pioneers were not allowed to bring their family, including their wives, to Canada. As a result, the Chinese Canadian community became a “bachelor society”. The Head Tax and Exclusion Act resulted in long period of separation of families. Many Chinese families did not reunite until years after the initial marriage, and in some cases they were never reunited.

While their husbands were struggling abroad, many Chinese wives in China were left to raise their children by themselves. They experienced starvation and other extreme economic hardships.

Because of years of racist, anti-Chinese immigration legislation, today the Chinese Canadian community exhibits many characteristics of first-generation immigrants despite its history of close to 150 years in Canada.