Mauritians in Toronto - Looking back looking forward
  Alain Lan - Pursuing the Canada-China connection

---

Mauritians in Toronto

Looking back looking forward

In many ways, it would seem like frigid and blustery Canada would be the last place where you would find more than 20,000 immigrants from a tropical island.

This North American country is a very long way from Mauritius: about 10,000 miles and two continents away. It takes two days and one stopover to get there. And the weather can be down right nasty, with winters that never seem to quit, lasting from October to April, with loads of snow and deep-freeze temperatures. While January is one of the hottest months back home, it's one of the coldest in Canada.

Weekend Correspondent Pamela de St. Antoine took a closer look at Canada and discovered why the country is so attractive to immigrants from Mauritius and more than 140 other countries. For several days in April, she met with Mauritians who have settled in Toronto, one of Canada's most diverse and largest cities, to learn more about why they left Mauritius and how they have carved out new lives in what is known as "The Great White North."

Since World War II, Canada has pursued a liberal and open immigration policy, as the country realized that it needed to recruit foreign-born workers to fuel its emerging economy and fill its enormous land mass. A second wave of immigration occurred in the 1960s, and Canada continues to welcome newcomers today - although policies are more restrictive and are currently under review.

Canada and Australia are regarded as models for open immigration, and as a result, a rising proportion of Canadians has roots outside the country. A survey done in 2007 revealed that one in five Canadians - 19.8 percent of the national population - are foreign born. This number is expected to double by 2017.

Cold weather aside, Canada has offered many opportunities to Mauritians who have settled here. They have been encouraged to succeed in Canada's robust economy. They have felt at home in a bilingual country where their English and French skills are coveted. Their children have thrived in an excellent public education system that offers affordable university education. And they feel at home in a multi-cultural society that, at least in the larger cities, respects and encourages diversity.

The largest wave of Mauritian migration to Canada occurred soon after Independence in 1968. With the installation of a Hindu-run majority government in Mauritius, the Chinese, French and Creole communities were concerned about their political and economic futures.

"In the '60s and 70s, when the United States was in Vietnam, the Australian government became reluctant to let in Asians, so Mauritian Chinese looked to the next country that would be open to immigration and that was Canada," said Jean-Mario Tanyan, whose father, Yves, ran the Immigration Bureau in Mauritius at the time. "While Creoles went to Australia, Chinese went in droves to Canada. Being bilingual, it wasn't difficult to adapt."

While the majority of Mauritians in Canada are of Chinese ancestry, the immigration picture has become more diverse in recent years, with immigrants coming from the Indian and Creole communities. The reasons cited for the move include better economic and educational opportunities (immigration tends to spike when the economy sours in Mauritius), as well as a genuine wanderlust and desire to see the world beyond the coral reefs.

"It is genetic in our DNA," said Tanyan, who left Mauritius as a student in 1974 for France and later the U.K. Now a Canadian resident, he shuttles back and forth between Toronto and Montreal selling American-made machines that detect and analyze the presence of lead in various objects.

Mauritians are found in just about all of Canada's major cities, with the largest populations in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa. They have forged new lives in an array of occupations: computers, medicine, university teaching, the arts, politics, engineering, research, law, banking and the culinary arts. Many have used their bilingual skills to find jobs as translators, teachers, linguists, journalists and government workers.

But they haven't forgotten their roots. They have formed Mauritian friendship associations and celebrate Chinese New Year, Christmas and Diwali. They raise funds to help renovate poor schools in Mauritius. And their children balance two cultures, speaking Creole or French at home, while playing ice hockey and rooting for the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team.

"We're trying to preserve our culture. We come here, get a job, have a house, and what's next? We forget the reason we bordered the plane and came here in the first place," said Shiv T. Seechurn, president of the Friends of Mauritius organization in Toronto. "With the Friends of Mauritius, we want to regroup our values for us and our children."

In Toronto, home to an estimated 8,000 Mauritians (there's never been an official count), there are several Mauritian organizations: Club M, founded in 1988, sponsors weekly sports activities and social/cultural events, such as a talk this month by Dr. Vinesh Hookoomsing on the Mauritian diaspora; Friends of Mauritius, a new group that promotes cultural, recreational and community service events and helps newly arrived Mauritians settle in Toronto, and a student group at the University of Toronto, which acts as a social meeting point for Mauritian students.

But some complain that the different ethnic groups don't mix freely and tend to stay within their communities, especially the Chinese Mauritians. "I found this in both Toronto and Montreal," Tanyan said in an interview. "They created associations and clubs that regroup members of their own community. There was this feeling that the Chinese people should stick together."

"Some feel they are not part of the Mauritian community - that there's something missing," added Eric Cader, who anchors a French-language radio show on Sunday mornings in Toronto that highlights news, culture and events in the French-speaking world. Some still have the old mentality that the ethnic groups should be separated along religious lines. "Luckily the younger generation is more open-minded."

Mauritians in Toronto follow news and developments back home very closely, thanks largely to the Internet, and they have some very specific ideas and impressions about what is going on in Mauritius.

Anil Bucktowonsing, who works in the banking industry in Toronto, suggested that Mauritius develop a "strategy of immigration" that encourages people of certain skills and educational background to leave the country - similar to what was done in the 1970s and '80s.

As Mauritius struggles with competition from globalization and the realignment of its sugar and textile industries, many people will find that their skills are more needed in other countries than at home.

"With capacity problems and finite resources" of the island's limited size and small economy, encouraging immigration might actually be a good thing, he said. "Bilingualism is a big asset that Mauritius has and it's an asset that Mauritius can export."

Bilingualism can also work in another way: attracting foreign companies to Mauritius to take advantage of a bilingual workforce and develop businesses like back office operations.

"The key is education," said Hamid Abdool Rahman, who came to Canada in the 1990s and has worked for the Ontario government and as a teacher and translator. "The University of Toronto School of Translation or York University could possibly set up a branch in Mauritius."

Mauritius should also make it attractive, perhaps by changing the income tax structure, for Mauritians living overseas to return and bring with them their money, education and high level skills, said Seechurn, who works at the Canada Revenue Authority.

On another note, he and others expressed deep concern about crime and security in Mauritius, and what they view as a lack of respect for others and a deepening divide between the have and the have-nots in the country. "We have seen a breakdown of values," said Rahman.

---

Immigration slows but still flows

Canada is still a land of opportunity for newcomers, but it will take some patience to get in. There are currently more than 900,000 immigration applications pending a final decision.

To address this massive backlog, the country is making some important changes to its immigration policies that will likely affect who gets to stay in the country. The changes are controversial and would give the Immigration Minister more power to fast-track immigrants and set an annual limit on how many cases can be processed.

The reason for the backlog is that Canada has traditionally had an open immigration policy. Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the federal agency that processing immigration applications admits roughly a quarter of a million new permanent residents each year.

Canada has three different permanent immigration categories:

-_Economic class, which relates to skilled workers and business immigrants; in recent years, 60 percent of newcomers have been in this class. Almost all new Mauritian immigrants are in this category.

-_Family class, accounting for 25 percent, of all new immigrants, is based on the concept of family reunification.

-_Refugee class, about 15 percent of total, is a longstanding part of Canadian humanitarian tradition to protect refugees from cruel treatment.

In addition to permanent resident status, Canada also offers temporary visas, which allow foreign workers and students to apply for work permits.

"These temporary residents contribute to Canada's economic development by filling gaps in the labor market, enhancing trade and purchasing goods and services," said Sanita Juddoo, an attorney at Able Immigration, with offices in Toronto and Mauritius. "As a general rule, foreign workers must have an approved job offer and a work permit before arriving in Canada."

A group of Mauritians recently obtained temporary permits under this program to work in Canada' meatpacking industry.

Juddoo said that Mauritian applicants for immigration have an advantage over those seeking entry from other countries: they speak English and French. They are also known to be efficient workers, she said, "and adaptable in Canadian work environment."

She encourages newcomers to Canada to research the country prior to arrival, as climate and employment opportunities differ among the 10 provinces.

"They also need to check their professional qualifications equivalencies. In most cases, they will have to go on the specific websites pertaining to their professional and find out which courses they will need to follow to get the proper certification they need. They might not find employment within their field of expertise and might need to take any temporary job while upgrading their skills," she said.

Able Immigration's focus is to help immigrants become permanent residents and citizens of Canada. President Nemaduthsingh Juddoo, a member of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultant, is a former prosecutor for the Attorney General of Mauritius, a barrister at the Supreme Court, and Supreme Court Judge in the Seychelles. www.ableimmigration.com

---

Toronto Facts:

-largest city in Canada, with 2.5 million residents, almost twice the size of Mauritius

-the financial center of Canada

-has been an important destination for immigrants; about 50 percent of the population was born outside Canada, adding a rich diversity to the city

-snow can fall in Toronto from November until mid-April

-located in Southern Ontario, Toronto touches three of the five Great Lakes

-the famed Niagara Falls are one hour away by car

-about 8,000 people of Mauritian descent live in greater Toronto, although there's never been an exact count

---

Alain Lan:Pursuing the Canada-China connection

While growing up in Mauritius, Alain Lan Hing Fung remembers his parents admonishing him to do whatever he could to help the people of China, the homeland of his parents.

"This always stayed in my mind," said Lan, whose parents lived as peasants in China before immigrating to Mauritius in the 1930s. He recalls being told how his mother carried baskets of charcoal on her shoulders and often spoke of the extreme poverty she and thousands of others endured during a famine that gripped China.

Even in Mauritius, the family lived a humble lifestyle. "Even though we had little to eat, and when people came to our door, we would give them food. I grew up in that environment, so when I see poor people, I feel the need to respond. I felt that I could help ease poverty through education."

Years later and two continents away in Canada, Lan has been able to honor the wishes of his parents.

The year was 1987, and the Cultural Revolution in China had ended 10 years before. But the country's educational system was still in shambles and social unrest was widespread.

Ryerson University in Toronto, as well as the government of Canada through its foreign aid program, was looking for ways to help China get back on track. At the time, Lan was working as a professor of computer science at Ryerson.

School officials, eager to develop their former technical institute into a more diversified university, asked Lan to visit Shanghai University and work up a five-year development project that would link their school with Shanghai University. Lan's Chinese background and his knowledge of Mandarin and Chinese Culture made him a good candidate for the assignment.

"During my first visit I was awed by the poverty. People were sleeping in the streets," Lan said in an interview. "There was social tension. The university badly needed funds and an upgrading to bring in foreign experience. China began to open to the outside world in 1986, and the government of Canada was wise in allotting a lot of money to help China." Ryerson seized the opportunity to work with the government on development projects in China.

"The motivation was the challenge to get this university to achieve excellence in academic teaching and research," said Lan, who evaluated the university's infrastructure, library, computing facilities, faculty and staff resources and overall organization. Three professors from Shanghai, eventually came to Ryerson on exchange every year for four years.

As the world rushes today to establish ties with China because of the country's explosive economic growth, Lan was among the first westerners to enter China when it began to open up to foreigners.

"I believe I was the first, if not among the firsts, to have been working to help improve the Chinese educational system, working through its universities," he said. The Ryerson projects with Shanghai University, Lanzhou Railway Institute and Sun Yat Sen University were the first such development projects between China and Canada, he said.

Over the past 20 years. Lan has visited China more than 15 times, all on projects related to improving the curriculum and operations of Shanghai University. He advocated the merger of four former higher education institutions into Shanghai University, and has been advising on ways to enhance adult education programs at the university, using the program at Ryerson as a model. He is a Visiting Professor, Computer Science and Senior Adviser to the Executive Vice President of Shanghai University. He has also raised funds from Chinese and foreign companies to upgrade computer equipment at the University's Fine Art Academy and the Multi Media Center, advised on various research projects, and has given lectures and seminars on computer applications.

"My life and career have taken me to many countries and I could never have guessed, when I was in Mauritius, that it would take the path that it has taken," Lan said, crediting his eldest brother, Law How Hung, for allowing him to have the education "that permitted me to be who I am."

Lan and his eight brothers and sisters grew up in Port Louis, but now the family is scattered all around world, from Canada to Mauritius to London to California. He left Mauritius in the early 1960s with the help of a U.S. Fulbright scholarship, which brought him to Washington State University, on the Pacific coast of the United States. He had intended to study medicine, but a meeting with a professor at Washington State changed his mind. He decided to study information sciences, just when the computer age was taking hold.

He then moved to the U.K., where he worked for a computer manufacturer and started studies at the University of London, where he was among the first students to graduate with a Master Degree in computer science in 1967. A doctoral fellowship followed at University of London Institute of Computer Science and Imperial College, London. By this time he had married Suzanne Choong Young Lim Fat, also a native of Port Louis. They moved to Canada, where they believed the economic situation to be more promising than in the UK.

He joined Ryerson as a professor of computer science 36 years ago, and served since as Director of the School of Computer Science and Chair of the Department of Mathematics, Physics & Computer Science. He retired last year, and is currently drafting a book that explores his journey from Mauritius to Canada.

The Lans have two sons. Gil Lan, a lawyer by training who is now an adjunct professor at York University and professor at Ryerson in Canada, has also been to Shanghai lecturing and giving seminars on topics involving law and technology. Ritchie Lan is an actuary by training.

Lan believes that Mauritius should continue to cultivate strong links with China on political, educational, economic and cultural levels. It could host China/Mauritius art exhibits, for example, and also encourage its universities and private industries to develop joint ventures in developing computer software. "Once you develop the trust, things will open up," he said.

"I think in the next 20-25 years (global) migration of students in education will shift from countries like the United States to China," especially in the areas of sciences and robotics. Western universities have already set up campuses in China, and this is just the beginning, he said.

Lan has had a long-standing interest in contributing to education in Mauritius. In 1998, with funds from the Canadian government, he tried to get a computer-related project off the ground at the Mauritius Institute of Education but it didn't work out. He's still willing to try anew.

"The educational issues of Mauritius are always on my mind, and I would be willing to provide any help if there is any request from anyone. God willing, I would like to close the circle of my long journey in education, by being of some use to Mauritius - the land of my happy childhood and youth."

Lan will be back in Mauritius in early July and then will continue on to China._

Legende photo:

Alain Lan on the campus of Shanghai University

---

Peggy Lam Po Tang explores a creative and literacy life

Peggy Lampotang calls herself a "restless artist who enjoys exploring new forms of expressions."

After moving to Canada from Mauritius in 1976 at the age of 20, she has been a fashion designer, artist, photographer and writer.

Passionate about the arts, she is always seeking creative ways to see the world differently by experimenting with various modes of artistic and literary expression.

Her handpainted silk scarves create beautiful fusions of color and design. A newspaper article articulates the joys of being bilingual in English and French. A series of her photographs show the "moody" faces of the Toronto skyline at different times of the day and in different seasons. A photography exhibit that just opened in Toronto launches an interesting discussion of how to define and identify the modern-day men of Canada, as the country has increasingly become a melting pot of nationalities. One of her poems about her neighborhood will be displayed on a plaque along the Toronto Transit system. Her article on bilingualism was published in an educational book for college students titled Refining Reading Writing, Essay Strategies for Canadian Students.

"As an artist, I need to express my creativity in different mediums," she said in a wide-ranging interview in her Toronto home.

Such creative need to explore is at the core of her artistic career.

Trained as a fashion designer at Ryerson University in Toronto, Peggy launched a company with a line of handpainted clothing and scarves in 1982, selling her confections to Toronto stores and at arts and crafts festivals. She lived in a Toronto warehouse where she also worked. At one of the craft shows, her work caught the eye of an executive for the Pierre Cardin clothing company, and she was asked to design a line of handpainted scarves for a Pierre Cardin perfume promotion.

"It was a highly profitable project, and I realized that there was a huge market across Canada for promotion art, especially for unique corporate gifts," she said. "I could have expanded into that market, but I felt the work would lose its originality and become mass produced because I'd have to hire people to paint for me. I also like working one-on-one with people and I didn't want to become a corporate person who emphasized money-making ventures but had no connection with the people who were buying the products."

In 1989, she opened her own store, Mod'Art, that showcased her creations as well as those of other Canadian artists. But juggling the store with the responsibilities of a newborn son and her desire to paint were too much, and she closed the store after a year. "I needed the freedom to create and I cut down on my work as my family needed me," she said. She continued painting her line of silk scarves and sold mostly to art gallery shops and craft shops.

(During the late 1990s, using her fashion design connections in Canada, she reactivated her ties to Mauritius, working for a short time as an agent for a Mauritian textile firm owned by two of her brothers, importing shirts for Club Monaco, a Canadian clothing store chain. Together with a Canadian partner, she also imported Maille Street sweaters from Bonair Knitwear, but the partnership dissolved because it was difficult to get large shipments to arrive on clients' time schedule, while keeping the quality control they demand from such a distance.

In 1999, Peggy's life took a dramatic turn. A diagnosis of cancer forced her to concentrate on her health, and the experience also encouraged her to re-think her priorities. "I decided to change my life completely, let go of business ventures, and go back to my true love, art and writing."

"As an artist with a good sense for business, I felt like I was always making compromises, that I wasn't being true to my art because there was always the pressure to sell my work. But with the financial security I've built up over the years with my business, I can now move to another level in which the emphasis is more on creativity than profitability."

Although painting is still a passion, she's now concentrating on developing her photography techniques, mostly in portraits and landscapes. This is a relatively new pursuit, as she learned the craft about four years ago from her cousin, Philip Lim, who teaches photography in Montreal.

Peggy works out of a light-splashed studio on the top of her Toronto home, with a stunning view of the Toronto skyline from the large picture windows. It was from here that she shot the series of "moody Toronto." Having a studio in her home offers the flexibility to concentrate on her family - her Canadian husband Randy Johnson, an industrial designer, and her two sons, Cooper 18, and Dylan 15.

Writing also pulls on her creative strings, and she is working on a series of short stories. She maintains a blog on the internet which can be found at: www.peglam.blogspot.com

Peggy comes from a large Mauritian family with rich ties to Mauritius, China and now Canada. There are 16 brothers and sisters living in Mauritius, Canada, Australia, and U.S. Her father, Pooten Lam Po Tang, was a shopkeeper and a businessman. He had 9 children from his first wife Li Yuen Moy, and 7 from his second wife, Kwee Yune. Peggy is the youngest daughter of Kwee Yune. She is the niece of Professor Lim Fat, who conceived the Export Processing Zone in the 1970s, which marked the beginning of the industrialization and the textile industry in Mauritius. Her brother Setai was the ambassador of Mauritius to China and obtained an O.B.E for his contribution to the creation of new industries in Mauritius.

"Since the age of 15, I wanted to leave and explore and know a larger world," she said of her reasons for leaving Mauritius in 1976. "I found Mauritius very limiting in terms of growth for a woman, and I wanted to pursue further studies which my parents couldn't afford. Canada is a wonderful country with incredible opportunities. I was able to work for a year for an insurance company to pay for my studies."

More than 30 years later, Peggy continues to seek ways to improve her talents and find new avenues for creative expression. Toronto has offered her many artistic opportunities for such experimentation, and there will surely be many more opportunities in the years ahead.

a m e r i c a n   s c e n e

WEEK-END --- dimanche 22 juin 2008