Chinese-Canadians reluctant to join military, study finds Options

[northstar]

More new Canadian citizens hail from China than almost any other country in the world, but military brass in Ottawa are facing an uphill battle in persuading a significantly greater proportion of Chinese-Canadians to embrace a career in the armed forces.

Chinese-Canadians are among the fastest-growing visible minority groups in the country, and the People’s Republic of China has ranked first or second as a source of new citizens in recent years.

But getting Chinese Canadians to don a uniform isn’t easy – part of the same challenge the military faces with all visible minorities even as the country becomes more ethnically diverse.

Statistics Canada says those who consider themselves Chinese represent about 4 per cent of the population. The Canadian Forces, on the other hand, say soldiers identifying themselves as Chinese make up 0.4 per cent of the military’s regular force and 1.2 per cent of its primary reserves.

A recent report prepared for the Department of National Defence sounds a potentially discouraging note, though, predicting that the prospects are “limited” for attracting a greater proportion of Chinese-Canadians.

The 2011 report by Ipsos Reid Public Affairs said it’s going to be difficult to recruit more young Chinese-Canadians in part because their parents don’t see the profession of soldiering as sufficiently upwardly mobile.

“The results of this research suggest that the degree to which efforts to promote careers in the Canadian Forces among the Chinese-Canadian population can be expected to achieve success will be limited, as a result of the cultural beliefs and career preferences of the Chinese-Canadian community,” the March, 2011, report said.

The Forces “will encounter a considerable challenge in effecting a significant shift in the cultural mindset of the Chinese-Canadian population and a continuing challenge in their efforts to … recruit Chinese-Canadians into the military in the same percentage as they are represented in the overall Canadian population.”

The research found that although young Chinese-Canadians are just as likely as the general public to say they would consider joining the Forces, their parents and other members of their community are far more reluctant to endorse such a career path.

The report, based on polls and focus groups, found that Chinese parents prefer to see their children enter “traditional high-income-paying professions” such as medicine, engineering, law and business – and don’t see the military as a route to this.

Chinese-Canadians told researchers they see the military as an “avenue out of poverty” and “a last resort for those unable to gain entry into university.”

The Ipsos research is part of a three-year study of the attitudes of visible minorities towards the Forces.

Helen Poon, who emigrated from Hong Kong seven years ago, is happy to see her 13-year-old son, Cowin, serve as a Canadian Forces air cadet to learn skills and discipline and to stay busy. But the Markham, Ont., mother doesn’t want her son to become a soldier one day.

“I do not believe in war,” she said.

Cowin himself also doesn’t want to sign up when he’s an adult, saying he doesn’t want to use weapons and enter a field of battle. His mother estimates there are probably “over a hundred” Chinese-Canadian kids in her son’s Richmond Hill, Ont., air cadets squadron. But, she guesses, 99 per cent of their parents don’t want their children to enlist in the military either.

King Wan, a Vancouver naval reservist and president of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society, said Chinese immigrants overcame prejudice more than 70 years ago to make strong contributions to the Forces – a record that has continued up to the combat mission in Afghanistan.

Mr. Wan, part of a military advisory group on recruiting minorities, agrees, however, that Chinese-Canadian parents have to be persuaded to take a fresh look at the military’s benefits.

“Not everybody can be a doctor or a lawyer or an accountant,” Mr. Wan said. “There is a an opportunity for any youth, be it ethnic Chinese or whatever, to learn a trade or get professional training through the armed forces.”

The Department of National Defence is sanguine about the challenges, predicting results down the road.

“The Chinese community is no different than any other immigrant community in that the first two generations are working primarily on stability rather than choosing careers, [and] parents have a strong influence on employment, based on perceived potential remuneration,” spokesman Marie Tremblay wrote in an e-mail.

“The younger generation will join the Canadian Forces if they see someone who ‘looks like them’ – [and] we are not at that tipping point yet for many minorities.”

Retired Lieutenant-Colonel Howe Lee of Burnaby, B.C., said recruitment has improved significantly over the past few decades, though, noting that a Richmond, B.C., reserve regiment, for example, has significant Chinese-Canadian membership.

‘There’s no life like it’

A March, 2011, Ipsos Reid report for the Department of National Defence says the Canadian Forces face “significant barriers” to increasing recruitment among Chinese Canadians:

“[Focus group] participants often said they did not see the military as an obvious career choice … for two key reasons: because Chinese-Canadian families tend to be close-knit and a military career would require them to move far away on a long-term basis; and because a university education is an expectation of many parents, and the … Forces are not necessarily seen as a good way of getting one.”

“A common view was that if a person did not have the grades needed to get into a university and did not otherwise have good job prospects, the military might seem like an attractive option worth the physical labour and risks involved. For more recently immigrated Chinese-Canadian participants, this reflected their experience in China, where, they said, military recruits often tend to be poor, rural villagers with few other prospects for employment.”

[MiCC]

What is the point of being a soldier that has a highest rating of death, suicide, and depression.

[KraterosHellas]

in general i think chinese people are more pacifist than other groups.

[AsiaticGlory]

in general i think chinese people are more pacifist than other groups.

I think a lot of Chinese males lack aggressive personalities. At least, that is the case with the Chinese that I have seen. By Chinese, I am talking about ethnic Han Chinese so that includes Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the overseas as well as China. However, bad tempers can be common amongst them though.

[catman]

Because they have set their sights higher.

[phop]

Why join military and fight for the RICH and POWERFUL CORPORATIONS, when you can try and think about creating a business, or creating a company and maybe one day you too can own a POWERFUL CORPORATION with powerful lobbying groups lobbying the military to do all your dirty work.... The military is only a last resort for failures in life... While people who have higher standers wont go that low to fight for the Rich Corporations... I would rather be Rich and have a bunch of retards dieing for my corporate cause than to be a FOOL....

This post has been edited by phop: Aug 8 2011, 12:21 AM

[YourMuDoIsWeak]

It takes a certain person to be a warrior.
Willingness is the first requisite.

[LoveNStrife]

I'm Chinese-Canadian myself. My friends and I have all considered joining the military, but in the end none did so.

One thing is that we have our sights elsewhere - law school, med school, etc. The time commitment required by the military is too much. Another thing is that, whether justified or not, there's a perception that being Asian might be difficult in the military - Afterall, there ain't a lot of us in there.

I feel that it's a good idea for more Chinese people to join the military. It would consolidate our claim to part of greater Canadian community.

[LoneRonin]

That kid sounds like a coward. War is ugly but with how evil humanity is, there will always be war. You may sh_t your pants on the battlefield, see your friends have their limbs torn off in front of you, have your own limbs possibly blown off, etc. etc. However, willingly joining knowing that this could happen to you is one of the most noble, honorable, and brave things one can do to protect friends and family. It doesn't matter what country you are from. Joining the military willingly and being willing to sacrifice your life for another's is admirable. Being a coward and hiding is exactly what it is -> being a fuking coward. Of course, you could be smart and join as an officer, meaning that you are not in the direct line of fire or do intelligence work instead. That way you are the one directing the troops on the ground. No guarantee that you will not be sent to the front lines though.

[LoneRonin]

Why join military and fight for the RICH and POWERFUL CORPORATIONS, when you can try and think about creating a business, or creating a company and maybe one day you too can own a POWERFUL CORPORATION with powerful lobbying groups lobbying the military to do all your dirty work.... The military is only a last resort for failures in life... While people who have higher standers wont go that low to fight for the Rich Corporations... I would rather be Rich and have a bunch of retards dieing for my corporate cause than to be a FOOL....

So basically you only care about money and want to be one of those bastardly people causing all of humanity's problems. Way to spread the stereotype that Asians are materialistic as fuk.

[newties21]

There won't be many Chinese Canadians joining the military, just because the career prospects and the remuneration is not as attractive as the private sector. Simples.

[YourMuDoIsWeak]

Society increasingly tells us that we’re all winners, that we should avoid bad things, hide our children from the possibility of failure, and surround ourselves with giggles, sunshine, and rainbows. And people are buying it. Everyone gets a trophy. Parents are harder on teachers when their kids fail than on their children. And when anything bad happens in their lives, it’s never their fault – it’s the corporations, or the government, or bad luck.

It all sounds great. It sounds inclusive. It sounds loving. It sounds kind.

The problem is that all of that is bull$hit.

The world is a harsh place and the most successful people in the world fail big and they fail often. But they continue along their path regardless, getting up after every failure, replacing successes with the next challenge as soon as they complete it – always looking forward.

And then there’s an even more elite group, the less than 1% of all Americans who join the military. They abandon the world they’ve always known and ask to see the harsh reality of the real world. They’re tested in Spartan conditions, told to rely on only their wits and their friends around them, starved, deprived of sleep, and asked to put aside their personal desires – that which society claims is most important – in order to take care of their brothers and sisters in arms.

Still others search for more. The test of service alone isn’t enough. They want the harshest possible test – a test that remains the same throughout the course of mankind – the test of the infantryman. Can they survive in any condition? Can they fight any enemy on any ground and win? Can they walk away from the technological advances that our larger weapon systems provide and meet the enemy man-to-man with only their rifles and knives and emerge victorious?

I can’t possibly top Heinlein’s description of who we are and what we do: We are the boys who go to a particular place, at H-hour, occupy a designated terrain, stand on it, dig the enemy out of their holes, force them then and there to surrender or die. We're the bloody infantry, the doughboy, the duckfoot, the foot soldier who goes where the enemy is and takes him on in person. We've been doing it, with changes in weapons but very little change in our trade, at least since the time five thousand years ago when the foot sloggers of Sargon the Great forced the Sumerians to cry "Uncle!" Maybe they'll be able to do without us someday. Maybe some mad genius with myopia, a bulging forehead, and a cybernetic mind will devise a weapon that can go down a hole, pick out the opposition, and force it to surrender or die--without killing that gang of your own people they've got imprisoned down there. I wouldn't know; I'm not a genius, I'm an M.I. In the meantime, until they build a machine to replace us, my mates can handle that job--and I might be some help on it, too.

[robot_devil]

It takes a certain person to be a warrior.
Willingness is the first requisite.

Warrior? What other requisites? Be able to push a buttom from hundreds of miles away to slaughter some helpless Libyans?

[Mid-Night_Sun]

this is the punchline to a joke. i dont even know why Canada has a military. who the hell would attack Canada. the only time i even hear about it, is when Canada's military is ONCE AGAIN doing US bidding.

sprinkle in some friendly fire, and i say no thanks.

[fireplant]

Why can't Canadian military get some cachet like PLA? HKers seem to keep wanting to join.

[phop]

So basically you only care about money and want to be one of those bastardly people causing all of humanity's problems. Way to spread the stereotype that Asians are materialistic as fuk.

Huh? We are just following western capitalism! The cool thing i like about capitalism is that all the dirty nasty $hit is done behind the table and not known to the public, because if the public do know then capitalism would be 10 times worse than dictatorship. In fact every capitalism contains multi-dictatorship. While a dictatorship country only contain 1 powerful dictator, a capitalism it contains multi-powerful dictators, corporate armies, lobbying groups, etc. etc. It is a good thing that the public is stupid and dumb to realise this, and it would be even better for that to stay this way in the future. Well continue to and slowing manipulate humanity to death with advertisements, materialism, promote racism through news media targeting certain groups of race, promote race fighting and race hate by spreading hate through powerful news and media organizations, non-profit organizations, corporate advertisements by promoting certain race as superior by spreading their image throughout advertisements, hollywood media promoting womens as nothing but objects of sex, bla bla bla... soon the world will bow down to the all mightly Lucifer. in the future everyone should have a RFID chip, if you dont accept it then youll just die of hunger.

Forgot to add, well also destroy all the race and diversity throughout planet earth with promotion of race mixing. Making people think that race mixing = diversity, while in face race mixing = destroying diversity. Such stupid humans dont you think? they dont even have a logical brain to know that mixing red color, green color, blue color and dumb them all together and mix them all up will turn out to only 1 new color. that one new color will be the final product. Then we can say good bye to diversity.

Sometime we just laugh at how dumb and stupid humanity is, so easy to manipulate these fools.

This post has been edited by phop: Aug 8 2011, 02:35 PM

[Jphu8414]

Who in their right mind would join the Canadian military??

[YourMuDoIsWeak]

Warrior? What other requisites? Be able to push a buttom from hundreds of miles away to slaughter some helpless Libyans?

Yeah, bro....
Obviously you never heard of the Infantry.

[robot_devil]

Yeah, bro....
Obviously you never heard of the Infantry.

What infantry? NATO has deployed infantry in Libya?

[YourMuDoIsWeak]

What infantry? NATO has deployed infantry in Libya?

I Jumped the gun. My bad i took offense about the warrior thing.
Continue to make fun of POG's and throw em a bag of chips.