Anti-Chinese Sentiment and Government Track International

Vancouver: With virtually no official data on foreign buyers available, many of those squeezed out of the market are left to believe the worst, according to Globe and Mail. That has residents like Xia pressing the government to track international buyers, scrutinize the source of their funds and tax property speculation, before the anti-Chinese sentiment gets out of hand. That anger has contributed to a simmering xenophobia in Vancouver, a multicultural coastal city long known for its inclusiveness. Last summer, a small anti-immigration group covered up Chinese symbols on real estate signs in the affluent suburb of West Vancouver with stickers reading Please Respect Canada Official Languages. A recent poll found that two-thirds of metropolitan Vancouver residents believe foreigners investing is a main cause of high housing costs, and 70 percent said the government should work to improve affordability. And police are investigating incidents on neighboring Vancouver Island, where anti-Chinese pamphlets appeared in affluent neighborhoods and signs for Chinese real estate agents were defaced with racial epithets and messages like Go home and Not welcome. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.