In Canada, the majority of Hong Kong Canadians reside in the metropolitan areas of Toronto and Vancouver.
Most Hong Kong Canadians are immigrants or descendants of Chinese migrants who settled in Canada from the late 1970s.
[3] In 1984, the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed, finalizing an agreement between the British and Chinese governments to transfer and reorganize Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China on July 1, 1997.
Anxiety over the impending handover sparked a large wave of emigration from Hong Kong to the Anglosphere between 1984 and 1997.
One of the most popular destinations chosen by Hong Kong emigrants of the time was Canada, where thousands of Hongkongers settled in Greater Toronto and Metro Vancouver.
[5] The resulting "reverse migration" saw the number of Hong Kong-born Canadian residents drop between 1996 and 2011.
[13] Among the Cantonese speakers who were born in Guangdong, a large percentage immigrated from Hong Kong.
[14][4][15] Most of these Canadians are dual nationals originating from the Hong Kong who migrated to Canada prior to the handover of the territory.