[9] These early Chinese immigrants formed their own enclaves and Chinatowns in Vancouver and New Westminster because of the Sinophobia of the host society and their lack of knowledge of the English language.
[9] In the early years, Chinatown represented otherness, and was associated with crime, unleashed sexuality, opium dens, gambling, filth, run-down housing and mysterious back-alleys.
[10] Vancouver Chinatown is undergoing a period of adjustment due to a rapid rise in property assessments and taxes, and its boundaries are becoming increasingly indistinct.
This segregation has deep historical roots, dating back to at least 1928 and included as late as 1965 with clauses in Vancouver real estate deeds stating "That the Grantee or his heirs, administrators, executor, successors or assigns will not sell to, agree to sell to, rent to, lease to, or permit or allow to occupy, the said lands and premises, or any part thereof, any person of the Chinese, Japanese or other Asiatic race or to any Indian or Negro.
As a result, Black residents were frequently confined to neighbourhoods with lower property values and limited resources, perpetuating patterns of segregation and socio-economic inequality.
This systemic discrimination resulted in the heavy concentration of Black residents in some neighbourhoods in major urban centres in Canada such as Little Burgundy in Montreal.
Described as an area of poor moral and physical health[15] by urban planners, the neighbourhood actually functioned as a nurturing environment for Vancouver's Black community, until its destruction in the 1960s.