It was after a direct plea from the Dalai Lama to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in 1966 that launched Canada's slow process to bring 60 families into their country.
Factory owner Thomas Bata had gone to India, one of the countries where Tibetans were exiled, and took the initiative to employ three to four refugees in his company.
[7] In 2007, a two-year immigration program to bring 2,000 Tibetan refugees to Canada was organized by Prime Minister Stephen Harper after a plea by the Dalai Lama.
[8] Canada originally declined Tibetan refugees to settle as a group, however this changed with consultations and national meeting with the Prime minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
George's impact on Pierre Elliot Trudeau helped immigration officials to be more lenient with refuge policies for Tibetans.
This means that only young families and single people coming as laborers were approved to seek refuge in Canada.
Additionally, learning one of the official languages of Canada was another problem that could arise and could affect integration directly (Logan & Murdie, 2014).
[4] According to global population estimates, this makes the Parkdale Tibetan community the largest outside of Tibet and its surrounding area.
Compared to much of the Toronto core, rent prices in Parkdale are affordable, and the area provides many amenities and services to recent immigrants and at-risk populations.
[4] Little Tibet is centred around a series of blocks on Queen Street West, consisting of a number of Tibetan restaurants and shops with diverse influences from India, Nepal and China.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) states that the Nepalese government is blocking Tibetan peoples that found refuge in Nepal after 1989 from exiting the country.
India imposes that Tibetans must have a valid Identity Certificate to exit the country, and the process of obtaining this document can take several years.