The People Link: Human Resource Linkages Across the Pacific

Boon Ngee Cham is a professor of political science at York University.

This third volume of the Hongkong Bank of Canada Papers on Asia series
concentrates on the human resource links that are essential for
expanding Canadian business and investment in East Asia.

The book’s six chapters were written by researchers from a variety of
disciplines, including economics, organizational psychology, and
geography. Wendy Dobson’s introductory chapter discusses international
human resource linkages. Following chapters deal with culture, business
organization, and managerial behavior in East Asia; the ethnic Chinese
network; the economic impact of Asia-Pacific immigration to Canada;
immigrants as trade catalysts; and human resource linkages and economic
growth. All of the authors have found a positive relationship between
immigration from East Asia and economic and trade growth in Canada.

The authors have succeeded admirably in enhancing our understanding of
markets and business networks in the Asia-Pacific, and the valuable
links brought to Canada by East Asian immigrants. Particularly given the
recent release of Not Just Numbers: A Canadian Framework for Future
Immigration—a Legislative Review Advisory Group report that proposes
restrictions on the admission of non-English and non-French
immigrants—this book is essential reading for Canadian businesspersons
and investors, as well as policymakers and bureaucrats in the Ministry
of Citizenship and Immigration.