Vietnamese Toronto History: Refugees, Chinatown, Suburbs

Vietnamese residents began arriving in Toronto as students in the 1950s and 1960s, but the community took shape in 1979 and 1980, when Canada admitted about 60,000 Southeast Asian refugees nationally, many of them sponsored by private groups. Many Vietnamese Torontonians first settled near Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West, then moved to North York, Scarborough, Mississauga and other suburbs.

Students and the first association

Before 1975, the Vietnamese presence in Toronto was small. According to a reference history of Vietnamese Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area, Vietnamese students began attending Toronto universities in the 1950s and 1960s, and some professionals stayed on. The same history says the first Vietnamese association in Toronto was founded in 1972. That group, now called the Vietnamese Association, Toronto, later became a major provider of settlement services.

The fall of Saigon in April 1975 brought the first refugees from the war, but the numbers were modest. The larger movement came four years later, when people fleeing Vietnam by sea became an international crisis and Canada decided to act.

The boat people and Canadian sponsorship, 1979 and 1980

After the end of the war, hundreds of thousands of people left Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia by boat or overland, and many waited in camps in Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Indonesia. In Canada, public pressure rose through 1979. The federal government created a private sponsorship program in July 1979, which let groups of Canadians, churches and relatives take direct responsibility for newcomers.

The government set a target of 50,000 refugees by the end of 1980, with half to come through private sponsors. In early 1980 it added 10,000 more government-assisted places, raising the 1979 to 1980 target to 60,000. Sources date that decision to February and to April 2, 1980. A history compiled on the website of Senator Thanh Hai Ngo says about 26,000 of the 60,000 were government-assisted and about 34,000 were taken in by private sponsors and relatives. In Toronto, a coordinating body called Operation Lifeline was set up in July 1979 to coordinate individual and group sponsorships. By January 4, 1980, the same account says, 33,114 refugees had been sponsored by 6,003 private sponsors nationwide.

The effort drew international notice. In 1986 the United Nations refugee agency awarded its Nansen Refugee Award to the people of Canada, the first and only time it went to an entire nation. For the wider background of Toronto’s newcomers in these decades, see postwar immigration to Toronto and the longer overview of Toronto’s immigration history.

Settling downtown: Spadina and Chinatown

Many early Vietnamese arrivals found housing and work near Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West, the heart of the city’s main Chinatown. A reference history of Vietnamese Canadians says many settled in that area, and that ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, known as Viet Hoa, formed some of their own associations, separate from those of ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh). The longer story of that district is in the article on Chinatown, and the neighbouring Kensington Market has its own history.

Toronto’s second Chinatown, on Gerrard Street East, is sometimes mentioned as another place where Vietnamese businesses opened. The sources consulted for this article do not document a Vietnamese settlement pattern there, so it is not described here.

Numbers: how large the community became

Counts from the 1980s and 1990s are uneven. The GTA reference history says about 12,000 people fleeing Vietnam arrived in Toronto between 1979 and 1982, that the city’s Vietnamese population, including Kinh and Viet Hoa, was about 30,000 by 1986, and that the Greater Toronto Area had more than 50,000 by 1989. It cites the 1986 census, in which 7,490 Toronto residents reported Vietnamese as their native language, and the 1991 census, which counted 24,555 Toronto residents of Vietnamese origin. A researcher quoted there argues the 1991 figure undercounts the community. Those numbers use different definitions, so they do not form a smooth series.

More recent totals are clearer. A reference summary citing Statistics Canada reports 275,530 Vietnamese Canadians in the 2021 census, with 82,225 in the Greater Toronto Area and 122,735 in Ontario.

Moving to Scarborough, North York, Mississauga and beyond

As families found work and bought homes, the community spread out. The reference history lists North York, York, Scarborough and Etobicoke as inner suburbs with Vietnamese communities, and Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan and Markham as outer municipalities with large Vietnamese populations. For the history of these suburban districts, see Scarborough and North York.

The reference history does not say when each suburban cluster formed, so no dates are given for the move outward. It notes only that by 2006 several downtown neighbourhood and settlement agencies had added Vietnamese-speaking staff.

Temples, churches and associations

Religion shaped the community’s institutions. According to the reference history, a Buddhist group called Chan Nhu, opened in 1976, was the first Vietnamese Buddhist group in Toronto. By 1992 the temples Amida, Hao Nghiem, Linh-Son and Van Duc were open, and more were founded within five years. Buddhism and Christianity are the two main religions in the community.

The history lists many secular groups as well: the Vietnamese Association, the Vietnamese Women’s Association, the Vietnamese Canadian Federation, a student society, an association for older people, a parents’ association, a veterans’ association and the Greater Toronto Vietnamese Refugee Assistance Committee. Several Vietnamese-language newspapers and magazines have been published in Toronto, and the New Year festival, Tết, is celebrated each year. Founding years for most of these groups are not given in the sources, so they are not stated here.

Reading the record carefully

The history of Vietnamese Toronto is documented unevenly. The national story of the 1979 and 1980 admissions rests on federal records and well-known summaries. The Toronto story, including settlement areas, group founding dates and early population counts, depends heavily on a reference history and on community records held in archives. Readers who want precise dates for a particular temple, school or association should check with that organization directly.

Frequently asked questions

How many Vietnamese refugees did Canada accept in 1979 and 1980?

The federal target for 1979 and 1980 was raised to 60,000 Southeast Asian refugees in early 1980. About 26,000 were government-assisted and about 34,000 were privately sponsored, according to a Senate committee transcript and a history on a senator’s website.

Where did Vietnamese refugees first settle in Toronto?

Many settled near Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street West, around Chinatown and Kensington Market. They later moved to North York, Scarborough, Mississauga and other suburbs.

What was Operation Lifeline?

It was a coordinating group set up in Toronto in July 1979 to arrange individual and group sponsorships of Southeast Asian refugees, alongside similar efforts in Ottawa and Vancouver.

When was the first Vietnamese association founded in Toronto?

A reference history of Vietnamese Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area says the first Vietnamese association in Toronto was founded in 1972.

Sources

Senator Thanh Hai Ngo, “History of the Boat People” (accessed October 2026)
Wikipedia, “Vietnamese Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area” (accessed October 2026)
Wikipedia, “Vietnamese Canadians”, citing Statistics Canada 2021 census data (accessed October 2026)
Government of Canada, Canadian Heritage, Asian Heritage Month, “Remembering the journey to Canada of Vietnamese refugees” (accessed October 2026)
Senate of Canada, committee evidence transcript on Vietnamese refugees (accessed October 2026)
Salvation Army Canada, “Vietnam refugees and the Salvation Army” (accessed October 2026)

Last verified: October 2026

Cite this page

APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 31). Vietnamese Toronto: Boat People, Sponsors and Community History. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/vietnamese-toronto-history

MLA: “Vietnamese Toronto: Boat People, Sponsors and Community History.” History of Toronto, 31 Oct 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/vietnamese-toronto-history. Accessed .

Chicago: History of Toronto. “Vietnamese Toronto: Boat People, Sponsors and Community History.” Last modified October 31, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/vietnamese-toronto-history.

The pages have no named author, so the site is given as the author. Add the date you read the page if your style asks for it.