From Laundries to Algorithms: What Displaced Workers Build Next
Christopher Green, a local storyteller, blogger, and retired lawyer, recently recounted a grim but revealing episode from the late 19th century: a disgruntled customer shot the owner of a Chinese laundry after claiming he’d received the wrong clothes. The violence was shocking, but what lingered was the broader context behind it—the economic trap Chinese immigrants fell into after the railways were finished. Brought in as cheap labour to build critical infrastructure, Chinese workers were suddenly expendable once the last spike was driven. They faced open discrimination and were effectively barred from most forms of employment. With no realistic access to established jobs, they did the only thing left: they created their own. Out of necessity, not ideology, they became entrepreneurs. Two niches emerged. Laundry services and restaurants—industries shunned by others, low-margin, labour-intensive, and culturally distinct. Chinese immigrants didn’t just survive in these spaces; they professionalized them. They made laundry affordable
