Families often run this company, and their stories reflect an important part of Canadian identity: new immigrants have the ability to support small towns that persist in their existence.

Dung Tran first sent his son to Canada. In 2014, a Vietnamese-born Tran boy settled in Saskatoon and continued his studies at the University of Saskatchewan. It will take Dung about five years to leave her job in a seafood company in Vietnam and join Prairies with her husband Chien.

She has always been passionate about cooking and was keen to buy and run a restaurant when she arrived in Canada. The family discovered Lake Bryan by accident.

In an hour’s drive north of Saskatoon, there is a community of hundreds of people. It is the first stop to the northern part of Saskatchewan, and the southern prairie landscape gives way to Canadian shielded forests, rocks and lakes.

“We saw Yes The gateway to the lake, where people cross a lot. It’s a great environment,” Dong’s eldest son, Trung Tran, said, his mother was translating as they sat in their restaurant, Gateway Grill.

When the family bought a restaurant, Trung moved to Blaine Lake to work there, even though he had completed an education degree and lived in the financial department of Saskatoon.

He said: “Without me, she can’t really run this restaurant. I think I will sacrifice any time. I’m not worried.”

Dong’s other son, Bao, and her husband spent some time between Saskatoon and Bryan Lake. Both of them work in the city-as mechanical engineers and industrial machinery maintenance respectively-but have time to work in restaurants on weekends.

This arrangement worked well and the restaurant has a stable customer base. Mr. Dong’s ambition to open a restaurant satisfied her, so she had time to consider other opportunities.

Tron said: “She is very ambitious.”

“Do you know dim sum? She wants to try it.”

Many new immigrants come to Canada with professional skills that are not recognized in their new homes. This has led some new Asian immigrants to open or buy restaurants to make money. Some people will work in a restaurant for several years to save the down payment, but many people buy the business directly.

Unlike many aboriginal people in Saskatchewan or people who have migrated to the province from other parts of Canada, they sometimes look for opportunities in smaller rural areas.

The rural population of Saskatchewan has been declining. For decades, rural businesses and service industries have been struggling to survive. The vast majority of immigrants in Saskatchewan have opened stores in urban centers, but there are exceptions, two of which are exceptions. Both Rosetown and Unity found population growth in the 2011-2016 census, and new immigrants contributed to population growth.

Pak Chan, whose family is from Hong Kong, opened a restaurant in a small community in Rosetown. But after years of hard work in other people’s kitchens, Jackie Chan’s father Wun plans to sell the restaurant. For decades, he worked seven days a week, at least 13 hours.

Chan said: “We advertised in several Chinese newspapers distributed to Asian grocery stores, which attracted a lot of callers.”

“From Ontario to Manitoba, we heard the voices of entrepreneurs and skilled workers, partly because of Saskatchewan’s immigration nomination program. People want to become permanent citizens.”

But Chans wants people with experience.

Then came Henry and Judy Maher.

Henry grew up in Hong Kong and came to Canada at the age of twelve. At first, he lived in Eston, a small town in the Midwest of Saskatchewan. After graduating from high school, he moved to Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver restaurants to work, but he married his wife Judy from China and settled in rural Saskatchewan again.

They bought their first restaurant near Swift Current because they like to work together and want to raise their son in a small community.

When Mahs asks Chans to buy a restaurant, they can only pay a deposit-unlike other people who can buy this place directly-but Pak has a good feeling for them. They reached an agreement and Mahs moved in and changed its name to Mah’s Kitchen.

Their goal is: “Make money!” Henry said.

Living in Rosetown helps families reduce costs.

He said: “There is not much shopping around.”

Currently, the restaurant is operating very well, but the city of Mars has a surprising problem in rural Saskatchewan: competition.

“They opened a restaurant there and across the street,” Henry gestured.

“The population of Rosetown does not exceed 2500.”

Many restaurant owners (such as Mahs) have purchased more than one restaurant business during their entrepreneurial career.

When Ben Liang came to Saskatoon from China in the early 1990s, he planned to be an electrician, just as he did when he returned home. However, his certificate was not recognized, so he went to work in a local Mandarin restaurant.

Liang’s wife, Mullin, comes from an agricultural family and moved to Saskatoon about a year later. She used to work at the famous Golden Dragon Restaurant in Saskatoon.

Liangren quickly saved enough money to buy the business. They looked around the Saskatchewan countryside and found a Chinese restaurant in Colonsay, a small town about 60 kilometers southeast of Saskatoon. The couple have run this restaurant for 25 years.

Then they expanded their business scope and bought a gas station at the intersection of two nearby highways. Every year they lose money (a lot), and the Liangs have taken drastic measures.

Ben said: “When we bought it, it took a lot of time for both of us to make it work.”

Once they signed the document, they reduced the number of employees from 26 to two of them, and they still run the restaurant.

“In the first year, we didn’t make a cent for ourselves. We made a very good deal, but you have to work hard to build a business.”

The couple spent $30,000 in the men’s and women’s restrooms at the gas station, and soon people began to linger, usually buying something when they went out.

A few years later, they sold the gas station and focused on just one business: a new restaurant, called Muse on Main, 230 kilometers away from Unity in Sas.

Their menu features Western food, from grilled cheese to veal. Muse on Main also offers perogies, the staple food of Saskatchewan.

At the back of the menu, customers can find the emperor’s specialties and fried noodles.

These small local restaurants are a stitch in rural Saskatchewan. In towns where there are only a few places to eat, people support them as much as possible.

When these communities observe the endless cycle of planting, growing and harvesting, their precious restaurants follow their own cycle.

Chen Baixiang said: “The typical experience of the first generation of immigrants is to make sacrifices so that the next generation can live a better life.”

He recalled his experience in the family restaurant, and spoke to his parents with high respect. He said that Chen and his father did not work together “because of debts.” “This is more like a collaboration.”

His parents lead a comfortable retirement life, but the cycle continues.

The restaurant becomes the residence of a new family, serving old customers and filling them with the taste of their own recipes.