Delayed,deferred and dropped out: geographies of Filipino-Canadian high school students

Models representing the assimilation of post-Second World War immigrants to North America use the academic achievement of children of first-generation immigrants as a benchmark of social mobility. Filipino youths in Canada fall short of this benchmark – they neither meet nor exceed their parents’ academic achievements. While concern with outcomes is a useful starting point, I suggest that there is a need to interrogate how and where students are produced as different. To do this, I attend to the geographies in the narratives of youths gathered from Filipino high school students in Vancouver (unceded Coast Salish Territories). I examine how they negotiate the spaces of transnational migration, their lives as students and spaces where their educational trajectories are deferred and delayed. I argue that the geographies of transnational migration and family should be held together with spaces of the school and education when considering academic outcomes.     

Lost boys,invisible girls: stories of Sudanese marriages across borders

Forced migration challenges and changes gender relations. The transnational activities of refugees resettled in the West create gender asymmetries among those who stay behind. This article explores the transnational marriages of young southern Sudanese women (‘invisible girls’), who either stayed in Sudan or remained in refugee camps in Kenya, to Sudanese men who were resettled to America, Canada or Australia (‘lost boys’). Incorporating gender as a relational category into the analysis of transnational practices that migrants and refugees engage in is important. The article argues that there is a need to put feminist analysis at the centre of transnational processes resulting from (forced) migration. It looks at the connections between different geographical locations, the impacts of the migration of young refugee men on bridewealth and marriage negotiations and the gender consequences for young women, men and their families. It is argued that transnational activities, such as marriage, contest, reconfigure and reinforce the culturally inscribed gender norms and practices in and across places. Transnational marriage results in ambiguous benefits for women (and men) in accessing greater freedoms. Anthropological analyses of marriage need a geographical focus on the transnational fields in which they occur. The article seeks to deepen understanding of the nuanced gendered consequences of transnationalism. It shows how gender analysis of actions taken across different locations can contribute to the theorisation of transnational studies of refugees and migrants.     

加拿大中国移民创业模式新探

论文在有关加拿大中国移民最新研究成果基础上,从移民经济适应行为的视角,对移民群体特征及其所面临的机会进行了分析阐述,并提出了一个移民自主创业的分析模型。该模型将移民自主创业行为区分为四种模式,即族裔经济、一般企业、海归企业和跨国创业。随着市场环境、母国政策及企业自身发展水平的不断变化,移民企业家的经济活动可能表现为在几种模式之间的过渡或跃迁。对移民经济行为的研究,需要突破传统的族裔经济的视野,把移民的经济参与放在一个社会经济日益开放、国际社区间联系日益紧密的大背景下加以考虑。     

Trends in the residential mobility of seniors in Canada, 1961–2006

This article examines residential mobility for seniors 65 years of age and older in Canada using census data from 1961–2006. We addressed three questions. First, have seniors been increasingly likely to change their residential location within Canada or alternatively become increasingly likely to age‐in‐place? Second, has the in‐migration of seniors to Canada from other countries become more pronounced over the years? Third, does the residential mobility of seniors vary by age and sex? We used census data to calculate the percentages of seniors who changed their residence in the five‐year periods prior to each of the 1961–2006 censuses and the percentages of seniors who moved in the previous year for the 1991–2006 censuses. We calculated the percentages of seniors making local moves, longer distance moves within the same province, moves from one province to another, and moves to Canada from another country. We found that rates of residential mobility for seniors tended to increase in the 1961–1981 period but have been lower and relatively consistent from 1986–2006. We found no evidence to suggest a pattern of sustained increase in residential mobility of seniors. We conclude that Canadian seniors tend to age‐in‐place and that when seniors do change residence, the likelihood of residential mobility decreases with the distance of the move and decreases with age. Nevertheless, the likelihood of changing residence may increase for seniors 75+ years of age who need assistance and are at risk of institutionalization. We found that senior women were more likely to change residence locally than senior men. Finally, we found that from 1961 to 2006 between 0.8 percent and 1.4 percent of seniors had migrated to Canada in the five years prior to each census from other countries and that this pattern has fluctuated over the past half century with no clear trend.     

Culture,emotional transnationalism and mental distress: family relations and well-being among Taiwanese immigrant women

Immigrant women's vulnerability to mental distress has been recognized in the literature and yet the socio-cultural causes of their distress have rarely been explored. On the basis of a case study of Taiwanese immigrants residing in Chicago, this article illustrates the dynamic contexts within which Taiwanese immigrant women's distress is produced at home and explains the social and cultural factors that engender the women's distress. In this article I argue that Taiwanese immigrant women frequently shift back and forth between Taiwanese and American cultural norms in an effort to apply effective behavioral guidance and justifications to interactions with their spouses, children and in-laws. The term ‘emotional transnationalism’ is used to describe the psychological experience associated with transnational cultural practices. Distress is often generated as these women struggle with feelings of ambivalence and contradictions that confront them in their search for cultural identities. The severity of distress is largely determined by the power hierarchies between women and those with whom they interact. Married women's status as subordinate to their in-laws creates more negative experiences than any other status.     

美国华语文学之历史与现状

本文旨在探讨美国华语文学的历史变迁、社会意义及其文化特性。美国的华语文学初始于19世纪中叶华人首次大批移民来美之际。时至今日,美国华人社会已成为亚洲之外最大的华语文学中心。近年来经济全球化及跨国文化交流之影响,更使得美国华语文学风行于世界各地华人社会。那么,美国华语文学有何特性?其作品对华人生活有何影响?与美国华裔英语文学相比,华语文学有何异同?其作品的文化内涵与社会功能之间有何关联?本文拟对上述问题作一探讨。     

BEFORE THE DELUGE: CANADIANS ON FOREIGN OWNERSHIP, 1920–1955

More Americans now reside in Canada than at any time since the Vietnam War. This article documents and analyzes the migration, settlement, and identity of US-born residents in three Canadian cities. My work helps fill the gap in the scholarly literature on issues related to international migration at the Canadian–US borderlands. The article's overarching goal is to illustrate that transnationality, as exhibited by US immigrants in Canada, is far more complex than prior studies of transnational identity have indicated. Findings from this study indicate that transnational linkages and identities are geographically and temporally contingent and are, as such, a reflection of both time and place. My comparison of the shifting identities of American migrants who reside in three different metropolitan areas in Canada allows a more critical analysis of the ever-shifting terrain of transnational identities as they are expressed in different contexts. Data analyzed for this study were compiled from the Canadian census for the years 1961 through 2006, survey questionnaires, unstructured and structured interviews, and on-site field work.     

Portuguese Immigrant History in Twentieth Century South Africa: A Preliminary Overview

Abstract

South Africans of Portuguese descent probably constitute ten to fifteen per cent of the white South African population. Yet it is a remarkably under-researched population. This article attempts to lay out a research agenda to address this large historiographical gap. It begins with an overview of the sparse literature on Portuguese immigrants and then provides a basic narrative of three discernible waves of migration from the late nineteenth century until the late 1970s. The first and longest wave involved impoverished citizens of the island of Madeira. The second involved more skilled mainlanders from about 1940–1980, most coming in the 1960s and 1970s. The final wave involved Mozambican and Angolan ex-colonial refugees. The paper suggest several areas of possible historical research on Portuguese-South Africans: the degree of their coherence as a “community”; their generational continuity and discontinuity; and in general, the nature of transnational hybridised identity in its racial, religious and political dimensions.     

Services for immigrant women: an evaluation of locations

The Toronto region receives one‐quarter of new immigrants to Canada and they become widely dispersed throughout the metropolitan area. Most immigrants arrive with language, social and cultural needs, creating demand for social services from existing agencies. ‘How can agencies choose locations that meet the needs of new immigrants?’ is the central focus. The results of a study in Metropolitan Toronto of 68 nonprofit agencies that provide a variety of settlement services for immigrant and refugee women are discussed. Immigrant and language groups and the agencies serving them are mapped; the locations of agencies are evaluated. While service agencies are responding to the arrival of new groups and the spatial dispersion of new immigrants, more services in the northern portions of the study area are required. The spatial dispersion of some language groups means that they have poorer access to services than groups that are concentrated in the traditional immigrant reception area. La région de Toronto accueille le quart des immigrants au Canada, et ceux‐ci sont dispersés dans l'agglomération torontoise. La plupart d'entre eux ont des exigences linguistiques, sociales et culturelles qui augmentent la demande en services sociaux dispensés par les organismes en place. Ce document porte essentiellement sur la façon dont ces derniers determinent les lieux de prestation de services qui répondront le mieux aux besoins des immigrants. II est également question des résultats d'une étude menée dans la communauté urbaine de Toronto auprés de 68 organismes à but non lucratif offrant un éventail de services d'établissement pour les immigrantes et les réfugiées. Les immigrants et les groupes linguistiques, ainsi que les organismes qui les servent, y sont répertoriés géographiquement. La localisation de ces organismes fait aussi l'objet d'une évaluation. La plupart répondent déjà aux besoins des nouveaux venus et tiennent compte de leur dispersion mais, selon cette étude, il faudrait plus de services dans le nord de l'agglomération torontoise. En raison de cet éparpillement, certains groupes linguistiques ont plus difficilement accès à des services que d'autres qui se trouvent dans les zones d'ancrage habituelles.     

Commentary: Vernacular Regions of America

The practice of cross-timber log construction was one of the several culture traits the European immigrants brought to America beginning in the 17th century. Contrary to the opinions held by some observers, the tradition of log construction was introduced and implemented by the immigrants at different locations and different times. A familiarity with the evolution and characteristics of the European antecedents of log architecture is essential to the study of log construction in the United States. This study explores log architecture in a Finnish setting. Except for having contributed toward the development of the North European log construction technique before the migration to Finland, log architecture as practiced in Finland at the time of emigration to America, was more North European in character than “Finnish.” Moreover, folk traditions were in the process of change as they were subject to exposure to the invading industrial culture in the 19th century. The changes are manifest in log architecture as practiced at the time in Finland and on the cultural landscape the immigrants established in the United States.     

Interrogating borders: a transnational approach to refugee research in Vancouver

Immigration is predicated on the centrality of the nation‐state. The authors argue that analyzing settlement patterns and successful integration within a strictly national context is insufficient to understand the political, social, and economic relations which shape the lives of refugee immigrants in Canada. To support this claim, a less state‐centric theoretical framework of transnational migration is outlined. The paper examines methods emerging from transnational migration, focussing in particular on research with Burmese refugees who have settled in the Greater Vancouver Area. Based on 50 personal interviews conducted with refugee newcomers from Burma who are now settled in the Lower Mainland, the authors use the case study as a basis to raise methodological and theoretical questions about immigration research. We argue that the very politics of doing research with this group of refugees and other immigrant groups are shaped by the relations of power experienced before arriving in Canada. Les auteures soutiennent que l'analyse des schémas d'établissement et d'intégration réussie dans un contexte strictement national s'avère insuffisante pour comprendre les relations politiques, sociales et économiques qui définissent l'existence des réfugiés immigrants au moment de l'arrivée. Dans le but d'appuyer cette proposition, nous définissons un schéma théorique moins axé sur l'état, c'est‐à‐dire le transnationalisme. La recherche examine ces facteurs en relation avec les expériences des ‘immigrants non‐traditionnels’ au Canada, en particulier les réfugiés Burmans installés dans la région de Vancouver. Basés sur 50 entrevues personnelles menées avec des réfugiés nouvellement arrivés du Burma et qui sont maintenant installés dans le ‘Lower Mainland’, les auteures utilisent l'étude de cas comme une base permettant de soulever des questions de méthodologie pour la recherche en immigration. Nous avançons que les implications politiques de la recherche avec ce groupe de réfugiés et d'autres groupes d'immigrants dépendent des relations de pouvoir vécues avant l'arrivée au Canada.     

Transnationalism and identity: a tale of two faces and multiple lives

Transnational ties add new complexities to the continuous and dynamic processes of identity formation. Based on self‐reflexive narratives, this paper examines the authors' identity transformations associated with their respective transnational experiences. We are two Asian women from India and China, respectively, who are international students pursuing doctoral degrees in Canada. Although we share similar demographic and economic backgrounds, we perform distinct transnational acts. Focusing specifically on social and cultural linkages, we have identified reasons that have influenced our cross‐border involvements. Based on our findings, we present an emergent conceptual framework that highlights interactive psychological, sociocultural and economic processes that influence the formation of individual transnational identities. We also share with our readers some methodological lessons learnt along our path of self‐expression, analysis and representation .     

Two Stoves,Two Refrigerators,Due Cucine: The Italian immigrant home with two kitchens

Many Italian North Americans have two kitchens in their homes: one on the first floor, and a second in the basement. While this set-up is pervasive in cities across North America, homes with two kitchens are uncommon in Italy. This article explores the significance of the basement kitchen in first-generation Italian homes in Canada and the United States. Examining homes of various typologies in and around Toronto, Montreal and New York, purchased by Italian immigrants between 1950 and 1980, this paper argues that for Italian women the basement kitchen is a liberating space, free from the constraints of formality and traditional room divisions.     

Religious transnationalism among Ghanaian immigrants in Toronto: a binary logistic regression analysis

Thanks to pioneering work within anthropology, students of international migration acknowledge that most immigrants do not sever their ties with the homeland, but rather maintain them through a variety of cross‐border relationships. While scholarly work has proliferated, since the early 1990s, over the transnational economic and political activities of immigrants, to date, only few analysts have examined the religious practices with which immigrants sustain memberships in multiple locations. In addition, most available studies on transnational migration has dwelled on qualitative methods, such as participant observation, focus groups discussions and in‐depth interviews with a handful of informants, with little or no inclination towards the quantitative measurement of key variables implicated in the process. The prevalence of ethnographic methods in this area of research has, quite understandably, engendered charges of exaggeration, given the tendency of such techniques ‘to sample on the dependent variable’, to borrow the phrase of Alejandro Portes. Using data collected from a survey among Ghanaian immigrant congregations in Toronto, this study seeks to statistically predict the propensity to engage in transnational religious practices by way of a binary logistic regression analysis. In addition, the study examines how the transnational religious activities of the sampled immigrants relate to, overlap with, and differ from other kinds of transnational practices they pursue.     

Geographic accessibility to primary care providers: Comparing rural and urban areas in Southwestern Ontario

This research examines geographical accessibility to primary care providers (PCPs) across urban and rural areas of Southwestern Ontario and examines variations in the distribution of PCPs in relation to the senior population (aged 65 years and older). Information about PCP practices was provided by the HealthForceOntario Marketing and Recruitment Agency. Population data were obtained from the 2016 Census of Canada. To calculate scores for accessibility to PCPs (i.e., PCPs/10,000 population), we applied the enhanced 2-step floating catchment area method with distance decay effect within a global service catchment of 30-minute drive time. A geospatial mapping approach revealed disparities in the distribution of PCPs with a pattern of higher spatial accessibility in or around major urban areas in Southwestern Ontario. Comparative analyses were performed in association with the seniors’ population to identify how accessibility scores were mismatched with the population needs. The outcome of this study will assist researchers and health service planners to better understand the distribution of existing PCPs to address inequalities, particularly in rural areas.     

Leaky Borders and Solid Citizens: Governing Security,Prosperity and Quality of Life in a North American Partnership

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP), signed by Canada, Mexico and the United States in March 2005, proposes a dramatic reshaping of the continent. This is no simple plan for the intensification of economic and security cooperation. The SPP is much more expansive and includes quality of life issues such as education, science and technology, the environment, and health. But what does it mean that there is an emergent concern with biopolitics, that is, with the lives and bodies of the region's citizens, at the trilateral level? How are these citizens being imagined in the new regional vision? What are the implications for states and sovereignty? This paper addresses these questions by turning first to the trope of “partnership” as it emerges in the SPP, and then to the ways that borders and population mobility are being construed. The discourse of “partnership” signals a new political rationality that is reconfiguring the relationship between the North American states, their markets and their citizens. The repercussions for citizens and citizenship are especially significant, and are most clearly apparent vis‐à‐vis border policies, as I discuss in the following section. While external borders are being hardened against most foreign nationals, mobility across internal borders is becoming more differentiated: more penetrable for some, and impassable for others. The SPP thus promotes a divisive and striated regional space that will help perpetuate the ongoing tensions around illegal immigrants and undocumented workers in North America.     

“Middling” Chinese Returnees or Immigrants from Canada? The Ambiguity of Return Migration and Claims to Modernity

This paper investigates the conceptual overlaps between transnational return migration and immigration by drawing on a qualitative study of Mainland Chinese return migration from Canada. The paper argues that reframing return migration as a distinct type of immigration draws attention to the citizenship vulnerabilities experienced by “middling” returnees who are not privy to the preferential treatment given to highly skilled returnees. They come to be considered as “foreigners” in their homeland because they have naturalised elsewhere. The paper also explores the double diasporic identifications of Mainland Chinese returnees from Canada; it highlights the tensions and fissures manifested in secondary diasporas, particularly in light of China’s growing prominence in international business, foreign diplomacy and cultural exchanges. The paper suggests that social encounters that marginalise such migrants in Canada are reproduced in China. The returnees navigate such encounters by mobilising their transnational affiliations to different national contexts.     

Transnational geographies: Indian immigration to Canada

Immigration from the Asia and Pacific area now accounts for over 50 percent of all Canadian immigration. Therefore, any consideration of Canada's linkages with Asia must address this issue. While much work has debated the impact of immigration in Canada's urban centres, less has been directed to understanding the transnational nature of such population movements, or their specific transnational geographies. In this paper, I consider the geography of immigration from India to Canada. Immigration from India has traditionally been tightly regionalised, with the majority of immigrants originating from the Doaba area of Punjab. Settlement in Canada is also highly concentrated at the provincial, metropolitan and suburban scales. Drawing upon a range of qualitative and quantitative data collected in both India and Canada, I illustrate the geography of immigration from India and highlight some of the processes that contribute to creating transnational networks between these sites .     

Germans from Russia in Saskatchewan: An Oral History

The Germans from Russia are a prominent settlement group in the rural landscape of Saskatchewan. Perhaps because they came incrementally, by chain migration, rather than by organized group colonization, they compose an ethnic group little noticed by historians. Also, their immediate origins are divided, inasmuch as earlier German-Russian immigrants came directly from Russia, whereas many twentieth-century German-Russian immigrants came to Canada from the United States, mainly from North Dakota and South Dakota. This article offers the first focused, scholarly historical treatment of German-Russian immigration and life in Saskatchewan. Drawing on oral histories collected with the support of the Faculty Research Program of the Canadian Embassy, it focuses particularly on growing up German-Russian on the prairies, positing a German-Russian ethnic identity distinct both from neighbor immigrant groups in Saskatchewan and from origin communities in the United States.     

Transnationalism,Transgovernmentalism and Canada–US Relations in the Twenty-first Century

This article assesses the contemporary dynamics of transnationalism in Canada–US relations as the interaction of three key factors: market-driven or “bottom-up” economic integration, sectoral differentiation embedded in transgovernmental relations, and societal (or cultural) transnationalism. It also notes the disruptive and potentially transformative effects of transnational and transgovernmental forces beyond North America which are becoming increasingly central to the calculations of policymakers and major interest groups in both countries. It concludes that transnationalism is a multidimensional phenomenon that appears more likely to facilitate mutual accommodation between the US and its North American neighbors embedded within broader national and international policy streams than to build a broad North American consensus on policy harmonization for the foreseeable future.