Does Transnationalism Trump Immigrant Integration? Evidence from Canada's Links with East Asia

Abstract

This paper examines relations between transnational activities and immigrant integration in Vancouver. From a large survey, associations are noted between a set of transnational practices and economic and socio-cultural indicators of integration in Canada. These associations depart considerably from comparable studies in the United States and the Netherlands, identifying transnationalism with recent migrants and poor socio-cultural integration, while relations are weak and inconsistent with economic integration. The most transnational profile in the Vancouver survey is shared by business immigrants originating from East Asia, and the second part of the paper comprises an ethnography of this group, interpreting how their spatial practices and identities as business people sans frontières place them at odds with the state's attempt to reproduce integrated national citizens. These general themes are examined in more detail in relation to their holding of global assets in potential non-compliance with Canadian tax law, and their sojourner habitus, in which serial mobility limits participation and identity with Canada.

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