Transnational Identities and Practices in Canada

Download or read book Transnational Identities and Practices in Canada written by Lloyd Lee Wong and published by University of British Columbia Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With contributions from some of Canada’s leading social scientists, this collection examines the meaning and significance of transnational practices and identities of immigrant and ethnic communities in Canada. Why do members of these groups and communities maintain ties with their homelands? What meanings do attachments to real and imagined homelands have, both for individual identities and community organizations? Is the existence of homeland ties a reflection of Canada’s commitment to multiculturalism, or does the maintenance of homeland among immigrants undermine a commitment to Canada and being "Canadian"? What are the geographical, social, and ideological borders that are negotiated and/or contested? The approaches to transnationalism developed in this book help focus attention on an important, and arguably growing, dimension of Canadian social life. The chapters offer comparative and historical context as they focus on transnational identities and practices within American, Arab and Muslim, Caribbean, Chinese, Croatian, Japanese, Jewish, Latin American, South Asian, and southern European immigrant, ethnic and religious communities and groups in Canada. This is the first collection in Canada to provide a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of transnationalism. It will appeal to scholars and students interested in issues of immigration, multiculturalism, ethnicity, and settlement.