Conflict and Negotiation: Transnational Ties and Competing Identities of Chinese Immigrants in Kamloops, British Columbia

Abstract

While much of the previous research on transnational ties of immigrants has emphasized social and economic outcomes, this chapter examines immigrants’ sense of self and sense of belonging as a function of their transnational ties. Immigrants are exposed to dual worldviews, cultural practices and beliefs while negotiating their social positioning in the new cultural context. Transnational ties play an important role in the making of immigrant selves. The premise of this study is that identities are not fixed entities that can be easily abandoned or adopted. Instead, immigrants can occupy multiple and hybrid subject positions, and their identities are reconstructed and reconstituted in relation to changing social contexts. The research participants are recent Chinese immigrants in Kamloops, British Columbia. The immigrants have all, to varying degrees, maintained social ties with their home country. This chapter examines how Chinese immigrants identify themselves and what meanings they attach to those identities and what are the roles of two different cultures in their day-to-day lives. Using interviews and observation, it addresses such questions as: what sense do they make of the contradictory habits and beliefs they are confronted with as members of two different cultures? What are their attitudes towards the changes they are expected or forced to make in the new context? How do they perceive themselves in relation to other Canadians and other Chinese?