South Asians in Toronto: geographies of transnationalism, diaspora, and the settling of differences in the city

Abstract

This article examines the formation of South Asian identities through transnational urban networks. Using narratives of South Asians in Toronto from diverse contexts of migration and settlement, I investigate the ways in which the city brings together geographies of South Asian transnationalism and diaspora in the production of identities. In the first section, I examine how connections across urban centers in Toronto, South Asia, and the South Asian diaspora re-spatialize identities. The second section focuses on the relation between discourses of urban multiculturalism and South Asian diasporic identities in Toronto. I find that South Asian identities are formed through connections across urban sites and in everyday encounters in the city. These identities cannot be contained within national conceptions of diaspora and are owed to the particular experiences of migration and settlement in the city and in the transnational spaces that shape diasporic imaginaries.

Keywords:

• Toronto
• South Asian identities
• transnational migration
• urban

Acknowledgments

I thank the editors of this special issue of South Asian Diaspora and anonymous reviewers for their comments on this article.