![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This paper explores how the query “where are you from” is central to processes of racialization in Canada, and how such encounters shape identities and belonging among second-generation African-Canadians. The study is based on qualitative interviews with young men and women whose parents migrated from countries in sub-Saharan Africa, who are racialized as black, and who grew up in metro Vancouver. Although the second-generation embodies the usual markings of local accents and place-based knowledge, other residents frequently question their origins in the belief they cannot be local. These interactions make it clear that the presence of a black body is seen as out of place rather than at home and shapes negotiation of identities as Canadian, African and black.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the research participants, research assistants Veronica Fynn, Sanzida Habib, Jeannie Morgan and E.J. Shu, and the anonymous reviewers who provided valuable suggestions for revisions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 I worked with Edith Ngene Kambere and Mambo Masinda on research projects, and served on the Board of Directors of Umoja Operation Compassion Society for nearly a decade.
2 Participants or their parents came from Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Togo and Uganda.
3 Interviews were coded using MaxQDA.
4 Most previous studies have been in Edmonton Alberta (Kelly Citation2004; Okeke-Ihejirika and Spitzer Citation2005) and in Toronto or southern Ontario (Forman Citation2001; Ibrahim Citation1999, Citation2003).
5 This interview took place before the Harper government changed the citizenship Act making it possible to deport dual citizens under specific circumstances.