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Abstract
The emergence of a significant transnational community of immigrants from Hong Kong to Canada, and their Canadian-born children, during the 1990s can be understood through the experience of the affect of place, which gives meaning to the emotional experiences of community members. In contrast to theories that treat affect as a preconscious attribute, we treat affect as an emergent, socially constructed, and contextual capacity for individual emotional experiences in place. Affect is a discursive product of, and is produced by, the experiences of people situated in place. The affects of suburban residential communities of concentrated Hong Kong immigrants and their children in Vancouver and Toronto are expressed through a narrative of a ‘natural’ and wholesome Canadian lifestyle that is situated in spacious suburban houses that contain close-knit family relations. For these participants, the wholesome suburban lifestyle contrasts with the unwholesome, and unnatural, urban lifestyle of Hong Kong.
Un « affect de lieu » nous aide à comprendre l'émergence d'une communauté transnationale importante pendant les années 1990 composée des immigrés provenant du Hong Kong au Canada ainsi que leurs enfants nés au Canada en donnant du sens aux expériences émotionnelles des membres de la communauté. Contrairement aux théories qui considèrent l'affect comme attribut préconscient, nous considérons l'affect comme capacité d'exprimer les émotions situées dans un lieu précis et qui se marque comme procès émergent, contextuel, et socialement déterminé. Les affects des communautés résidentielles de banlieue composées des immigrés originaires de Hong Kong et leurs enfants sont exprimés à travers une narrative dite « naturelle » et « bien propre » du style de vie canadien qui se situe dans les spacieuses maisons de banlieue contenant des relations familiales proches. Du point de vue de ces participants, le style de vie bien propre de la banlieue contraste avec le style de vie nuisible et malsain de Hong Kong.
La emergencia de una comunidad transnacional de inmigrantes de Hong Kong a Canadá, y sus hijos nacidos de Canadá, durante los 1990s puede ser entendido a través la experiencia del afecto de lugar, del cual da sentido a las experiencias emocionales de miembros de la comunidad. A diferencia de teorías que se tratan el afecto como una capacidad emergente, socialmente construido, y contextual para experiencias emocionales en lugar. Afecto es un producto discursivo de, y está producido por, las experiencias de personas situadas en lugar. Los afectos de comunidades suburbanos de inmigrantes de Hong Kong y sus hijos en Vancouver y Toronto están expresados a través una narrativa de un estilo de vida “natural” y sano Canadiense que está situado en casa espaciosos suburbanos que contienen relaciones familiares unidas. Para estos participantes, el estilo de vida suburbano y sano está a diferencia de el estilo de vida urbano, poco natural y poco sano de Hong Kong.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, grant no. 829-99-1012 to Drs. A. Kobayashi (principal investigator), D. Ley, G. Man, V. Preston, and M. Siemiatycki. We are grateful for comments from the editor and reviewers that improved the paper. All errors remain our responsibility.
Notes
1 Thrift also makes a distinction among several definitions of affect. He does not, however, point out the fundamental incompatibility of defining affect as either preconscious or postconscious. Of course for social constructionists, there is no such thing as a preconscious except as an abstract concept; there is only consciousness becoming.
2 In the statistical information, Hong Kong immigrants are those born in Hong Kong. This definition of Hong Kong immigrants ensures consistency between census information and administrative information available from Citizenship and Immigration Canada. It probably underestimates the population from Hong Kong by excluding people who were born in Mainland China but relocated to Hong Kong before migrating to Canada.
3 Participants in the focus groups were recruited by reputational (‘snowball’) sampling methods, from among the clientele and volunteers of local voluntary agencies. Initial participants were asked to suggest additional people who might be interested in participating in the study.
4 Detailed descriptions of participants are available in Preston and Man (Citation1999); Preston, Kobayashi and Man (Citation2006); and Preston, Siemiatycki and Kobayashi (Citation2006). All participants were residing in Toronto or Vancouver at the time of the interviews. No one living in Hong Kong participated in the focus groups analyzed here.
5 All first names are pseudonyms. We include our identification codes from the N-Vivo coded data files.
6 The labor force participation rate in our study is lower than that for all Hong Kong-born Canadians from this age group living in Toronto and Vancouver at the time and reflects the interest of housewives and volunteers at community agencies in the study. To ensure access to focus groups, they were held in the evenings, on weekends, and on weekdays. Nonetheless, the low rates of labor force participation among our participants are consistent with those reported in other studies of Hong Kong immigrants (Ley Citation2010; Gilmore 2008).
7 In every focus group, family considerations were mentioned as one of the main motivations for migration.
8 Waters (Citation2002) reports equally diverse reactions to Canadian suburbs among the wives of astronauts living in Vancouver. She notes that their isolation is deepened by the separation from their husbands and the demands of settling their families in Canada as single parents.
9 According to Hou and Picot (Citation2004), there is little evidence of white flight. Rather, the rapid arrival of large numbers of affluent Hong Kong migrants seeking suburban housing near others from Hong Kong has led to residential concentrations.
10 We note that participants describe themselves as Chinese, generalizing the culture and identity of Hong Kong residents.
11 We want to acknowledge the helpful comment from a reviewer who raised this issue.