Nodal Heterolocalism and Transnationalism at the United States‐Canadian Border*

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Since the late 1990s Wilbur Zelinsky's theory of “heterolocalism’ has provided human geographers and other social scientists with a new approach to analyzing the spatial patterns and ethnic identities of recent immigrants in the United States. Zelinsky's heterolocal model suggests that, to a degree unknown in the past, new migrants in North American cities may choose to settle in widely dispersed places, rather than in more concentrated ethnic enclaves, while maintaining their ethnic identities. This article expands on and critiques prior work on heterolocalism in Oregon by examining the spatial patterns, ethnic and religious identities, and transnational relationships of two recent refugee groups in three urban areas in the Pacific Northwest. Using data from U.S. and Canadian census records, refugee resettlement agency files, survey questionnaires, structured and unstructured interviews, and participant observation with post‐Soviet Russians and Ukrainians in the Vancouver, British Columbia, Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon metropolitan areas, I analyze the spatial patterns and related social networks that define the identities and residential and religious spaces of these groups to test the efficacy of relating heterolocalism and transnationalism across an international boundary.

• Canada
• heterolocalism
• Pacific Northwest
• refugees
• transnationalism
• United States

* I am grateful for the support of the National Science Foundation (grant #bcs‐0214467) and the Canadian government for a generous Canadian Studies Faculty Enhancement grant. Both made it possible to complete the fieldwork and cartographic analysis needed for this research. Deepest thanks are also extended to James E. Meacham, Amanda Coleman, and Grace Gardner in the Department of Geography at the University of Oregon, for their help with the cartographic analysis that is central to this study, and to Ginger Mansfield, for her invaluable research assistance.

1 Dr. Hardwick is a professor of geography at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403.

* I am grateful for the support of the National Science Foundation (grant #bcs‐0214467) and the Canadian government for a generous Canadian Studies Faculty Enhancement grant. Both made it possible to complete the fieldwork and cartographic analysis needed for this research. Deepest thanks are also extended to James E. Meacham, Amanda Coleman, and Grace Gardner in the Department of Geography at the University of Oregon, for their help with the cartographic analysis that is central to this study, and to Ginger Mansfield, for her invaluable research assistance.

1 Dr. Hardwick is a professor of geography at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403.

Notes

* I am grateful for the support of the National Science Foundation (grant #bcs‐0214467) and the Canadian government for a generous Canadian Studies Faculty Enhancement grant. Both made it possible to complete the fieldwork and cartographic analysis needed for this research. Deepest thanks are also extended to James E. Meacham, Amanda Coleman, and Grace Gardner in the Department of Geography at the University of Oregon, for their help with the cartographic analysis that is central to this study, and to Ginger Mansfield, for her invaluable research assistance.

1 Dr. Hardwick is a professor of geography at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403.