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Immigrant Participation in the Transnational Era: Latin Americans' Experiences with Collective Organising in Toronto

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Journal of International Migration and Integration / Revue de l'integration et de la migration internationale Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper examines the challenges migrant groups that are new and internally diverse face to participate and build community in host societies today. Qualitative research findings on Latin American migrants' experiences in Toronto, Canada, reveal that the group's participation is the result of a complexity of social and spatial processes. The paper contributes to current debates on the study of immigrant integration in three ways: (1) by focusing on immigrants' collective forms of organising, (2) by responding to ongoing calls for a closer examination of intra-group diversity, and (3) by drawing on transnationalism research to avoid the use of essentialising categories in the study of immigrant groups that are internally diverse.

Résumé

Cet article examine les défis auxquels font face les nouveaux groupes migrants caractérisés par une diversité interne pour participer et développer une conscience communautaire dans les sociétés d’accueil d’aujourd’hui. Les résultats d’une recherche qualitative portant sur les expériences de migrants latino-américains à Toronto, au Canada, ont indiqué que la participation du groupe a pour origine des processus sociaux et spatiaux complexes. La contribution de cet article aux débats actuels sur l’étude de l’intégration des immigrants s’établit de trois façons: (1) en se concentrant sur les formes collectives d’organisation des immigrants; (2) en réagissant aux demandes continues pour un examen soigneux de la diversité intragroupe; et (3) en puisant dans la recherche sur le transnationalisme pour éviter, dans le contexte d’une étude sur les groupes d’immigrants caractérisés par une diversité interne, d’employer des catégories qui réduisent à l’essentiel

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Notes

  1. Latin American here does not include migrants from non-Spanish-speaking countries such as Brazil.

  2. It is important to mention that debate surrounds these figures. Community organisations such as the Canadian Hispanic Congress and the Hispanic Development Council contested the 2001 Census data claiming that the Latin American population in Canada was under-enumerated.

  3. There is one exception at the federal level: Osvaldo Núñez (originally from Chile) who was elected as MP to the Bloc Québécois, the Separatist party of the province of Québec, from 1993 to 1997.

  4. In 2003, three candidates of Latin American origin ran in Toronto's municipal elections.

  5. Immigrants still arrive under the refugee and family reunification classes, but the significance of these has decreased relatively to the independent immigrant class. Since the early 2000s, Colombians form the largest group of refugees from Latin America. In the 1990s, the “universal point system” (introduced in the 1967), was modified to put more emphasis on immigrants' levels of education, occupation, professional experience and knowledge of Canadian official languages. Although not explicitly discriminatory, this new point system favours applicants with specific professional training and experience that have the potential to contribute to Canada’s advanced economy.

  6. The Centre for Spanish-Speaking People was established by three women from Spain in 1973, just before the arrival of the Coup refugees, to provide services to the emerging Spanish-speaking community in Toronto.

  7. It is important to acknowledge that many are pushed to do so by the social, economic and political circumstances of their home countries (especially in Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela).

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Acknowledgements

I wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Department of Geography at the University of Toronto for my doctoral research, and the Ethnic, Immigration and Pluralism Studies Programme at the University of Toronto for awarding me the Robert F. Harney Graduate Research Grant. I am grateful to Martha Raddice and Kate Swanson for their comments on initial drafts, and especially to Heidi Hoernig for her detailed feedback and encouragements at various stages. I also thank the two anonymous reviewers and Peter Li for their constructive criticisms, as well as John Shields for his editorial suggestions. Above all, I thank my research participants for their time and dedication.

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  1. Department of Geography, University of Ottawa, Simard Hall, 60 University, Room 017, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada

    Luisa Veronis

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Correspondence to Luisa Veronis.

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Veronis, L. Immigrant Participation in the Transnational Era: Latin Americans' Experiences with Collective Organising in Toronto. Int. Migration & Integration 11, 173–192 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-010-0133-9

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