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Article Excerpt
Abstract
In 1999, 905 Kosovar refugees settled in the province of British Columbia (BC) in Canada. Despite their sudden and forced departure, many have maintained contact with and returned to visit Kosovo/a. We contend that these transnational links are different for refugees than for other classes of immigrants. In this case, "refugee transnationalism" refers to the social, cultural, economic, and political relations that Kosovar refugees in Canada keep with those in Serbia and Montenegro (formerly the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). A salient feature that shapes Kosovar transnationalism is the uncertain status of the region of origin, namely Kosovo/a. Based on interviews and focus groups with Kosovars in seven BC cities, we discuss the quality and distinctiveness of transnational links among this refugee group and their implications for settlement and integration in Canada.
Resume
En 1999, 905 refugies kosovars se sont etablis dans la province de la Colombie-Britannique (C.-B.) au Canada. En depit de leur depart rapide et force, nombre d'entre eux ont garde contact avec le Kosovo/Kosova et y ont sejourne. Les auteures soutiennent que ces liens transnationaux different selon qu'il s'agit de refugies ou d'autres categories d'immigrants. L'expression > refere ici aux relations sociales, culturelles, economiques et politiques que les refugies kosovars au Canada conservent avec les refugies de Serbie et du Montenegro (anciennement la Republique federale de Yougoslavie). Le statut incertain de la region d'origine est l'un des traits saillants a la base du transnationalisme kosovar, soit le Kosovo/Kosova. A partir d'interviews et de discussions menees avec des Kosovars dans sept villes de la C.-B., les auteures etudient les specificites et le caractere distinct des liens transnationaux au sein de ce groupe de refugies et les implications pour leur etablissement et leur integration au Canada.
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Resettlement to another country is often considered a "durable solution" to displacement and the endpoint of the refugee experience. A refugee's attachment to her region of origin does not simply end, however, once she arrives in a host society such as Canada. Achieving full participation in Canadian society is a long-term process influenced by events and expectations in the country of origin as well as the host country. "Immigrants take actions, make decisions, and develop subjectivities and identities embedded in networks of relationships that connect them simultaneously to two or more nation-states." (1) Transnationalism recognizes that settlement and integration" occur within the context of two or more locations, and that (new) identifies are forged across this space. As such, settlement and integration cannot be fully understood without consideration of the ongoing social, political, and economic ties that are developed and maintained across the borders of the two states. Incorporating a transnational analysis recognizes that refugees retain and develop multiple relationships both within and between the sending and receiving countries. Processes of immigrant integration and emerging social cohesion in Canadian society may vary from large to small urban centres, across immigrant classes, and within specific immigrant groups. (2)
This paper examines the quality and distinctiveness of transnational links among Kosovars, a group that came to Canada as refugees in 1999. We contend that transnationalism is different for refugees than for other classes of immigrants, and note that the uncertain status of the Kosovars' region of origin, namely Kosovo/a, shapes transnational relations as well as settlement and integration in the province of British Columbia in Canada (BC). (3) Far from abandoning all ties with Kosovo/a, the Kosovars interviewed have established a multitude of relationships and identities that extend beyond Canadian borders. Our findings suggest that the transnational linkages Kosovars in BC maintain with Kosovo/a do not necessarily detract from their "integration" in Canada. Continued uncertainty in Kosovo/a may in fact hasten settlement in Canada.
Living Lives across Time and Space
"The word 'immigrant' evokes images of permanent rupture, of the abandonment of old patterns of life and the painful learning of a new culture and often a new language." (4) Although this conception envisions migrants as moving permanently from one bounded nation to another, others favour an "approach to migration that accents the attachments migrants maintain to families, communities, traditions and causes outside the boundaries of the nation-state to which they have moved." (5) Since the late 1980s, researchers have theorized the ethnic and cultural identities and networks of economic, political, and cultural relations that cross national borders and boundaries. Proponents of transnationalism argue that settlement occurs within a context that simultaneously connects immigrants and refugees to multiple nation-states. (6) Advances in transportation and communications technologies, and their increased accessibility, facilitate migration and improved communications. Migrants develop relations and identities that are no longer anchored in one country, but rather span both their country of origin and country of resettlement. (7)
Basch, Glick Schiller, and Szanton Blanc define transnationalism as "the processes by which immigrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement." (8) Portes extends this definition by arguing that transnational relations must be recurring activities that cross national borders and involve a significant number of people. (9) This scale and intensity of relations, Portes asserts, differentiates transnational activities from those of earlier migrants. (10) Critics of Portes, including Al-Ali and Koser, contend that his insistence on "a significant number of people engaged in sustained relations over time" as a prerequisite to transnational migration is too rigid. (11)
Transnational approaches to migration research must fully consider the ways in which refugee transnationalism may differ from that of immigrant transnationalism. (12) Forced migration is distinct from voluntary migration in the development of transnational relations.
[The] immediate concern of recent arrivals has been to try to secure their positions in their new host countries. Few have yet had time even to re-establish contacts with relatives and friends
left behind ... far less become involved in transnational activities, even those as basic as sending remittances. (13) Al-Ali et al. distinguish "transnational activities," which may include political, economic, social, and cultural activities at multiple scales from the individual to the institutional, from "transnational capabilities," which recognize that the ability to engage in transnational activities is dependent upon the resources available to migrants. (14) The ability to engage in transnational activities in the "home" country may be negatively affected by unemployment, financial instability, and language barriers in the receiving country. This distinction is a useful extension to ideas forwarded by Portes and Portes et al., as it begins to take into consideration the actual ability of people to engage in transnational activities. (15) Portes' research has historically focused on economic, voluntary migrants sending significant remittances.
Recently arrived refugees and immigrants, however, may not be in a position to engage in transnational activities. Sporadic remittances of money or gifts may represent the beginnings of transnational activities and relations for recent refugees who are struggling to establish themselves in the host society. The emergence of transnational activities will be affected by conditions within both the host and the sending country, and can vary over time and space depending on the attitudes of home states, differences in current status, and differences in conditions in home society. (16)
Although much of the transnational literature focuses on economic activities, such as remittances, and political activities, a few researchers have foregrounded social relations. (17) Mountz and Wright, for example, explore the ways in which transnational migration between San Augustan, Oaxaca, and Poughkeepsie, New York, have altered the social practices of Mexican migrants in Poughkeepsie and their families in San Augustan. (18) These authors show how transnational migration transforms social practices both in the sending and receiving countries. Although it is difficult to...
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