Detroit and Windsor as Transnational Spaces: A Case Study of Asian Indian Migrants

Abstract

Detroit and Windsor as Transnational Spaces: A Case Study of Asian Indian Migrants by Vibha Bhalla A recent book, Permeable Border The Great hakes Basin as Transnational Region, 1650-1990, has drawn attention to the Great Lakes region as a transnational space. Emphasizing the economic and social linkages across this area, the authors examine the artificial nature of the border, stating: "The border also has been a principal mechanism for articulating and implementing immigration, economic development, and nation building policies while it has become, on a symbolic level, the embodiment of national sovereignty."1 Highlighting the regional economic linkages that have, since the seventeenth century, spanned what is now the Canadian and U.S. border, the authors also discuss the symbiotic relationship between nation building and capitalist interests. The nation state, they argue, played a central role in encouraging economic developments?it eliminated tariffs to promote economic development and it also created immigration policies to ease labor shortages in key industries by allowing selective migration. Finally, the authors demonstrate the ways inwhich people interacted with economic and political developments because of their individual or family needs. The book's authors call for future writers to look beyond the nation state narrative and focus on regions that transcend borders.2 This article follows the themes discussed in Permeable Border into recent decades. Using the migration of Asian Indians/East Indians3 within the Great Lakes region, especially between Detroit and Iwould like to thank Nora Fakes for her help in revising this article. Thanks also go to Christine Drennan. 1 John J. Bukowczyk et al., Permeable Border. The Great Lakes Basin as Transnational Region, 1650-1990 (Calgary and Pittsburgh: University of Calgary Press, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005), 3. 2 Ibid. 3 Canada and the United States categorize migrants from India differently. In Canada they are defined as East Indians, while the United States characterizes them as Asian Indians. For this article Iwill use the terms Asian Indians and Indian immigrants. Michigan Historical Review 34:2 (Fall 2008): 99-116 ?2008 by Central Michigan University. ISSN 0890-1686 All Rights Reserved. 100 Michigan Historical Review Windsor from 1960-2000, the article highlights the new regional economic relationships that have developed since the 1960s, and emphasizes the extensive economic integration of the regional economy during those years, especially in the auto industries. Furthermore, this article will demonstrate that national economic and immigration policies introduced after the 1960s continued to accommodate the dynamic transnational economic needs of the region centered on Windsor and Detroit. The economic opportunities offered by these centers, coupled with the fact that both permitted (if only temporarily) easy access for each others' residents fostered regional networks within the Indian diaspora. Information transmitted through these networks enabled individuals to understand the intricacies of immigration policies and acquire new skills to suit both regional labor needs and national immigration policies. To illustrate this process, the present article draws upon migration narratives of five Indian immigrants to Canada who became involved in these regional economies and subsequendy moved to the United States. As their stories illustrate, Asian Indians inDetroit andWindsor have continued to make the border a permeable space. Large-scale Asian Indian migrations from India to mainland North America began in the 1960s with the passage of new immigration legislation by both Canada and the United States that overturned their anti-Asian immigration policies.4 Canadian immigration laws passed in 1962 and 1967 established a point-based immigration system that allowed Indians once again to immigrate to Canada. Similarly, in 1965 passage of the Immigration and Naturalization Act in the United States overturned an immigration policy that had until then been based on the national origins quota system. The new policy established hemispheric quotas and emphasized the importance of reuniting families as well as economic development.5 The liberalization of Canadian and U.S. immigration policies coincided with Great Britain's decision to restrict immigration. 4Trinidad and Guyana already had large Indian diaspora populations. See Ninette Kelley and Michael J. Trebilcock, The Making of the Mosaic: A History of Canadian Immigration Policy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998), for information on Canadian immigration policies. See David M. Reimers, Still the Golden Door...