Flexible citizens? Transnationalism and citizenship amongst economic immigrants in Vancouver

Abstract

This paper contributes to current theoretical debates surrounding concepts of transnationalism and citizenship through an in‐depth, qualitative analysis of ‘astronaut families’ and ‘satellite kids’ in Vancouver, Canada. Specifically, it asks whether the emergence of these ostensibly transnational households amongst Hong Kong and Taiwanese groups indicates a form of ‘instrumental citizenship’(Ip, Inglis and Wu 1997). The circumstances surrounding these family arrangements indeed point to a strategic use of migration, wherein one or both adults planned prior to emigration that they would return, imminently, to the country of origin to work, optimising financial opportunities. The children would remain in Vancouver to obtain an education, during which time the family would be able to acquire Canadian citizenship. Such depictions of a strategising, ‘hypermobile’(Skeldon 1995) Chinese cohort fail, however, to capture an important aspect of the transnational experience, wherein research participants clearly undergo settlement over time and, for want of a better term, a degree of acculturation. This paper suggests that the ‘mobility’ of the Chinese diaspora has been often over emphasised in recent accounts of contemporary migration patterns, too hastily rejecting outright traditional conceptions of immigrant settlement experience.