Political Behaviour/Sociology

F05(b) - (Im-)migration, Identity, and Belonging / (Im-)migration, identité et appartenance

Date: Jun 3 | Time: 03:30pm to 05:00pm | Location:

Chair/Président/Présidente : Noorin Nazari (University of Ottawa)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Randy Besco (University of Toronto)

Beyond Representation: The Chinese Diaspora and Olivia Chow’s 2023 Mayoral Campaign: Yu-Chen Chen (York University), Ethel Tungohan (York University)
Abstract: Contrary to the expectation that Olivia Chow’s 2023 mayoral campaign would be broadly favoured by the “Chinese diaspora” due to her ethnic background, Chow’s push to become Toronto’s first non-white leader generated a polarized response among various Chinese-language migrant groups. For example, although Chow is first generation Hong Kong diaspora, her political background as a NDP candidate made Hong Kong voters hesitant in extending their support to her campaign. This research aims to explain this phenomenon, and in doing so provide new insights into the dynamics driving ethnic groups to embrace or reject a political candidate of their own background. By conducting a qualitative thematic analysis of online discussion surrounding a candidate’s ethnicity and election campaigns, and voter social status and homeland experience across different Chinese-language migrant groups, both before and after Chow assumed the mayoral office, this research challenges previous studies that emphasize the impact of Chow’s ethnic affinities in the 2014 Toronto mayoral election. Moreover, this study helps to fill a gap in the existing literature on voting behaviour and political leadership, which tends to be primarily based on aggregate data that overlooks the daily concerns of minority residents, and importantly, how their homeland experiences impact their engagement with local politics. The findings help illuminate the complexity of minority political behavior and venture beyond the representation lens that typically dominates the literature.

Who Do We Think We Are? Ancestry.com & The Politics of Identity: Hailey-Ann Walker (Carleton University)
Abstract: The advent of genetic testing and ancestry services has transformed personal and familial genealogy from the niche pursuit of family tree hobbyists to a multi-billion-dollar industry. Ancestry.com dominates this industry and has amassed over 22 million DNA samples and an astonishing collection of over 40 billion archival artefacts including international birth, marriage, and death records, census and voter data, immigration and travel records, military enlistment and casualty records, school and church directories, and tax, crime, land, and will records. Increasingly, Ancestry’s massive data stores have become embroiled in contemporary controversies around data privacy, genetic science, immigration, and law enforcement. More broadly, Ancestry.com data has become an expedient way for politicians, academics, and citizens alike to historically and scientifically ‘validate’ (or ‘invalidate’) ancestral and ethnic claims in a wider ‘culture of identity’, wherein the will to know, broadcast, and authenticate one’s roots and ethnic belonging saturates public life. As such, this project contends that archival relics and genetic material have ascended new status as a mode of political capital (both symbolic and material) which is neither reducible to market logics nor under the exclusive purview of the state. This research examines the emergence and evolution of Ancestry.com and the digital consolidation and deployment of Ancestry data across a transversal and interactive cultural- governmental field. In doing so, the project breaks rich empirical terrain upon which we can better problematize the multitude of practices through which the private and leisurely genealogical pursuits of individuals and families are rendered a convenient assemblage in the management and governing of populations.

Immigrating with children: How interactions with schools may shape immigrant parents’ integration process overtime: Valérie-Anne Mahéo (University Laval), Anne Imouza (McGill University), Alexander-Frederick Ross (Université Laval)
Abstract: Many immigrants change countries for family reasons, seeking better life prospects for their children. Thus, a significant proportion of immigrants who settle in Western countries have children, and one of the first thing they do as they arrive is: to register their kids in school. Hence, schools become one of the first institutions that immigrant parents will interact with. While political science has extensively studied the impact of political institutions on immigrants’ engagement and participation, it has ignored the role that public institutions, such as schools, may play in immigrants’ resocialisation and integration process. In fact, according to the theory of policy feedback effects, schools and their personnel may facilitate immigrants’ access to material and symbolic resources that can foster civic capacities and predispositions, and promote immigrants’ engagement in their community. Several studies have indeed shown that schools can introduce new cultural and political information into parents’ households through children, and support immigrant parents’ integration and engagement within a new society (Kanouté et al. 2014; Adair et Tobin 2007; D'Angelo et Ryan 2011; García-Carmona et al. 2019). Additionally, other studies have demonstrated that schools can be critical actors in immigrant parents’ integration and that a lack of interaction with schools can be detrimental to parents' integration (Martone et al. 2014; Olivos et Mendoza 2010). Given the importance of schools in children’s and parents’ lives - especially in a phase of resettlement when early experiences with institutions may have important and durable impacts on the integration process - our study examines how contacts with schools affect immigrant parents’ attitudes and engagement, over time, with their new community. Capitalizing on a unique three-wave panel survey with recent immigrants, we examine immigrant parents’ interactions with schools -paying specific attention to the quality of these interactions- and assess the impact of these contacts on parents’ feelings of belonging and acceptance in the host community, and on their civic engagement, over a period of three years.