Being CBC: The Ambivalent Identities and Belonging of Canadian-Born Children of Immigrants

Abstract Immigrants from Hong Kong are one of the largest recent cohorts of newcomers in Canada. We examine the processes through which the children of Hong Kong immigrants construct a sense of belonging in Canada, their only home. In focus group discussions, the participants express an unequivocal sense of Canadian citizenship and belonging. Yet their identities project an idealized Canadian body that wears "Canadian" clothing, plays "Canadian" sports, and, above all, speaks "Canadian" English. The projection is always relational and spatialized, variable according to place, and especially according to whether the other is viewed as family, as another "Canadian-born Chinese" (CBC), as a recent Chinese immigrant, or as a dominant Canadian. Often viewed as not Chinese enough by recent immigrants, in turn, they denigrate recent immigrants as not Canadian enough and resent them for reinforcing a concept of otherness held by dominant Canadians that often includes CBCs. Many participants feel more "Chinese" in family settings where parents uphold Chinese traditions. Their sense of belonging is a set of paradoxes, of between-ness, that they negotiate through a sense of place-ness: place as the homes in which they belong but also as a set of shifting public and private contexts in which they express their identities and relationships in variable ways. 来自香港的移民, 是加拿大晚近为数最多的新移民群体之一。我们检视香港移民的子女在加拿大——对他们而言是唯一的家——的归属感建构过程。研究参与者在焦点团体讨论中, 表达了对加拿大公民身份及归属的明确感。但他们的身份认同投射出一个理想的加拿大身体, 该身体穿着 "加拿大的" 服饰、从事 "加拿大的" 运动, 尤其是说 "加拿大的" 英文。此般投射永远是关係性且空间化的, 随着地方有所不同, 并特别取决于他者被视为家庭的一分子、另一个 "加拿大出生的华人" (CBC) 、华人新移民, 还是主流的加拿大人。在加拿大出生的华人经常被华人新移民视为不够具有华人特色, 反之, 他们则视华人新移民不够加拿大人, 并怨怼这些新移民深化了主流加拿大人的他者概念, 因为这个 "他者" 经常包含了加拿大出生的华人。许多参与者在父母维护华人传统的家庭环境中, 感觉自己更像 "华人"。他们的归属感是透过地方感协商的一组矛盾与介乎中间性 (between-ness): 包含他们视为家的地方, 以及一系列以不同方式表达其身份认同及关係的改变中的公共及私人脉络。 Los inmigrantes procedentes de Hong Kong son una de las nuevas mayores cohortes de recién llegados al Canadá. Examinamos los procesos mediante los cuales los hijos de inmigrantes de Hong Kong construyen un sentido de pertenencia en Canadá, que es su única patria. En discusiones grupales, los participantes expresan un inequívoco sentido de ciudadanía y pertenencia canadiense. Sin embargo, sus identidades proyectan una individualidad canadiense idealizada, que usa ropa "canadiense", juega deportes "canadienses" y, sobre todo, que habla inglés "canadiense". La proyección siempre es relacional y espacializada, variable según el lugar y, especialmente, según que el interlocutor sea visto como familiar, o como otro "chino nacido en Canadá" (CBC, por su acrónimo inglés), o como un inmigrante chino reciente, o como un canadiense nato dominante. Mirados a menudo como no lo suficientemente chinos por inmigrantes recientes, ellos a su vez denigran de los inmigrantes re cientes como no lo suficientemente canadienses y los resienten por reforzar un concepto de otredad que tienen los dominantes canadienses, que a veces incluye a los CBCs. Muchos participantes se sienten más como "chinos" en escenarios familiares donde los padres mantienen las tradiciones chinas. Su sentido de pertenencia es un conjunto de paradojas, o de indefinición, que se negocia mediante un sentido de lugar-idad: lugar como los hogares a los cuales ellos pertenecen, pero también como un conjunto de cambiantes contextos públicos y privados donde ellos expresan sus identidades y relaciones de variables maneras Key Words: Canadian-born Chinese (CBC)Hong Kong Canadiansracializationsecond generationsense of belonging关键词: 在加拿大出生的华人 (CBC)香港裔加拿大人种族化移民第二代归属感Palabras clave: chinos nacidos en Canadá (CBC)canadienses de Hong Kongracializaciónsegunda generaciónsentido de pertenencia Acknowledgments This research was supported by a strategic grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, No. 829-99-1012, to Drs. A. Kobayashi (Principal Investigator), D. Ley, G. Man, V. Preston, and M. Siemiatycki. We are grateful to Janine Rose, Susanne Cliff-Jungling, and Ann Marie Murnaghan for invaluable research assistance, The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Centre where Valerie Preston worked on this article, and two reviewers and the editor whose comments improved the article. Notes 1. This research is part of a larger project investigating the transnational experiences of Hong Kong Canadians in Vancouver, Kingston, and Toronto, involving 257 participants in a total of thirty focus groups, conducted in Cantonese and English. Participants were recruited from a range of social and service organizations, most notably SUCCESS in Vancouver and CCIS in Toronto. All participants received reimbursement for travel costs to meetings that took place in various public places, including community centers and libraries. The social and economic characteristics of the Hong Kongers from Toronto and Vancouver were similar (Kobayashi, Preston, and Murnaghan Citation2011), and the same was true for the CBCs included in this analysis. 2. By combining these two groups, we follow Portes and Rumbaut (Citation2001), who also group together the American-born children of immigrants and immigrants who arrive as children and receive some primary or secondary education in the United States; however, we disagree with labeling this group as second-generation immigrants. The second generation is by definition Canadian because they are born or naturalized in Canada. 3. Most focus groups included men and women; however, we conducted a few groups segregated by gender. Comparison of the transcripts revealed no consistent differences in the discussions. 4. Our codes are in two parts: The first is the number of the focus group; the second is the identifier given to each individual.