It is widely claimed that recent migration trends show increasing levels of transnational activity, but there is a need for a more detailed understanding of the relationship between transnationalism and citizenship participation, particularly from a gendered perspective. A study of immigrants from Hong Kong to Vancouver and Toronto, the largest group of immigrants to Canada in the period 1989 to 1997, shows that, although migration occurred in a context of anticipated political instability around reunification with the People's Republic of China, the most significant justification for emigration was to further the interests of the family, particularly children's education. Gender differences are subtle, but women tend to focus more strongly on family considerations, whereas men are somewhat more concerned with economic and political issues. Transnational activities focus around ties of family and friendship, rather than around political or economic ties. Women and men both seek formal rights of citizenship, and are beginning to express a desire for more participation in Canadian society. Contrary to theories of hypermobility among Hong Kong emigrants, transnationalism and citizenship participation are seen as a basis for settlement. Gendered approaches to transnationalism need to understand how the concept of citizenship, and citizenship participation, develops as a result of wider social relations that are structured differently for women and men.
Abu-LabanYStasiulisD, 1998, “Welcome/stay out, the contradiction of Canadian integration and immigration policies at the millennium”Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal30190–213
3.
BaileyAJWrightRMountzAMiyaresI, 2002, “(Re)producing Salvadoran transnational geographies”Annals of the Association of American Geographers92125–144
4.
BloemraadI, 2000, “Citizenship and immigration: a current review”Journal of International Migration and Integration19–37
5.
BloemraadI, 2002, “The North American naturalization gap: an institutional approach to citizenship acquisition in the United States and Canada”International Migration Review36193–229
6.
CastlesS, 2002, “Migration and community formation under conditions of globalization”International Migration Review361143–1168
7.
ChamberlainMLeydesdorffS, 2004, “Transnational families: memories and narratives”Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs4227–241
8.
CheahP, 1997, “Given culture: rethinking cosmopolitical freedom in transnationalism”boundary 224157–197
9.
ChiangLHN, 2004, “Middle-class Taiwanese immigrant women adapt to life in Australasia: case studies from transnational households”Asian Journal of Womens Studies1031–57
10.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 1996Hong Kong Immigrants in Canada, Immigration Research Series (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ottawa)
11.
ConstableN, 2003, “A transnational perspective on divorce and marriage: Filipina wives and workers”Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power10163–180
12.
CrangPDwyerCJacksonP, 2003, “Transnationalism and the spaces of commodity culture”Progress in Human Geography27438–456
13.
FaistT, 1999, “Developing transnational social spaces: the Turkish-German example”, in Migration and Transnational Social Spaces Ed. PriesL (Ashgate, Aldershot, Hants) pp 36–72
14.
FaistT, 2000, “Transnationalism in international migration: implications for the study of citizenship and culture”Ethnic and Racial Studies23189–222
15.
FincherRFosterLGilesWPrestonV, 1994, “Gender and migration policy”, in Immigration and Refugee Policy, Volume 1 Eds AdelmanHBorowskiABursteinMFosterL (Melbourne University Press, Carlton) pp 149–186
16.
FonerN, 2001, “Immigrant commitment to America, then and now: myths and realities”Citizenship Studies527–40
17.
FouronGGlick SchillerN, 2001, “All in the family: gender, transnational migration and the nation-state”Identities7539–582
18.
FouronGGlick SchillerN, 2002, “The generation of identity: redefining the second generation within a transnational social field”, in The Changing Face of Home: The Transnational Lives of the Second Generation Eds LevittPWatersMC (Russell Sage Foundation, New York) pp 168–208
19.
GoldringL, 1998, “The power of status in transnational social fields”, in Transnationalism from Below Eds SmithMPGuarnizoL (Transaction, New Brunswick, NJ) pp 165–195
20.
HenryF, 1999The Caribbean Diaspora in Toronto: Learning to Live with Racism (University of Toronto Press, Toronto)
21.
HoESIpMBedfordRD, 2001, “Transnational Hong Kong Chinese families in the 1990s”New Zealand Journal of Geography11124–30
22.
Hondagneu-SoteloPAvilaE, 1997, “‘I'm here, but I'm there’: the meanings of Latina transnational motherhood”Gender and Society11548–571
23.
ItzigsohnJSaucedoSG, 2002, “Immigrant incorporation and sociocultural transnationalism”International Migration Review36766–799
24.
KobayashiALeyD, 2005, “Back to Hong Kong? Return migration or transnational sojourn?”Global Networks5111–128
25.
KofmanE, 2004, “Family-related migration: a critical review of European studies”Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies30243–262
26.
LamL, 1994, “Searching for a safe haven: the migration and settlement of Hong Kong Chinese immigrants in Toronto”, in Reluctant Exiles? Migration from Hong Kong and the New Overseas Chinese Ed. SkeldonR (M E Sharpe, Armonk, NY) pp 163–179
27.
LevittP, 2001a, “Transnational migration: taking stock and future directions”Global Networks1195–216
28.
LevittP, 2001bThe Transnational Villagers (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
29.
LevittPGlick SchillerN, 2004, “Conceptualizing simultaneity: a transnational social field perspective on society”International Migration Review381002–1039
30.
LeyD, 1999, “Myths and meanings of immigration and the metropolis”The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien432–19
31.
LiP, 2001, “Immigrants' propensity to self-employment: evidence from Canada”International Migration Review351106–1128
32.
LiP, 2003Destination Canada: Immigration Debates and Issues (Oxford University Press, Toronto)
33.
MahlerS, 1999, “Engendering transnational migration: a case study of Salvadorans”American Behavioral Scientist42690–719
34.
MahlerSPessarP, 2001, “Gendered geographies of power: analyzing gender across transnational spaces”Identities7441–459
35.
ManGC, 1997, “Women's work is never done: social organization of work and the experiences of middle-class Hong Kong Chinese immigrant families in Canada” Advances in Gender Research2183–226
36.
MasseyDS, 1999, “International migration at the dawn of the twenty-first century: the role of the state”Population and Development Review25303–319
37.
MorrisonLGurugeSSnarrKA, 1999, “Sri Lankan Tamil immigrants in Toronto: gender, marriage patterns and sexuality”, in Gender and Immigration Eds KelsonGDeLaetD (New York University Press, New York) pp 144–162
38.
OngA, 1999Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality (Duke University Press, Durham, NC)
PortesAGuarnizoLELandoltP, 1999, “Introduction: pitfalls and promise of an emergent research field”Ethnic and Racial Studies22217–237
41.
PrattG, 1999, “From registered nurse to registered nanny: discursive geographies of Filipina domestic workers in Vancouver, BC”Economic Geography75215–236
42.
PrattGYeohB, 2003, “Transnational (counter) topographies”Gender, Place and Culture10159–166
43.
PrestonVManG, 1999, “Employment experiences of Chinese immigrant women: an exploration of diversity”Canadian Woman Studies/Cahiers de la femme19115–122
44.
PribilskyJ, 2004, “‘Aprendemos a convivir’: conjugal relations, co-parenting, and family life among Ecuadorian transnational migrants in New York City and the Ecuadorian Andes”Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs4313–334
45.
RaghuramP, 2004, “The difference that skills make: gender, family migration strategies and regulated labour markets”Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies30303–321
46.
ReedPBSelbeeLK, 2001, “Canada's civic core: on the disproportionality of charitable giving, volunteering and civic participation”Isuma232–38
47.
RyanJ, 2000, “Chinese women as transnational migrants: gender and class in global migration narratives”International Migration4093–116
48.
SalihR, 2000, “Towards an understanding of gender and transnationalism: Moroccan migrant women's movements across the Mediterranean”Anthropological Journal of European Cultures975–91
49.
SalihR, 2001, “Moroccan migrant women: transnationalism, nation states and gender”Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies27655–671
50.
Shiu-HingL, 2001, “Citizenship and participation in Hong Kong”Citizenship Studies5127–142
51.
SkeldonR, 1994, “Hong Kong in an international migration system”, in Reluctant Exiles? Migration from Hong Kong and the New Overseas Chinese Ed. SkeldonR (M E Sharpe, Armonk, NY) pp 21–52
StasiulisD, 1997, “Participation by immigrants, ethnocultural/visible minorities in the Canadian political process”, in Immigrants and Civic Participation: Contemporary Policy and Research IssuesMulticulturalism Program, Department of Canadian Heritage, Ottawa, pp 12–29
54.
StasiulisDJhappanR, 1995, “The fractious politics of a settler society”, in Unsettling Settler Societies: Articulations of Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Class Eds StasiulisDYuval-DavisN (Sage, London) pp 95–131
55.
StatisticsCanada, 2003aCanada's Ethnocultural Portrait: The Changing Mosaic, 2001 Census: Analysis Series (Statistics Canada, Ottawa)
56.
StatisticsCanada, 2003bIncome of Canadian Families, 2001 Census: Analysis Series (Statistics Canada, Ottawa)
57.
TranKKustecSChiuT, 2005, “Becoming Canadian: intent, process and outcome”Canadian Social Trends Spring, 8–13
58.
VertovecS, 1999, “Conceiving and researching transnationalism”Ethnic and Racial Studies22447–462
59.
VertovecS, 2004, “Migrant transnationalism and modes of transformation”International Migration Review38970–1001
60.
WatersJ, 2001, “The flexible family? Recent immigration and ‘astronaut’ households in Vancouver”, WP No. 01-10, Vancouver Centre of Excellence Research on Immigration and Integration in the Metropolis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver)
61.
WatersJ, 2002, “Flexible families? ‘Astronaut’ households and the experiences of lone mothers in Vancouver, British Columbia”Social and Cultural Geography3117–133
62.
WatersJ, 2003, “Flexible citizens? Transnationalism and citizenship amongst economic immigrants in Vancouver”The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien47219–234
63.
WerbnerP, 2004, “Theorising complex diasporas: purity and hybridity in the south Asian public sphere in Britain”Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies30895–911
64.
WillisKYeohB (Eds), 2000Gender and Migration (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Glos)
65.
WillisKYeohB, 2002, “Gendering transnational communities: a comparison of Singaporean and British migrants in China”Geoforum33553–565
66.
WongM, 2003Borders That Separate, Blood That Binds: Transnational Activities of Ghanaian Women in Toronto PhD dissertation, Department of Geography, York University, Toronto
67.
YeohBWillisK, 1999, “‘Heart’ and ‘wing’, nation and diaspora: gendered discourses in Singapore's regionalisation process”Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography6355–372
68.
YeohBWillisK, 2005, “Singaporeans in China: transnational women elites and the negotiation of gendered identities”Geoforum36211–222
69.
YeohBHuangSWillisK, 2000, “Global cities, transnational flows and gender dimensions: the view from Singapore”Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie/Journal of Social and Economic Geography91147–158
70.
Yuval-DavisN, 1997, “Citizenship and difference”, in Gender and Nation Ed. Yuval-DavisN (Sage, London) pp 68–73
