Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Pacific where they have already proven themselves to be successful and
esteemed economic actors. The asymmetry of economic achievement on
each side of the Pacific creates a parallel geography of status. For it is not
simply a matter of sustaining a family income flow that re-kindles the desire
for East Asia, but it is also a matter of reputation, of face. Mr. Leung, some-
what older and wealthier than Mr. Yuen and Mr. Huang, eloquently spelt
out the downward mobility of working age men to me. He and his wife had
been landed for four years when we spoke, but during this time he had not
been employed or started a business; landing through the investor stream he
had lost substantial money in an ill-conceived venture, and most likely will
continue his de facto retirement. With two sons doing well in school, and
living in a million-dollar house in a good Westside neighbourhood, the
family have decided to stay in Canada. But they are living off savings, and
the prospects of earning money in Vancouver are not good:
We have a lot of experience. Not only my experience. We always speak with the
other immigrants who are from Hong Kong or from Taiwan. We have a lot of
experience also from them… 95 percent of female immigrants like here very
much… 95 percent of male immigrants feel upset, feel embarrassed, feel very
bad… middle age, around 35 to 50… men in this age usually feel upset because
they have lost their self-confidence… their job, lost their respect because when
they are in Taiwan and Hong Kong, maybe in the highest position in the com-
pany… very high level position. After moving here they live with the family,
wife and children go to school, the husbands stay home. Nothing to do. No
work to do. It is very hard to look for a job same as they are in Hong Kong,
They can only have their job in a very low class job, very low class.
Mr. Leung's emphasis on 'very low class' underscores the reputational
issues at stake. His observations rang true in the experience of the majority
of male respondents we interviewed, who had invariably faced downward
mobility and deskilling in Canada; this was the tragic story of the million-
aire migrant as newspaper delivery boy presented in Chapter 1. The unequal
gender impact, penalizing men, is noteworthy, though it can be savagely
reversed in the case of some stranded astronaut wives, or 'widows' as they
may call themselves (Ong 1999). Male identity challenges are frequently
associated with additional family quarrels, and in the case of one respon-
dent led to divorce, as her husband returned home with the failure of his
company, while she chose to remain in Vancouver, living off payments from
investments in a separate family business in Hong Kong. Another respon-
dent told of the stress that overcame a friend's husband, formerly a success-
ful accountant, who had been unable to secure employment in Canada.
After four years he entered a deep depression, threatened his son with a
knife and broke down. Adding to the trauma, the parents decided to return
to East Asia but their two teenage children refused to accompany them.
