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that - I'm not in the political community - because I think you need to have
more time, and at this point I don't think I have the time… Maybe when I
retire' (a middle-aged Hong Kong male, quoted in Rose 2007: 206). In con-
trast, with preliminaries out of the way, and especially with citizenship in
hand, some see a democratic responsibility to vote: 'When I first came here
I was more concerned with adapting here, getting my citizenship, so noticing
politics wasn't really important. Now that I am a citizen and … I am prepar-
ing for the next vote. I am going to do my research now' (a middle-aged
Hong Kong woman, in Rose 2007: 205). A second and more common
reason for voting was more purposive, directed toward a stake the voter held
in the outcome: 'We just wanted to have a change in the ruling party during
the last provincial election. The [incumbents] were so lousy that we just had
to get rid of them' (middle-aged Hong Kong male, in Rose 2007: 190).
To have a stake in the political outcome of an election indicates a deepen-
ing of affiliations with the Canadian side of the transnational social field. In
principle, citizenship - a pre-requisite for voting - itself represents an expres-
sion of affinity beyond the more limited goal of participation. Of course it is
not this simple, for citizenship and 'passport insurance' reveal other, more
instrumental, goals for transnational households. The passport is often the
prize for which many other sacrifices - economic, social and personal - have
been made. Some 40 percent of responses from Hong Kong immigrants in
Richmond alluded to such considerations: '[Citizenship] was more like an
insurance. The passport is just like an insurance policy, so if you travel out-
side the country and there is any problem you have some security' (quoted
in Rose 2007: 227). Another pragmatic goal is the capacity of the passport
to lubricate transnational movement to business interests in Hong Kong
and minimise difficulties of re-entry to Canada: 'If I am not a Canadian,
there's one limitation: I cannot leave Canada for more than half a year. I can
stay away longer if I am a Canadian citizen' (middle-aged male, in Rose
2007: 228). Or again, in a response by a middle-aged woman:
After all if you're a citizen you're free to go back to Hong Kong. You get no
problems… You know I've been flying for three years… coming back to
Canada if you're a landed immigrant, you start worrying how the immigration
officials will judge you. But I'm a citizen. I can go to Hong Kong and live for
two years, come back and still be a citizen… No problem, I'm going home.
You cannot refuse me (ibid).
In this transnational logic, the freedom of citizenship is a freedom not for affin-
ity, but for departure, to leave Canada as often and for as long as one wishes.
21
As in so much else, we need to understand this trait in light of socialization
in East Asia and the meaning of citizenship transported to Canada. Taiwan is
a young and precarious democracy where security looms large in measures of
