Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
estimated that 50,000-100,000 permanent residents in Canada frequently
travel to Taiwan and Mainland China 'for work and family reasons'
(Fong 2003). This estimate excluded similar movement with Hong Kong.
Return
Both the astronaut family and those hunkering down to wait out their eligi-
bility for citizenship are primary candidates for return. Wives may rejoin
husbands in East Asia leaving behind their teenage or adult children in
school or university. Roots in Canada are shallow, motivations for migration
above all pragmatic. Business class immigrants in particular have a limited
sense of belonging and identity with Canada (Hiebert and Ley 2006), and
such sentiments are readily trumped by economic motives. Many house-
holds have been disappointed by business failure and wish to re-enter the
familiar economic culture of East Asia that has proven satisfying in the past.
Return does not occupy the common position of a long planned retirement
move. Rather, akin to 'brain circulation', a strategic step for career advance-
ment is being undertaken. Indeed future retirement may require later re-
migration. Such repeated mobility across borders is part and parcel of the
transnational condition. Newly emergent households, the adult children of
immigrant families, are Canadian-educated but also see career opportuni-
ties as brighter in East Asia.
Analytically separate, individual households commonly move between these
five family strategies over time. Some households planned the terms of their
stay in Canada from the outset, many improvised before an unexpected
turn of events. The resilience and flexibility of the millionaire migrant leads
to continuing re-appraisal of variable opportunities across the transnational
social field.
Movers and Stayers among East Asian Migrants
A considerable number of the 480,000 immigrants of all entry classes who
landed in Canada from Hong Kong and Taiwan between 1980 and 2001
have remained, engaging in integration and putting down roots. 4 But many
have departed. By the early 1990s, the return of migrants to East Asia was
being noticed on the street and reported in the media. At the end of 1993, the
South China Morning Post was detecting a return flow of skilled workers -
'Brain drain slows as managers return' - even before the peak year of emigra-
tion out of Hong Kong in 1994 (Ng 1993). Soon after, the World Journal
(1994a) in Vancouver announced that foreign passport holders in Hong
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