Engaging the Canadian Diaspora: Youth social identities in a Canadian border city1

Abstract

This paper is based on qualitative interviews undertaken with immigrant youth of African descent in Windsor, Ontario; it describes their sojourner lives across geographic borders and their final settlement in Windsor. The paper also offers narrations of the activities that enabled them to formulate friendships and the barriers and facilitators to the development of friendships across races. Critical findings reported in this paper reveal the ways that youth use resources in their travels to construct and negotiate their identities and to formulate new friendships. An important resource used by the majority of the youth was that of an imagined homeland, which consequently impacted on how they viewed and acted on the racial boundary critical in the formation of friendships in the Diaspora.

Presentation of the special issue regarding African Canadian educational excellence

“…By far, enablers of and barriers to education that affect African Canadian students is the theme most often explored in the academic literature. Among these barriers we find anti-Black sentiment, racism, racialization, Eurocentricity, low expectations, and stereotypes (Adjei, 2018;Briggs, 2018;Codjoe, 2001;Collins & Magnan, 2018;Dei, 2008;Dei et al, 1997;Howard, 2014;James, 2012;Thésée & Carr, 2016;Zaami, 2015), acculturation, integration, or post-migration related challenges (Dlamini et al, 2009;Kanu, 2008…”

“…Firstly, many scholars have explored African Canadian student narratives pertaining to their educational journeys (Adjei, 2018;Codjoe, 2007;Dlamini et al, 2009;Lafortune, 2014;Livingstone et al, 2014;Schroeter & James, 2015;Smith et al, 2005;Zaami, 2015) and transitions from one grade level or system to another (Briggs, 2018;Collins & Magnan, 2018;James, 2019;Kamanzi & Collins, 2018;Lafortune, 2019;Munroe et al, 2019). This body of research which primarily consists of (but is not limited to) qualitative inquiries, can touch upon enablers of, and barriers to education, often entails an analysis of life transitions that includes the voices of Black Canadian learners.…”

Os jovens desafiam a comunidade: entre a esperança e a estigmatizaçãoI

“…economic hardships, wars, genocides, political instabilities); and, positive occurrences (e.g. communal existence, extended family structure), all elements that mediate the interpretation of well-being and community engagement in Canada (for details of the consequences of these forces, see DLAMINI et al 2010). Resilience is built on topographies such as learning to ignore things, finding ways around challenges, accepting suffering (of multiple forms) as part of living, and focusing on individual abilities as key to success.…”

“…Heller (1987) rightly argues that social injustice entails not only an unfair distribution of goods and resources but includes any norm, social condition, social process or social practice that interferes with or constraints one from fully participating in society. Informed by such an understanding of social injustice, Dlamini, Anucha & George (2006-2008 4 , Anucha et al, (2009Anucha et al, ( -2014, Dlamini et al (2010Dlamini et al ( -2014, and, Daniel & Dlamini (2014 -to date) engaged in research studies that aimed to understand the development of inter-and intra-group social networks that result from civic participation, and to unveil related socio-economic benefits. Therefore, the case studies presented here have taken into consideration the role of social capital and of the two mediating factors in youth community participation.…”

Negotiated Positions

“…This article addresses these gaps by presenting findings from a 2006 to 2008 study based on our larger study, Immigrant Women Negotiating Canadian Work Cultures (Dlamini, Anucha, & George, 2006), undertaken with immigrant women in Windsor, Canada, who, within 5 years of their arrival in Canada (the Statistics Canada benchmark for defining new immigrants), had been able to obtain employment. It illuminates the experiences of a group of immigrant women in Windsor by critically examining their responses to the challenges they face in the Canadian workplace and the value they place on working outside the home.…”