The Nonchalant Migrants: Americans Living North of the 49th Parallel

Abstract

This paper reverses the conventional migration lens to focus on the understudied case of a growing population of Americans in Canada. What motivates these native-born US citizens to migrate; how do they adapt to life north of the 49th parallel; what is the nature of the ties they maintain to their US homeland? Drawing on fieldwork in Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver, this paper identifies similarities between Americans and other migrants, but also points to a pervasive attitude of nonchalance as a notable difference. Examining migrants of relative privilege in North American helps refine theory rooted in assumptions of marginalization and advances analyses of continental integration.Résumé L'auteur renverse le modèle conventionnel de migration en examinant le cas, peu étudié, de la croissance de la population états-unienne au Canada. Qu'est-ce qui incite ces Américains nés aux États-Unis à migrer? Comment s'adaptent-ils à la vie canadienne? Quels liens maintiennent-ils avec leur patrie états-unienne? Basée sur des recherches sur le terrain menées à Ottawa, à Toronto et à Vancouver, cette étude identifie des similarités entre les Américains et d'autres migrants, tout en soulignant l'attitude de nonchalance qui distingue les migrants états-uniens. L'étude des migrants privilégiés en Amérique du Nord sert à affiner les théories centrées sur l'idée de marginalisation et fait avancer l'analyse de l'intégration continentale.

Privileged Mobility in an Age of Globality

“…The growing scholarship on lifestyle migration has contributed significantly to understanding privileged mobility, but, in actuality, all migrants are aiming to enhance their quality of life. The central distinction that needs to be emphasized is the wide variation in the options available for lifestyle enhancement, the ease with which those options can be pursued, and the attitude underlying the movement-ambivalence, even desperation, in some cases, and relative nonchalance in others [32].…”

Incorporating Immigrants into Canadian Politics: An Experiment on the Effects of Attentiveness to Elections in the Country of Origin

“…The limited prior research on American immigrants in Canada suggested that attention to US politics was compatible with integration into Canadian democracy. Indeed, Americans in Canada were said to feel entitled to take part in both domains (Croucher, 2011). Our findings put a finer point on this characterization.…”

“…The limited prior research on the American immigrant population in Canada suggests that migrants' attention to native-country politics does not undercut political incorporation in the Canadian context. The participants in Croucher's (2011) study were said to be "perfectly at ease with and fully entitled to possess and practice citizenship in a country where they did not reside … and to practice simultaneous membership" in two nation-states (126; see also Dashefsky andWoodrow-Lafield, 1992 andMatthews andSatzewich, 2006). Yet while everyday life in Canada is in many respects similar to life in the United States, there is no denying that the two countries differ markedly in their party organizations, governing agendas, federal structure, and formal institutions of representation (Bilodeau et al, 2010).…”

Expanding the Scope of US Party Politics: An Examination of Membership and Campaign Activism in Democrats Abroad Canada

“…On the whole, though, it appears that putting down roots as an immigrant has relatively little effect on partisan belonging as an emigrant (cf. Croucher 2011).…”