Q&A: Gillian Creese’s ‘Where are you from?’ Growing up African-Canadian in Vancouver (University of Toronto Press, 2020)
What are the major themes and takeaways in ‘Where are you from?’ Growing up African-Canadian in Vancouver?
This book explores how second-generation African-Canadians navigate multiple identities as African, as Black, and as Canadian, how identities are affected by racism and racial micro-aggressions such as the common query, ‘Where are you from?’, and how such encounters shape belonging in one’s own home town.
When participants were asked how they identify themselves, almost everyone began that discussion by observing that people always ask them where they are from. Participants grew up in metro Vancouver, so they speak with local accents that should suggest local origins. They are not dressed any differently than other residents their age. So why are they so often asked where they come from? Participants recognize that this question is a racialized micro aggression, a statement that they do not belong here, and as such, this question has come to frame their identities. Some participants said if other people don’t recognize that I come from here, then I can’t really be Canadian so that is not part of my identity. These participants identified as African or by their parents’ national origin even if they were born in Canada or have no memories of ever living anywhere else. Other participants said because people keep asking me where I am from I will only identify as Canadian and insist that others recognize that I am at home. These participants would simply refuse to tell strangers or casual acquaintances about their parents’ origins and would only provide a local origin. Another group of participants adopted hyphenated identities as African-Canadian (or Nigerian-Canadian, Somali-Canadian etc.) and would insist, at the same time, ‘but I grew up here.’ This is a powerful example of how racialized micro aggressions shape belonging for second-generation African-Canadians, and hence ‘where are you from?’ became the title of the book.
The book takes an intersectional approach that explores how processes of racialization are fundamentally gendered and sexualized, just as heterosexual gender relations are shaped by racialized differences. As a result, African- Canadian men and women growing up in Vancouver have very different experiences.
Another key theme in the book is recognizing the importance of place and the impact of the size of immigrant communities – in this case a very small, heterogenous, and hyper visible community – to better understand settlement experiences in Canada. Vancouver is an ethnically diverse metropolis where half the population are immigrants, nearly half identify as people of colour, but only one percent of residents are African descent or racialized as Black. That makes growing up African-Canadian in Vancouver very different than in Toronto or Montreal.
Where would you situate ‘Where are you from?’ in the larger field of Migration Studies? How do you see it contributing to contemporary debates?
My earlier research, The New African Diaspora in Vancouver: Migration, Exclusion and Belonging (University of Toronto Press, 2011), addressed the experiences of first-generation migrants from countries in sub-Saharan Africa who are creating a new and diverse African community in metro Vancouver. Most participants experienced downward mobility, with educational and professional credentials that were not recognized by local employers, discrimination against African-English accents, and considerable anti-Black racism. Parents routinely said that it was all worth it if their children are accepted as Canadians who do not face these barriers. At the same time, parents worried that their children might lose their African identity in Canada. This book addresses African immigrant parents’ concerns by examining what it is like for the second-generation to grow up in Vancouver.
‘Where are you from?’ explores the experiences of a group that receive very little scholarly attention, the children of immigrants from countries in sub-Saharan Africa growing up in Canada. It addresses these experiences in the unique Canadian space of metro Vancouver, a very diverse city where only one percent of the population are racialized as Black. African-Canadians in this context are both hyper-visible as Black, and invisible as distinct communities.
The study is informed by feminist and critical race theories about how social life is structured through intersecting relations of gender, race, sexuality, class and place. It explores gender differences among women and men as they pursue educational and career goals, develop friendships and romantic relationships, and navigate public spaces. The book considers how these gender differences are racialized, and how racialized constructions of Blackness have gender specific dimensions in Canada. Research participants shared commonalities that derived from their parents’ origins in Africa, being racialized as Black, identifying as heterosexual, and having low to modest family incomes combined with high levels of educational cultural capital. At the same time, gender differences were significant. In elementary and high school, women recall often being quite isolated and developing a very small group of friends, while images of Black masculinity in popular culture contributed to most men being extremely popular and ‘cool’ in high school. These gender differences continue in adulthood, with Black men constituting objects of heterosexual desire well beyond the African-Canadian community, while most women participants remained single and partners were almost all adult migrants from Africa. As adults, men are most likely to be subject to intense surveillance in public spaces and harassed by authorities. Men and women navigate careers, higher education, and different social situations in the context of the hyper visibility of being Black in Vancouver, and the micro aggressions and racism that challenges recognition of their capabilities, character, and belonging as Canadians.
What was the research process like for ‘Where are you from?’ Were there any methodological challenges?
The study uses purposive sampling and qualitative methods of in-depth interviews. This approach makes it possible to highlight research participants’ own words to unearth their ‘situated knowledges’ and describe their diverse experiences of growing up and being young adults in Vancouver. Drawing on extensive quotations from interviews helps to place second-generation African-Canadians at the centre of the research narrative. As a researcher who is an ‘outsider’ to the community, a white woman with long-standing research and personal relationships within the local African community, speaking alongside rather than for participants forms a critical element of an anti-oppressive methodology.
Unlike most research on the second-generation in different immigrant communities, this study addresses different life stages, exploring changing experiences in childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. The book also explores differences between the Canadian-born in the second-generation, and the 1.5-generation born abroad but largely raised in Canada, although I find far more similarities than differences.
Do you have any future plans to build on your findings?
I am working with a team on a large national project across six provinces that will examine access to postsecondary education among African refugee youth in Canada. We know that both refugee youth and Black youth face additional barriers in Canadian schools, and this study will explore supports available in high schools and communities, and strategies of resilience that young men and women have developed. I am working with community research assistants in the settlement sector to conduct interviews. We were in the process of scheduling interviews in March when everything was shut down, and I look forward to getting back to this project whenever we are able to conduct face-to-face interviews. I am also part of a research group planning to examine immigrants’ employment experiences in B.C. during COVID 19, and a partnership grant on strategies of resilience among sub-Saharan African immigrants in several Canadian cities.