Doctoral Dissertation Research: South Asian Transnationalism in Chicago and Toronto

Syracuse University, Syracuse NY

Investigators

Abstract

As two of the largest South Asian business districts in North America, Chicago's Devon Avenue and Toronto's Gerrard Street highlight both the changing demographics of these cities and the ways in which migrants have transformed urban space. Through migrant networks and connections that encompass multiple nation-states, these business districts are connected with other urban locales, forming transnational sites. Although scholarship on migration produced in the last fifteen years has debated the degree to which migrants maintain connections between their countries of origin and settlement, two fundamental gaps exist in understandings of migrant transnationalism. Two different types of transnational connections have gone largely unexplored. The first consists of connections forged by migrants that incorporate sites beyond countries of origin and settlement, while the second relates to the crucial role of particular cities and nation-states in fostering the diversity of practices that constitute migrant transnationalism. This doctoral dissertation research project therefore will focus on two primary research questions: (1) What are the specific South Asian transnational networks that produce South Asian business districts in Chicago and Toronto? (2) How do different federal policies and discourses on migration and national belonging lead to different forms of South Asian transnationalism in Chicago and Toronto? By conducting interviews with merchants, residents, and community leaders in conjunction with participant observation in the businesses on Devon Avenue and Gerrard Street, the doctoral candidate will address the specific transnational practices and connections of South Asian migrants in Chicago and Toronto. He also will explore how these networks reproduce Devon Avenue and Gerrard Street as South Asian business districts. Archival research and comparative case study analysis will examine the differential ways that national discourses on migration in the United States and Canada and urban discourses on multiculturalism in Chicago and Toronto mediate South Asian migrant transnationalism in these two cities and nation-states. The anticipated outcomes of the research project should help explain the degree to which South Asian transnational networks rely on both symbolic and material connections from numerous sites. Project results also should help identify the extent to which these networks are largely influenced by federal and city-level policies and discourses on migration. By merging debates in urban, political, and cultural geographies, the proposed research will compare the impacts of different cities and different nation-states on South Asian transnational connections. The project also will shed new light regarding the quotidian forms of migrant transnationalism that play a significant yet overlooked role in the transformation of urban space. Project results will have implications for immigration policy, particularly as it relates to issues of citizenship, national identity, and the ways in which transnational connections are produced through the everyday lives of migrants. They also will be relevant to understanding how cities can better address the needs of migrants as well as the effects of urban policies on migrant transnationalism. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.