Narrating Identity: "South African Immigrants" in Greater Vancouver

This thesis has two purposes. First, to explore the ways in which a group of "South African immigrants" to Greater Vancouver talked about their racial, ethnic and national identities, and how these may shift depending on social context Secondly, to examine how the participants differentially experienced the immigration process (i.e., deciding to emigrate, immigrating, and adjusting to life in Canada) depending on their identities and skin colour. Through narratives, participants from varied backgrounds construct understandings about what it means to be from South Africa, to be racialized, and to immigrate to Canada Excerpts from these narratives provide the basis for an ethnographic analysis of how the experiences of the group of participants are differentially shaped according to notions of self-identity and ascriptions of "otherness". Drawing on the framework of relational positionality, I explore what the participants communicated about self and other and how these may shift depending on social context. By supplementing agonistic, self-other binaries with relational positionality, one is able to see how power circulates through relationships in complicated ways, as social actors seek to re-direct the flow of power in communicating who they are, and just as importantly, who they are not. As contexts shift, so to do the meanings participants attach to identities and ascriptions of otherness (i.e., categorizations). The meanings associated with self and other are also influenced by the immigration process as different sets of difference-producing relationships are encountered. Available identity options and associated meanings are also shaped by public perceptions of political changes in the “new” South Africa, which serve to both constrain and enable available identity options as some possibilities were restricted while other were opened up (as with “White” South Africans re-claiming their South Africanness). The research also shows that skin colour differentially affected the experiences of the participants not only in South Africa, but also when “starting over” in Greater Vancouver. Although Canada provided more “freedom” to choose identity options than in South Africa, this was accompanied by more ambiguous “othering” and racializing processes which also served to constrain and enable available identity options.