Negotiating Belonging Following Migration: Exploring the Relationship Between Place and Identity in Francophone Minority Communities

A qualitative study was conducted within the Francophone minority community (FMC) of London, Ontario, to explore the integration experiences of French‐speaking immigrants from visible minority groups. We address how shifts to place and identity experienced following international migration influenced the study participants’ negotiation of belonging within the host community. The ethnographic approach to research was guided by a theoretical framework drawing on geographical and sociological literature critically attending to power and place. Findings focus upon the negotiation of two key tensions influencing belonging. First we address the tension between Canada’s official bilingualism and the Francophone immigrants’ lived bilingualism within the local FMC. We then discuss the research participants’ everyday experiences of displacement and exclusion as embedded within a context of official multiculturalism. The findings serve to illustrate ways in which belonging is negotiated in relation to the politics of place.

Categorised in: Academic Literature