The New African Diaspora in Vancouver documents the experiences of immigrants from countries in sub-Saharan Africa on Canada's west coast. Despite their individual national origins, many adopt new identities as 'African' and are actively engaged in creating a new, place-based 'African community.' In this study, Gillian Creese analyzes interviews with sixty-one women and men from twenty-one African countries to document the gendered and racialized processes of community-building that occur in the contexts of marginalization and exclusion as they exist in Vancouver.

Creese reveals that the routine discounting of previous education by potential employers, the demeaning of African accents and bodies by society at large, cultural pressures to reshape gender relations and parenting practices, and the absence of extended families often contribute to downward mobility for immigrants. The New African Diaspora in Vancouver maps out how African immigrants negotiate these multiple dimensions of local exclusion while at the same time creating new spaces of belonging and emerging collective identity.

Metro Vancouver is a diverse city where half the residents identify as people of colour, but only one percent of the population is racialized as Black. In this context, African-Canadians are both hyper-visible as Black, and invisible as distinct communities. Informed by feminist and critical race theories, and based on interviews with women and men who grew up in Vancouver, "Where Are You From?" recounts the unique experience of growing up in a place where the second generation seldom sees other people who look like them, and yet are inundated with popular representations of Blackness from the United States. This study explores how the second generation in Vancouver redefine their African identities to distinguish themselves from African-Americans, while continuing to experience considerable everyday racism that challenges belonging as Canadians. As a result, some members of the second generation reject, and others strongly assert, a Canadian identity.

The New African Diaspora in Vancouver documents the experiences of immigrants from countries in sub-Saharan Africa on Canada's west coast. Despite their individual national origins, many adopt new identities as 'African' and are actively engaged in creating a new, place-based 'African community.' In this study, Gillian Creese analyzes interviews with sixty-one women and men from twenty-one African countries to document the gendered and racialized processes of community-building that occur in the contexts of marginalization and exclusion as they exist in Vancouver.

Creese reveals that the routine discounting of previous education by potential employers, the demeaning of African accents and bodies by society at large, cultural pressures to reshape gender relations and parenting practices, and the absence of extended families often contribute to downward mobility for immigrants. The New African Diaspora in Vancouver maps out how African immigrants negotiate these multiple dimensions of local exclusion while at the same time creating new spaces of belonging and emerging collective identity.

Metro Vancouver is a diverse city where half the residents identify as people of colour, but only one percent of the population is racialized as Black. In this context, African-Canadians are both hyper-visible as Black, and invisible as distinct communities. Informed by feminist and critical race theories, and based on interviews with women and men who grew up in Vancouver, "Where Are You From?" recounts the unique experience of growing up in a place where the second generation seldom sees other people who look like them, and yet are inundated with popular representations of Blackness from the United States. This study explores how the second generation in Vancouver redefine their African identities to distinguish themselves from African-Americans, while continuing to experience considerable everyday racism that challenges belonging as Canadians. As a result, some members of the second generation reject, and others strongly assert, a Canadian identity.

Feminist community research is a collaborative, policy-oriented
methodology that holds the promise of empowering women and building a
more just society. But in the absence of critical analysis and the
responsible use of power, this approach can lead to naive or even
harmful practices.

Grounded as they are in fieldwork, these interdisciplinary case
studies acknowledge the real methodological and ethical issues that
researchers can encounter. The authors discuss the strategies --
successful and unsuccessful -- that they have employed to overcome
these problems. The volume addresses the challenges of negotiating
contested research relationships in local and global contexts and in
relation to concerns such as health care, immigration, and poverty. The
authors' collective experiences working with diverse groups --
including formerly incarcerated women, Aboriginal women, and
poverty-reduction practitioners in Vietnam -- reveal that truly
equitable research projects require that we question core concepts and
address crucial issues such as the promises and limits of reflexivity;
the politics of place, time, and resources; ethical dilemmas and
emotional responses; and the way issues of social justice, policy, and
social change are embedded in research.

By sharing lessons learned, this volume offers real strategies for
researchers and government agencies to build better bridges between
research institutions and communities.

Gillian Creese is a professor of sociology and the
director of the Centre for Women's and Gender Studies at the
University of British Columbia. Wendy Frisby is a
professor in the School of Human Kinetics and past chair of the
Women's and Gender Studies program at the University of
British Columbia.