American Migration, Settlement, and “Belonging” in Francophone Canada

AbstractMore Americans now reside in Canada than at any time since the Vietnam War. Of particular note is the surprisingly large population of immigrants from the United States who now reside in Montreal—Francophone Canada's largest and most diverse city. This article documents and analyzes the migration experiences, spatial patterns, and "sense of belonging" of Americans in Montreal during the post–Vietnam era framed within the larger political and linguistic context of the city's "Two Solitudes." Findings are based on information compiled from archival materials, census records, structured and unstructured interviews, survey questionnaires, participant observation, and fieldwork. My overarching goal is to embed the experiences and patterns of this English‐speaking group of immigrants in predominately French‐speaking Montreal during the past five decades—one of the most dramatic and divisive periods of time in Montreal and in Quebec as a whole.KeywordsCanada–U.S. borderlandimmigrationFrancophoneAnglophoneMontreal Notes1. The term "American" is used throughout this article to refer to U.S.–born residents of Quebec and other parts of Canada. I am aware that this term actually encompasses all residents of both North and South America (and thus could be viewed as being used inappropriately here to describe only people from the United States). However, since Canadians refer to migrants from the U.S. as "Americans," it is the most appropriate term to use for this particular analysis. For purposes of this study, the terms "English‐speakers," "English‐speaking community," "English‐speaking population," and "Anglophones" are used interchangeably. Likewise, "Francophones" includes "French‐speakers," "French‐speaking community," and "French‐speaking population."2. Note that although very little has been published to date related to U.S. immigrants in Francophone Canada, an emerging body of work does exist on other groups of English‐speaking immigrants in French Canada. Examples include a special issue of Canadian Diversity/Diversité canadienne about Quebec's many ethno‐cultural and ethno‐racial Anglophone communities (2010); a statistical portrait of Anglophone minorities in Canada by Jean‐Pierre Corbeil, Brigitte Chavez, and Daniel Pereira (2010); the work of Montreal historian, Jack Jedwab (2004; 2008a; 2008b; 2010); and other related research published by Lorraine O'Donnell (2010) and other scholars active in the Quebec Anglophone Research Network.3. A notable exception to the almost complete absence of recent work on Americans in Francophone Canada is a brief statistical study by Paul‐André Linteau in 2000 on a few of the historical flows of U.S.–Quebec migrants between 1791 and 1940.4. Although comparative research on recent U.S. immigration to Anglophone Canada and Canadian immigration to the U.S. has become more plentiful in recent years, these studies by scholars such as Jack Jedwab (2004; 2008a; 2008b; 2010); Susan Hardwick (2009; 2010), Susan Hardwick and Heather Smith (2012), and Audrey Kobayashi and Brian Ray (2006) say little or nothing about the distinctive incorporation experiences or sense of belonging of U.S. immigrants in Francophone Canada.Additional informationNotes on contributorsSusan W. HardwickDr. Hardwick is professor emerita of geography at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 97403; [susanh@uoregon.edu].

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