About me
Title:
Responding to Racism by Chinese Immigrants in Canada
Abstract:
We seek to explore the responses of individual Chinese immigrants to racism and consider the structural and cultural factors that shape these responses. Our study utilizes thematic analysis of nine focus group discussions involving 48 participants, encompassing individuals of varying genders and age groups in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, conducted between December 2021 and January 2022. Our findings reveal that (a) responses to racism among participants ranged from doing nothing to employing strategies such as avoidance, withdrawal, seeking assistance, reporting incidents, educating perpetrators, or directly confronting perpetrators; (b) contrary to stereotypes depicting Chinese immigrants as passive and non-confrontational, some individuals displayed direct, active, and assertive responses to instances of racism, albeit rarely resorting to violence. We contend that the resistance of Chinese immigrants to racism is nuanced and contextualized, shaped by a blend of cultural influences from both their home and host societies, while also constrained by their marginalized status and limited power within a systemically racist host society.
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