‘Love your China’ and evangelise: religion, nationalism, racism and immigrant settlement in Canada

摘要

This paper explores how race, religion and national origin intersect in one transnational context. In an educational ethnography, I encountered a discourse that called for overseas Chinese to convert and evangelise other Chinese (in China), which won many followers in Canada. Using Critical Race Theory and the notion of intersectionality, I analyse the shared understandings of race and national identity, and the shared experience of institutionalised discrimination in everyday life in this community. I suggest that sanctioned and enabled by Canadian banal nationalism and racism, structural discrimination against racialised minority immigrants contributes to difficulties they experience in settlement. Intersecting with racism and banal nationalism, Christian evangelism offers many Chinese immigrants an alternative frame to understand the meaning and purpose of immigration and of living as racialised immigrants. Implications for immigrant settlement and for education in general are discussed.View full textDownload full textKeywordsimmigrant settlement, racialisation/racism, evangelical Christianity, banal nationalism, evangelistic conferencesRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2011.553080