Immigration Canada: Evolving Realities and Emerging Challenges in a Postnational World by Augie Fleras, and: The Minor Intimacies of Race: Asian Publics in North America by Christine Kim (review)

Abstract

Augie Fieras, Immigration Canada: Evolving Realities and Emerging Challenges in a Postnational World (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2015), 544 pp. Cased. $95. ISBN 978-0-7748-2679-2. Paper. $39.95. ISBN 978-0-7748-2680-8.Christine Kim, The Minor Intimacies of Race: Asian Publics in North America (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2016), 200 pp. Cased. $95. ISBN 978-0-252-04013-9. Paper. $30. ISBN 978-0-252-08162-0.Christine Kim's and Augie Fleras's books enter into the multifarious conversation of Canadian multiculturalism and the possibility of a national identity. Kim examines the internal factors and consequences of immigration to Canada and multiculturalism through her analysis of minor publics, public spaces, and the intimacies they may produce. Fleras considers the current Canadian multicultural paradigm by tracing immigration patterns to Canada and the consequences of Canadian immigration policies and legislation.In The Minor Intimacies of Race, Kim sets up her work with an analysis of the Bank of Canada's attempts to feature an Asian female scientist on the $100 bill. As Kim relays, the Asian-looking scientist was not met with great favour by initial focus groups previewing the design, but rather the response was that an Asian-looking woman could hardly represent Canada or Canadian values (pp. 1-3). Kim uses this response to demonstrate how the politics of multicultural recognition does not necessarily permeate the nation to the degree to which multicultural rhetoric does. That is, although Canada has adopted official multicultural policies since the late 1970s, multicultural recognition in everyday interactions has not yet reached the masses (otherwise the Asian scientist on the bank note would not have been scrutinized for not properly representing Canada).Central to Kim's book is the idea of publics. Kim uses the concept of 'dominant publics' and 'minor publics' to highlight social intimacy and feeling involved in the construction of publics, but especially minor publics. The term 'Asian Canadian' tends to be a catchall term used to describe a variety of ethnic groups or diasporas without noting the many cultural, linguistic, socio-economic, and geographical differences. For Kim, the idea of a 'minor public' represents a group of people that is brought together through shared experiences, feelings, community, and identity (although Kim asserts that this is not inherently tied to notions of race or ethnicity). Drawing further from mainstream YouTube videos, Twitter 'tweets', local Canadian artists, and contemporary Canadian literature, Kim uses media to highlight how Asian publics, many of which are often included in an Asian Canadian diaspora, may indeed be broken down further into minor publics.For Kim, feelings matter because a minor public can only remain in existence as long as their participants are engaged in active dialogue. They are much more ephemeral and momentary than a catchall term such as 'Asian Canadian' and are thus able to transform and progress with its participants in a non-essentialising manner. Minor publics, then, are often at odds with multicultural rhetoric that acknowledges yet essentialises all minorities against a dominant (white) Canadian majority. It is worth noting that Kim is not so much interested in reading minor publics in opposition to major publics but rather she turns to the social intimacy these publics emerge from and within. …