Across the Pacific Divide: Latin American Experiences of Integration and Well-Being in Canada and Australia

Abstract

ABSTRACT There has been a paucity of comparative research regarding social inclusion for the Latin American diaspora worldwide, and this is particularly the case for scholarly work that connects countries in the Americas with nations across the Pacific. Rather than recognise the growing number of Latin Americans who travel throughout the regions of the Pacific Rim, scholarship has remained heavily dominated by works relating to the Latin American population in the United States of America and Europe. In this paper, we shift the attention to Canada and Australia, where both countries increasingly interrogate what have historically been comparable models of multiculturalism and interculturalism. Drawing on data from more a survey of 1600 respondents, we argue that personal and social ties are key to cultivating positive post-migration subjective well-being. In so doing, we highlight the effects of subjective well-being and barriers to integration and belonging. We further illustrate the implications of the intersections of gender, class, and ethnicity in relation to migrants’ well-being and inclusion. Such research demonstrates the need for a better contextualised understanding of migrant inclusion, and for detailed analysis of the situated relationships that constitute Latin American migrant identities across the Pacific Rim.