ABSTRACT
The notions of ‘diaspora’ and ‘transnationalism’ have helped to redirect migration research towards important new areas of inquiry. Nevertheless, I shall here argue that they may unnecessarily narrow the field of study in ways that make it difficult to grasp the breadth of experience and the complexity of socio-cultural systems found among people who have engaged in migratory movements. In recent years I have carried out life story interviews with members of global family networks of Caribbean background with a view to conducting an exploratory ethnographic study of a group of people who have engaged in a great deal of movement. In this chapter, which focuses on life stories related by family members who have moved to Canada, I shall first investigate how family members have experienced being designated as a ‘visible minority’ in Canadian society. I shall then examine the significance of the global family network as a site of relatedness and belonging within and outside Canadian society. I conclude by arguing that more broadbased ethnographic studies may allow for wider analysis of important commonalities, as well as differences, in the sort of lives people explore today, regardless of their particular place of origins.
