Encountering the Metropole: Stuart Hall, Race, (Un)Belonging, and Identity in Canada: Exploring the African Caribbean Immigration Experience

ABSTRACT The period between 1965 and 2001 witnessed a dramatic population movement of Black people into lands currently called Canada. Over 500,000 Caribbean people arrived as “landed immigrants” during this period, bringing the total Black population to over one million by 2016. Motivated by economic and political upheavals, thousands of African Caribbean immigrants left their homes in search of a better life. This large inflow of Black immigrants altered the Canadian political and cultural landscapes and ultimately changed the face of Southwestern Ontario. Using data collected from our research project on African Caribbean people in Canada, we examine the lived experiences of this Black immigrant population. This paper utilizes Stuart Hall’s framing of race, representation, (un)belonging, and identity to explore the particularities of African Caribbean immigration experiences in Canada; we show that Blackness, Black identity, and belonging in Canada are not fixed in their meaning, but rather represent a contested terrain.