bout de papier, Vol. 31, No. 3 (2021), pp. 38–39
BY JOHN STACKHOUSE
RANDOM HOUSE
OF CANADA, 2020
ISBN 978-0345815804, 360 pp
ANYONE WHO HAS SERVED ABROAD knows about the Canadian expatriate community. Canadians are everywhere in the world, from the halls of academe in Europe to California’s Silicon Valley, to the displaced persons camps in the Congo to the remote mining operations of Mongolia and Bolivia. In this ambitious book, John Stackhouse, former editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail, now of the Munk Centre at the University of Toronto, pulls together a lot of ideas about this disparate group and draws some policy conclusions about the Canadian diaspora and its significance.
Stackhouse’s research is impressive, and he weaves an intriguing tale. Canadians end up in other countries for many reasons. Some relate to lack of opportunities in Canada, or simply better opportunities elsewhere. Some include wanderlust, an itch to get away and try something else. Canadians sometimes move to another country, intending to return to Canada at a later date. Some do; some don’t. This book is about the Canadians who have left Canada, but who also remember their Canadian roots and give some credit for their success to their Canadian background. No two stories are identical, and it’s a strength of this well-crafted book that Stackhouse can carry the reader along, from one Canadian to another, pulling out the complexities of the expat experience and the meaning of being Canadian in another country, where sometimes it’s an advantage, at other times a burden.
Stackhouse’s focus, albeit not exclusively, is on successful Canadians abroad, from Hollywood to world-class academic and research centres, to international organizations. While he doesn’t discuss numbers (and Canadians are notoriously difficult to track in any event), it’s impossible to avoid his conclusion that Canadians are everywhere in the international community, probably in numbers greater than any other nationality, excepting perhaps Americans and Chinese.
After an 11-chapter review of Canadians in every corner of the world, Stackhouse gets to the nub of the issues he wants to discuss. How can Canada benefit by this huge and powerful diaspora?
we continue to foster the spirit of internationalism that underpins the expatriate experience at a time when Canadians seem increasingly averse to studying and working abroad? Some countries are good at working with their diasporas (don’t even hint that a diaspora could be “managed”). He cites the Netherlands and the US as examples. According to Stackhouse, “diaspora strategies are now a key part of foreign policy, perhaps the key part” for certain fast-growing countries and economies. Some countries have adopted intriguing initiatives to bind some of their expats to their homeland’s prime foreign policy objectives. Canada is unique, he argues, in having no diaspora strategy at all.
In the final four chapters, as well as his conclusion, Stackhouse offers a series of views on how Canada could work with Canadian expatriates to Canada’s advantage, as well as to foster a spirit of internationalism that will continue to encourage Canadians to think about living abroad. He argues compellingly that there are advantages to close and continuing relationships with the Canadian diaspora. They may be force-multipliers for Canadian influence abroad; they may be invaluable allies in trade relationships and economic initiatives; at a minimum, they are vital sources of information on what’s happening beyond Canadian borders.
Yet all of this is easier said than done. As a starting point, Stackhouse recognizes that many Canadian expats simply don’t want to be “organized” by their local embassies. Where there are local Canada Clubs, as there was in Guatemala when I arrived in 1996, they generally want to do their own thing, sometimes with embassy help, sometimes without. Moreover, there is a broad spectrum of interests engaged in diaspora issues, triggering lots of issues, some of which, like dual nationality and voting rights, are tricky. The Canadian government wants no part of other issues, like the consular rights of Canadians suspected of involvement in terrorism abroad.
Some of Stackhouse’s ideas, drawn from the experience of other countries, merit exploration, such as “an advisory council of global Canadians,”
although the precise purpose and role of this initiative remain somewhat opaque. Stackhouse is also correct when he emphasizes that there is a small mountain of research studies on the expatriate phenomenon, enough to form the backbone of initial work on a strategy paper. There are many individuals hard at work on the issue, albeit out of the government orbit. Chrystia Freeland once expressed interest in a diaspora strategy following a presentation she heard at Davos. Did anything happen afterwards?
Stackhouse eloquently addresses an issue related to the Canadian diaspora, namely, Canadians studying abroad. And he finds the trend-lines of the past decade disturbing. While other countries, including our closest allies, are developing incentives to encourage foreign study and embrace the international idea, Canadian students are staying home in growing numbers, shunning opportunities for life and work abroad. An important recent study on international education led by Margaret Biggs and Roland Paris has been ignored by the Canadian government, at the very time when its rapid embrace could have a positive impact on Canadian attitudes towards international education, mobility and creativity.
Stackhouse’s concluding chapter is a plea to mobilize the Canadian diaspora in Canadian interests. It’s a powerful chapter, urging Canadians to be “more outward-looking as a people at home and more ambitious with Canadians abroad, knowing that if we support them, those expats can help shape and secure our collective identity in a world that is rapidly changing.” He argues that the Canadian diaspora can be a “megaphone for our small voice, a connector for our small numbers and a lever for our big ambitions.”
Plenty of bureaucrats in Ottawa and provincial capitals will be disposed to believe that Stackhouse has exaggerated the possibilities of future benefit in the diaspora issue. Yet he’s right in arguing that this is a low-cost, high-return option for Canada. There’s no downside in putting some intellectual muscle behind his observations. The upside is that even a modest return on the investment he recommends might be dramatically favourable. At a time when the Canadian government seems weary and bereft of ideas, this is an issue that is easily embraced. This book is the place to start.
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 31, No. 3 (2021), pp. 38–39. Read the rest of this issue →
