of Canada itself and its needs for building a productive infrastructure capacity in Central Canada, mainly Ontario. This is the foundation for the first significant migration of South Americans of Colombian and Ecuadorian origin, part of the so-called Andean wave of migration to Canada. Among those immigrants arriving, the key characteristic was their capacity to work in largely unskilled jobs that required commitment and simple human power. It followed in terms of Latin American migration the Coup wave which changed fundamentally the make up of the community here with the settlement of intellectuals, bureaucrats, and highly skilled labour, and significant components of the intelligentsia of the Latin American ABC, Argentina, Brazil and Chile throughout the seventies and early eighties. What followed from the mid eighties onward will be the Central American wave and the High Tech wave. The Central American wave is the product of the civil war, which displaced hundreds of thousands of peoples throughout the region, and the last wave has been recognized as the displacement of significant numbers of professionals and entrepreneurs from all over the continent who have looked to Canada as the place to position themselves in the new global economy. Statistically, this means a growth from negligible numbers of Spanish speaking individuals in Canada, to a number of seven hundred and forty thousand in 2008, according to Statistics Canada.
The effects of this population growth for Canada and Latin America have been of the highest significance, unleashing as many expectations as frustrations on both sides of the migratory process. For instance, the final part of the process of Canada joining the OAS in 1989, after years of indecision in this regard, among many of the Latino-Hispanic organizations there were high expectations of the building of a permanent bridge that would allow Canada, both, as a country, and its Spanish speaking communities here, an effective communications linkage within the region. In the year 2005 it was clearly expressed in the meeting organized by Foreign Affairs Canada in Ottawa, by Latino-Hispanic community representatives, the disappointing results of Canada’s participation in the Americas. Equally interesting is to notice, that among Canadian interested parties in the region there is also a degree of disappointment on the results of this experience. Amongst others, Canadian business leaders in private meetings have expressed frustration on their expectations regarding trade agreements and the fact that in general the conduction of business has not transformed trade volumes and business practices have not changed significantly. Of course all this analysis is simplifying by many factors the complexity of the experience of almost twenty years of Canada at the OAS table. Among the NGO sector the largest issue is the problems of diminishing resources for the Area.
In attempting to understand the frustration with Canada’s role in the Americas lays one of the most interesting opportunities for the work of community and other stakeholders in the transformation of international relations within the framework of transnationalism, and is one of the guiding forces for organizations such as the Hispanic Development Council in the region.
The Future
From a Latin American perspective in Canada, one important aspect of the development of the community institutions here is intimately related to the notion of establishing transnational structures. From international solidarity to social, economic, civic and cultural relations, the Spanish speaking communities have from the onset understood and articulated the needs for building trans border linkages and have attempted to do so. Overall, the results have been very limited and indicate the community is still in search for overall initiatives. A significant reason for the latter is a sense of historical convergence or “Bolivarian dream” looking for a regional perspective rather than country specific initiatives. Yet, most of the work for this past thirty years has been country specific, including the international solidarity during the periods of regional conflicts throughout Latin America.
Beyond environmental disasters or other types of upheaval in the region, the Hispanic Development Council aims at creating, a model for international network connecting individuals, civil society and institutions in the non-government sector at all times. The result of such network will enhance community capacity building by transferring skills and resources within socio economic and cultural educational streams between Canada and our countries of origin in Latin America and the United States. These primarily social capital transfers are aimed at adding value across borders, in the understanding that in the past there has been significant limitation due to lack of resources to be invested in such process from a Canadian perspective. Aside from the latter, today, the relationships built upon the new conditions suggest the opportunity and hope for a new era of collaboration beneficial for all. |
