Financial Institution and Immigrant Integration in the U.S. and Canada

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The world today functions in an age of international migration and financial globalization, not only in terms of the century-old phenomenon of people and money crossing national borders, but also in the unprecedented scope and complexity that these crossings have reached. Population and money often have a bi-directional flow, sometimes in the same direction, while opposite in others. The latter flows have attracted the most significant attention, with emphasis placed on remittances flowing from destination countries back to the countries from which immigrants came. In contrast, the wealth generated in source countries and recruitment by destination countries has not been fully recognized or analyzed. This research project will attempt to bridge these gaps by linking immigration study and financial analyses. The investigators will examine the intermediary roles of financial institutions of various kinds in the immigrant integration process from the perspectives of both supply (banks) and demand (immigrants) through an interdisciplinary approach. The investigators will examine the extent to which financial institutions develop and use social capital-ethnic assets in outreach to immigrant communities as well as whether financial integration is part of the ultimate goal in immigrant integration into receiving societies. They will compare and contrast the roles of different types of financial institutions (banks and credit unions) in both the U.S. and Canada. They will explore the strategies financial institutions use to reach out to immigrant communities, the global, national, and local forces that shape these strategies; and ways in which immigrant communities assess the fairness and effectiveness of such strategies. The researchers will combine census data analysis, GIS-aided spatial analysis, financial data analysis, interviews with bank executives and immigrant entrepreneurs, and surveys of immigrants. They will examine major types of financial institutions in San Francisco and Vancouver metropolitan areas, the primary gateways to and the financial sub-centers of the Pacific Rim in the U.S. and Canada.The project is especially timely given the global financial crises that are profoundly changing economic systems and societies. It will connect theories about financial geography, social capital, and ethnic assets with empirical evidence to add broaden basic understanding of the ways that ethnic factors interact with institutional roles with respect to the financial globalization debate, and it will insert a financial angle to social scientific study on immigrant integration. Evaluation of the validity of the ethnic assets as a form of social capital in financial sectors and immigrant financial integration will advance basic knowledge in both financial/economic and ethnic/social geography as well as social science in general. The comparison among two sites in the U.S. and Canada will provide empirical insights into contemporary financial dynamics pertaining to immigration that operates in different ways with different groups. As such, the project will put people back into an analysis of the financial system. The project will employ an interdisciplinary mixed-method approach that will allow the researchers to conduct international comparative research. The project will promote teaching, training, and learning with students who will be directly involved in research and classroom interactions. The project is likely to yield policy recommendations across the border for financial institutions to tap into immigrants' financial and social capital and to contribute to the broader immigration debate.