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

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。当今世界处于一个国际移民和金融全球化的时代，这不仅体现在人员和资金跨越国界的百年现象上，而且体现在这些跨越所达到的前所未有的范围和复杂性上。人口和金钱通常是双向流动的，有时是同一方向，有时是相反方向。后一种流动吸引了最重要的注意，重点放在从目的地国流入移民来源国的汇款。相比之下，来源国创造的财富和目的地国的招聘尚未得到充分承认或分析。这个研究项目将试图通过将移民研究和金融分析联系起来来弥合这些差距。研究人员将通过跨学科的方法，从供给（银行）和需求（移民）的角度，研究各种金融机构在移民融合过程中的中介作用。调查人员将研究金融机构在移民社区外展中开发和使用社会资本-民族资产的程度，以及金融整合是否是移民融入接收社会的最终目标的一部分。他们将比较和对比美国和加拿大不同类型的金融机构（银行和信用合作社）的作用。他们将探讨金融机构用来接触移民社区的策略，以及塑造这些策略的全球、国家和地方力量；以及移民社区如何评估这些策略的公平性和有效性。研究人员将结合人口普查数据分析、地理信息系统辅助的空间分析、金融数据分析、对银行高管和移民企业家的访谈以及对移民的调查。他们将考察旧金山和温哥华大都市区的主要金融机构类型。旧金山和温哥华是美国和加拿大进入环太平洋地区的主要门户和金融次级中心。鉴于正在深刻改变经济体系和社会的全球金融危机，该项目尤其及时。它将把金融地理、社会资本和民族资产的理论与经验证据联系起来，以扩大对民族因素与金融全球化辩论中制度角色相互作用方式的基本理解，并将为移民融合的社会科学研究插入金融角度。评估族裔资产在金融部门和移民金融整合中作为一种社会资本形式的有效性，将促进金融/经济和族裔/社会地理以及一般社会科学的基础知识。对美国和加拿大两个地点的比较，将提供有关移民以不同方式在不同群体中运作的当代金融动态的经验见解。因此，该项目将使人们重新分析金融体系。该项目将采用跨学科混合方法，使研究人员能够进行国际比较研究。该项目将促进学生的教学、培训和学习，他们将直接参与研究和课堂互动。该项目可能会为跨境金融机构提供政策建议，以利用移民的金融和社会资本，并为更广泛的移民辩论做出贡献。

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.