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The Lived Experience and Sense of Place among Family Sponsored Late-age Chinese Immigrants in Edmonton
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- Author / Creator
- Qiqi Wang
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Place is powerful in our life because to be human is to be emplaced. In the human geographic interpretation of place, a conceptualization of the emplacement of human experience has been underdeveloped for a long time. This dissertation contributes to this area of inquiry by adopting a phenomenological case study approach to examine family sponsored late-age Chinese immigrants’ lived experience and sense of place in Edmonton, Canada. The focus of this study is to explore the relationship between late-age immigrants and their places at different scales. This work presents how the research participants develop a relationship with place based on their subjective perceptions and experiences. Two case studies are presented in this dissertation. The first study explores how the research participants identify and create a place for themselves as residents of Edmonton, Canada. In particular, participants’ perceptions about Canada are examined as a developmental process in relation to their family power relations and self-efficacy. The second study compares and contrasts perceptions and experiences of place between two groups of research participants: those who live in urban neighbourhoods and those who live in suburban neighbourhoods. Participants’ age, race, ethnicity and where they live in the city contribute to the similarities and differences of their perceptions and experiences of places.The contributions of this research are two-fold. Theoretically, this research contributes to a scholarly understanding of the role of place in human life by establishing two frameworks to illustrate the relationships between participants and their places. Substantively, the research challenges the stereotype of sponsored late-age Chinese immigrants in Canada by revealing their roles and contributions in both their families and in society.
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- Graduation date
- Spring 2019
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Doctor of Philosophy
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- License
- Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.