In Summer 2024, our early career researcher at the Eur-Asian Border Lab and junior research fellow at Tallinn University, Iverson Ng, participated in the ‘Borders and Law in the 21st Century’ Summer School, hosted by the Borders in Globalization Institute at the University of Victoria, Canada. This week-long program provided an opportunity to engage deeply with legal border concepts while also experiencing the diverse cultural and historical landscapes of British Columbia. Iverson reflects on his experience.
Multiple realities of law and territory in Canada
The biggest takeaway of the summer school was the role of territorial acknowledgement of First Nations, grouping of Indigenous people, in Canada. In the beginning of every lecture, the lecturer would read out a long statement on the University of Victoria’s recognition of colonisation and associated attitudes, policies and institutions which have changed the Indigenous people’s relationship with the land of Victoria.
In the legal border course, even though the ongoing struggle for Indigenous rights and cultural autonomy in Canada was only a fraction of the teaching content, it opened rooms for discussions of how indigenous people challenged the legitimacy of existing legal system, pursue their yearning for sovereignty as a people, and the political elites’ recognition of their historical territories.
Victoria, capital city of the province of British Columbia, hosts a contested cultural space between its British heritage and presence of symbols of the Indigenous people. While tourists and Canadians with European heritage would celebrate how much the city of Victoria is connected to English culture, the discourse of Indigenous people being back to the discussion of their belonging to this land in Victoria has shown the emergence of decolonisation in the country.
Colonial past and the question of Hong Kong migrants
Aside from in-depth conversations on borders and bordering, I got to explore the university campus with markers of indigenous population almost everywhere, and came to the realisation that Hong Kong migrants dominate certain districts in Vancouver. This is quite crucial to note because my research is on the judicial border between Hong Kong and mainland China, following the implementation of the 2020 Hong Kong National Security Law.
As Canada is part of the Commonwealth, the cities of Victoria and Vancouver continue to be the hosts of Chinese and Hong Kong migrants due to the colonial legacy within the complex Sino-British bilateral relations. According to Statistics Canada, a census in 2021 showed that Canada is hosting over 213,000 Hongkongers who identify their single or multiple cultural origin of Hong Kong. No wonder I never failed to find barbecue pork buns, pineapple buns, Hong Kong style fried rice here and there… Not to mention the fact that Cantonese is a dominant language in Richmond, a Vancouver district packed with Hong Kong food and entertainment.
Final thoughts
Borders, as experienced in British Columbia, extend far beyond maps and national policies. They exist in legal frameworks, cultural identities, migration histories, and Indigenous struggles for sovereignty. Thanks to the generous support of the Eur-Asian Border Lab, I got to participate in this engaging Summer School which provided an invaluable lens through which to explore these complexities. These same complexities remind us yet again that borders are not just about separation but about ongoing negotiations of power, belonging, and history.
Now, I’ll let pictures tell the rest of the story about my experience. Take a look.
