Beyond the Nation? explores the lives of German-Canadian immigrants between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries — from the Moravian missionaries who came to Labrador in the 1770s to the German refugees who arrived in Canada after the Second World War. Internationally renowned historians of migration — including Dirk Hoerder and the late Christiane Harzig — detail these German-Canadians' experiences of immigration by investigating their imagined communities and collective memories.

Beyond the Nation? outlines how German-Canadians invented ethnicity under Canadian expectations, and provides moving case studies of how notable immigrant groups integrated into Canadian society. Other topics explored include literary constructions of German-Canadian identity, analyses of language use among these immigrants, and aspects of their lives that can be interpreted as transcultural and gendered. Transcending the master narrative of immigration as nation building, Beyond the Nation? charts a new course for immigration studies.

Alexander Freund is professor of History at the University of Winnipeg, where he holds the Chair in German-Canadian Studies and was a founding director of the Oral History Centre. He is the author of Oral History and Ethnic History.

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‘Well written, grounded in solid research, and innovative in approach and perspective. Students in migration history, women’s and gender history, and in history of borders and borderlands would greatly benefit from reading this volume.’

Labour/Le Travail vol 77 spring 2016

‘This volume opens up important questions not just for the Canadian immigrant context and should be read by immigration scholars of different ethnic groups, periods, and world regions.’

Society for German-American Studies, vol 47:2013