The Power and Politics of Immigrant Philanthropy: Charitable Giving and the Making of the New Canadian Establishment

TLDR: The authors explored the role of high-net-worth immigrants in the development of a philanthropic state within the context of financialization and found that large charities uniquely offer elite diasporas with an opportunity to bundle their humanitarian, business, and community interests through strategic investment.

Abstract: This study explores how high net worth immigrants are contributing to the new golden age of philanthropy. Who are the actors behind the transnational philanthropic class? How are local and regional diaspora networks sustained through charitable giving? What role do non-profits, governments, corporations, and the media play in advancing a model minority aesthetic? These questions are brought to life through an analysis of forty in-depth interviews with immigrant philanthropists and volunteers, fundraising executives of large non-profits, and executive directors of settlement charities conducted from 2013 to 2015 in Toronto, Canada. Through these voices, a number of social, political, and economic themes are explored. First, drawing on Jacques Derrida’s writings about hospitality and gift exchange, I consider how the philanthropic actions of elite immigrants challenge the rules of engagement between the old and new establishments. Second, I explore how the making of a philanthropic diaspora is a translocal process that reinforces a growing divide between have and have not charities. Finally, I look at the role of high net worth immigrants in the development of a philanthropic state within the context of financialization. Ultimately, this study articulates how diaspora philanthropy is entering a new evolutionary phase that is strategically incorporating the rhetorics of diversity and inclusion, philanthrocapitalist models of investing, and a variety of domestic and global initiatives aimed at reconciling politics, giving, and the expansionist logic of advanced capitalism. Moreover, this study suggests that large charities uniquely offer elite diasporas with an opportunity to bundle their humanitarian, business, and community interests through strategic