From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Indo-fijians/Norman Buchignani
A number of factors – extensive chain migration, highly localized residential patterns, kinship- and friendship-based mutual aid, and, on the part of individuals, a sense of their distinctive identities as Fijian – have resulted in the rapid development of dense interpersonal networks among Indo-Fijians in the Vancouver region. These informal community networks are strongly based on kinship, and are supported by much reciprocal visiting. For a long while, class in its rigorous sense was a peripheral issue for most Indo-Fijians in Canada. Since at least the mid-1970s, however, differences in post-immigration material success have created some stratification in the community. Ever-rising house prices and a deteriorating job market establish a correlation between material success and the length of time immigrants have been in Canada, and thus, indirectly, age. For the most part, the quickly growing population of Canadian-born children participate in these community networks either as extensions of their parents’ interests or because many of the individuals involved are their close kin.
In Fiji, religious affiliation and subethnicity are usually matters of birth, and interreligious marriages among Indians are rare. Thus, religious persuasion is strongly linked to family and kinship. While social networks are roughly divided along religious and subethnic lines, individuals rarely make strong religious or cultural distinctions. The informal community networks operate as reference groups, providing psychosocial support, practical information about jobs and so on, and also the Indo-Fijians’ chief recreation – visiting.
Formal institutions among Indo-Fijians in Canada are as weak as the informal community and family networks are strong. Indo-Fijian cultural associations and sports teams (notably soccer) have existed in the Vancouver area since the 1970s, but they have never played a central role in community affairs. Indo-Fijian Hindus and Muslims have been actively involved, however, in creating the more formal institutions associated with their respective religious communities.
