Emigration to another country is no longer a one-way passage. Recent research recognizes the complexity of international migration, under the rapidly expanding rubric of transnationalism, not as a single event but as embarking upon a way of life that places, and re-places, individuals and families within a new spatiality, stretching human relations across great distances. In the process, transnational migrants disrupt many taken-for-granted notions about immigrant settlement, renegotiating identities and citizenship practices. Our research is part of a large and ongoing project designed to understand how the concept of citizenship has changed for one of the largest groups of transnational migrants, people who moved from Hong Kong to Canada during the 1980s and 1990s. Based on intense conversations among migrants in focus-group sessions, as well as on extensive background information derived from questionnaires, we have explored the disruptions and connections that occur both in the regularities of every- day life and in the ideas and assumptions according to which everyday life is enacted. In this paper, we explore the concept of civic participation, asking how patterns of participation have changed through the course of migration and how participation Transnationalism, gender, and civic participation: Canadian case studies of Hong Kong immigrants À Valerie Preston Department of Geography, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada; e-mail: vpreston@yorku.ca Audrey Kobayashi Department of Geography, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada; e-mail: kobayasi@post.queensu.ca Guida Man School of Social Sciences,York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada; e-mail: gman@yorku.ca Received 24 November 2004; in revised form 2 June 2005 Environment and Planning A 2006, volume 38, pages 1633 ^ 1651 Abstract. It is widely claimed that recent migration trends show increasing levels of transnational activity, but there is a need for a more detailed understanding of the relationship between trans- nationalism and citizenship participation, particularly from a gendered perspective. A study of immigrants from Hong Kong to Vancouver and Toronto, the largest group of immigrants to Canada in the period 1989 to 1997, shows that, although migration occurred in a context of anticipated political instability around reunification with the People’s Republic of China, the most significant justification for emigration was to further the interests of the family, particularly children’s education. Gender differences are subtle, but women tend to focus more strongly on family considerations, whereas men are somewhat more concerned with economic and political issues. Transnational activities focus around ties of family and friendship, rather than around political or economic ties. Women and men both seek formal rights of citizenship, and are beginning to express a desire for more participation in Canadian society. Contrary to theories of hypermobility among Hong Kong emi- grants, transnationalism and citizenship participation are seen as a basis for settlement. Gendered approaches to transnationalism need to understand how the concept of citizenship, and citizenship participation, develops as a result of wider social relations that are structured differently for women and men. DOI:10.1068/a37410 À When we discuss international migrants to Canada, where permanent residence is an expectation and the norm, Hong Kong migrants will be identified as Hong Kong immigrants, the contemporary usage in Canada.