Illustrator uses a white background for its work area unlike photoshop where you can see a checkered area denoting the workspace. These articles explain and show you how to resolve this issue and get a transparent background.

forums.adobe.com/thread/672373
I'm relatively new to Illustrator, (I'm working in CS4) and created a corporate logo for one of my clients. When I place the logo into Photoshop or InDesign, the logo is in a white box. How can I make the background transparent in the origi ...

www.designcontest.com/forum/adobe-illustrator/28095-how-do-i...
How do I get a transparent background in my Adobe Illustrator file? This is aforum thread discussing this but seems to go about it the long way with exporting here and importing here and using multiple programs.

budgetvideo4biz.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/how-to-make-adobe-ill...
How to Make Adobe Illustrator Background Transparent. When you edit a vector image for your web page or video editing, one of the first skills you'll need to master is saving the "Alpha Channel" or transparent background. Here's how to save an image to ...

www.wikihow.com/Make-Adobe-Illustrator-Background-Transparen...
When manipulating images in Illustrator, one of the first things you'll need to learn is how to make the background transparent. When working in layered files, it's important that the background layer doesn't obstruct the foreground layer. Here's a ste ...