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Caribbean Religions Projects Project
Rural Development in Chile (Temuco)
University Consortium on the Global South
Fellows' Projects
Latin American Research Group
RELAC Virtual Library
CERLAC NEWSLETTERS
CERLAC HOME
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CERLAC Projects
Fellows' Projects
Latin American Human Rights Education and Research Network
(RedLEIDH)
By Bill Fairbairn
Early this summer, following a series of unexpected delays, CIDA gave the long-awaited green light to begin the implementation phase of the Latin American Human Rights Education and Research Network (RedLEIDH) project. Developed by CERLAC and Osgoode Hall Law School, and supported through CIDA's University Partnership in Cooperation and Development Program (UPCD), the RedLEIDH supports the establishment of a new network of Latin American universities and leading civil society organizations to advance an ambitious agenda of human rights education, applied research and capacity-building in the region.
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Research on Caribbean Immigrant Remittances
By Alan Simmons
Migrant remittance flows received by several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are understood to be very large, often exceeding official development assistance and revenues from leading exports. However, little is known about the proportion of these flows originating in Canada or the characteristics and practices of Canadian remittance senders. This project is a first step in filling this gap.
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CERLAC
Projects
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The Caribbean Religions Project
by Patrick Taylor
The Caribbean Religions Project (CRP) is in the final stages of completing the Encyclopedia of Caribbean Religions under the editorial direction of CERLAC fellows Frederick I. Case and Patrick Taylor. Funded by the Ford Foundation, work has focused on translating, editing, formatting and proofing submissions from across the region. There are four hundred entries in the Encyclopedia from several hundred contributors addressing the multiple religious traditions found in the Caribbean. Most of the coordinators, researchers and contributors to the Encyclopedia are scholars based in the Caribbean.
Among the visitors to the CRP's CERLAC office were Dr. Judith Soares and Dr. Gosnell Yorke. Dr. Soares, Director of Women and Development (WAND) in Barbados, is a consulting editor and regional coordinator with the CRP. She has contributed a number of important articles to the Encyclopedia. Dr. Gosnell Yorke, a linguist with extensive experience in Africa and the Caribbean, is also a contributor to the Encyclopedia and has advised the project team in a number of areas. The project also hosted two of our Cuban contributors, Dr. Jorge Ramírez Calzadilla, a specialist on organized religion in Cuba and the Director of the Department of Socio-Religious Studies (DESR), Centro de Investigaciones Psícológicas y Sociológicas in Havana, and DESR researcher Aníbal Arguelles Mederos, a specialist on Afro-Cuban religions.
Over the past year Dr. Joyce Leung, the project's Editorial Coordinator, continued to play a critical role in maintaining communication with Caribbean scholars, particularly those based in Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe. She received excellent administrative support from CERLAC's Benjamin Cornejo and Shana Yael Shubs throughout the year.
York graduate students, several of them foreign students from the Caribbean, continued to make important contributions to the work of the CRP. Sean Lokaisingh-Meighoo graduated with a PhD in Social and Political Thought, but still works with project as associate editor with particular responsibilities for the Indian religions in the Caribbean. Manuel Marques (Social and Political Thought) Leah Stewart, Kathryn Grimbly and Kyah Lloyd (Humanities), and Anna Vandenberg (Interdisciplinary Studies) provided valuable project assistance in a variety of areas.
Visit the Caribbean
Religion Project website for more information.
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TEMUCO
By Tim Clark
Financed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), the York-UCT Project links the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) with the Centre for Sustainable Development (CDS) of the Catholic University of Temuco (UCT), Chile, together with NGO partners, the Latin American Center for Sustainable Development (CLADES) and the Center for Education and Technology (CET), all in Chile. The main objectives of the project are two-fold: to strengthen the recently created CDS and to support the formation of human resources at York University and in the NGOs related to sustainable development - with an emphasis on rural areas - through the organization of fora for the dissemination of information and the sharing of experiences, including conferences, and new initiatives such as the University Consortium on the Global South
(UCGS).
In previous years, the CDS implemented an innovative distance-education Master's Program in the Management of Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, tailored to professionals working throughout Latin America, in addition to participating in numerous activities promoting awareness of the issues of ecological sustainability through Chile's Region IX.
This year has seen the arrival of a new Director, José Luis Saavedra, and Adjunct Director, Tim Clark. The new leadership team is presently planning a host of new activities for 2006, including two Diplomas in Rural Development and Sustainable Agriculture, one for professors and the other for students, as part of the Centre's drive to strengthen the internal capacity of the UCT in the area of sustainable rural development. In addition, the CDS will setup a series of monthly public debates addressing pressing public policy issues regarding social and ecological sustainability in the region and country with the objective of strengthening the role of the UCT as a key player in the construction of public policy and discourse in the region. At York, 2005 also witnessed the consolidation and expansion of the
University Consortium on the Global South.
Visit the Temuco
website for more information.
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University Consortium on
the Global South (UCGS)
CERLAC, in collaboration with a number of other academic units at York University, lauched the University Consortium on the Global South (UCGS) in April 2004. The purpose of this initiative is to encourage academic engagement with the Global South, broadly defined. In recognition that the problems of the Global South transcend regional boundaries, the initiative provides a venue for trans-disciplinary approaches to these issues and for reaching beyond regional limitis. It aims to stimulate critical research and enourage citical analysis of Canadian policies toward the Global South.
This collaborative effort has established a shared academic space for dialogue and resarch amoung graduate students, faculty members, social activists, policy makers, visiting scholars and speakers, as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations. It works in areas such as human development, political economy, equity and social justice, ecology and sustainability, gender, ethnicity and racialization, rural and grassroots development, North-South relations, global-national-local links, and public policy.
The weekly Colloquium on the Global South hosted by UCGS ran on Wednesday afternoons from 2:30 to 4:30 pm throughout the 2004-2005 academic year, and will continue throughout the 2005-2006 academic year. Seminars and panel discussions have featured academics, graduate students and activists, and addressed topics including social movements, migrant workers, militarism, food security, international financial institutions and numerous other issues. The talks have covered countries and regions in Africa, Asia and the Americas, as well as both global and local events and contexts.
UCGS also organized a number of events and activities for International Development Month in February 2005. In addition to seminars, panel discussions and an internship and work abroad fair, UCGS co-hosted a conference with CERLAC entitled
"Indigenous Struggles in the Americas and Around the World: Land, Autonomy, and Recognition". The conference provided an open forum for academic discussion on the importance of indigenous struggles for land and recognition in all parts of the Global South, and brought together a diverse group of participants made up of indigenous leaders, academics, and students from several countries and indigenous nations, activists from indigenous and non-governmental organizations, and representatives of government agencies, among many others. International Development activities are currently being planned for February 2006.
For a complete listing of upcoming Colloquia topics, dates, and speakers, or to join the listserv, please refer to the Colloquium program available on the UCGS website
http://www.ucgs.yorku.ca. If you have any questions or comments about the UCGS, please contact Ricardo Grinspun at
ricardo@yorku.ca.
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Latin American Human Rights Education and Research Network
By Bill Fairbairn
Early this summer, following a series of unexpected delays, CIDA gave the long-awaited green light to begin the implementation phase of the Latin American Human Rights Education and Research Network
(RedLEIDH) project. Developed by CERLAC and Osgoode Hall Law School, and supported through CIDA's University Partnership in Cooperation and Development Program
(UPCD), the RedLEIDH supports the establishment of a new network of Latin American universities and leading civil society organizations to advance an ambitious agenda of human rights education, applied research and capacity-building in the region.
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The grant will allow the RedLEIDH network to function for an initial six-year period. The network will seek to build on already-existing knowledge networks among universities and civil society organizations in the region, link with networks in Canada, and generate newer and deeper knowledge of human rights. The experience and expertise - and associated knowledge - of women and indigenous peoples will provide a central focus as well as a resource for activities in the project. A basic premise of RedLEIDH is that understanding the economic, social, and cultural rights are integral to the full realization of human rights.
Immediately after receiving CIDA's final approval, RedLEIDH Project Coordinator, Bill Fairbairn, and Financial Officer/Technical Coordinator, Luis Benjamin Cornejo, traveled to Latin America to meet with each of the other founding partners of the project: the Latin American Institute for Alternative Legal Services (ILSA) based in Colombia, the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS) located in Argentina, and the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (IIDH) based in Costa Rica. Fairbairn and Cornejo were accompanied by Project Co-Directors Viviana Patroni (CERLAC, Division of Social Science) and Shin Imai (Osgoode) in a visit to the fourth partner, the Association of Jesuit Universities of Latin America (AUSJAL) with its Secretariat in Venezuela. The bilateral visits, which took place between July and September, were aimed at facilitating this phase of the project and helping to get the full range of activities underway.
The York team was encouraged at the enthusiasm of our partners in proceeding with the project's activities, the aims of which are to strengthen democratic governance and human rights protection, foster a culture of respect for the rule of law, and support the struggle against poverty in Latin America. The project has already begun to support significant initiatives in the region: in Colombia, ILSA produced and held a public launching of a new comprehensive report entitled "Independence at Stake", focusing on the struggle against impunity in that country with a particular emphasis on the highly controversial role played by the Attorney General's office. In Argentina, CELS has begun to identify and work with partners throughout the country in the establishment of human rights legal clinics that will litigate emblematic cases of public concern. In Venezuela, partners are preparing for the first round of scholarships to a new inter-American diploma program initiated by AUSJAL and IIDH. The program targets human rights "practitioners" from across Latin America, and is designed to graduate a generation of "lay advocates"; people sufficiently knowledgeable about human rights law, policy processes and institutional structures, that they can advise and guide their own organizations, communities, and neighbourhoods about how to engage in human rights based advocacy and pressure for change.
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Research on Caribbean Immigrant Remittances
By Alan Simmons
Migrant remittance flows received by several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are understood to be very large, often exceeding official development assistance and revenues from leading exports. However, little is known about the proportion of these flows originating in Canada or the characteristics and practices of Canadian remittance senders. This project is a first step in filling this gap.
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Research began in January 2005 with a grant from the Canadian International Development Agency to Alan Simmons (York University) and collaborators Dwaine Plaza (Oregon State University), and Victor Piché (University of Montreal and Action Canada for Population and Development) for a study of Haitians in Montreal and Jamaicans in Toronto.
Preliminary findings from the study of the Haitian and Jamaican study indicate that the median amount sent in a given transfer is approximately $200.00. Most households transfer money several times a year, with the result that households typically transfer about $1,000 to $1,400 per year. While remitters use various channels to deliver the money, they rely overwhelmingly on money transfer agencies. The findings point to several opportunities for developing initiatives and policies that would facilitate remittance transfers and their positive impacts. Further details may be found
here.
The next step in the study of the Haitian and Jamaican communities is to address as yet unanswered policy questions, such as estimates of the total volume of remittance flows of remittances from Canada to the countries in question, the prospects for continuing remittance flows over time, and so on. The continuing analysis will also seek to expand knowledge about the role of remittances in the generation of transnational communities and related social-political transformations affecting both migrant sending and receiving countries.
New studies are planned and underway. Additional funding from York University and CERLAC in June 2005 led Alan Simmons and Dwaine Plaza to undertake a study of the remittance practices of Guyanese immigrants in Toronto. Support from and collaboration with the Credit Union Central of Canada led Dwaine Plaza and Alan Simmons to carry out a small study of the remittance practices of West Indian farm workers in Southern Ontario and the views of Jamaican remittance recipients regarding the services provided by money transfer agencies.
Many thanks to the members of the communities in question who have supported this project through providing advice on the survey questions, testing the questions, and carrying out interviews. We hope that the research findings, pointing to the positive spirit of family and community support inherent in the sending of remittances, will have a constructive outcome for them. The contributions of the following people to the project are also gratefully acknowledged: Luin Goldring and Patricia Landolt for comments on the survey design and questions; Robbyn Sellers for coordination of the Montreal fieldwork; Alex Lovell and Jennifer Domise for their role in the Toronto studies, and Benjamin Cornejo and Shana
Yael-Shubs for administrative support.
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Fellows'
Projects
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Latin
American Research Group (LARG) By
Luin Goldring
There
is growing evidence that today’s migrants are making use of new technologies
to maintain meaningful relationships with people and institutions in their
places of origin. At the same
time, governments in migrant- and refugee-producing countries are increasingly
interested in making or maintaining ties with emigrants.
Immigrants are engaging in transnational collective action, forming
grassroots institutions that facilitate their ongoing economic and political
participation in places of origin, and states are modifying citizenship
regulations and foreign policy in order to include diasporas.
While transnational linkages are gaining increased visibility,
questions remain about the relationship between immigrant incorporation and
transnational engagements.
The
Latin American Research Group (LARG) is part of a York University-based
project on “Social Cohesion and International Migration in a Globalizing
Era: Transnational Solidarities and Newcomer’s Incorporation in Canada”
(Michael Lanphier, Principal Investigator). The LARG research team focuses on the experiences of Latin
American immigrants in the Toronto area, focusing on those from Chile,
Colombia, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The
study examines four substantive areas: 1) Families – particularly the
experience of geographic separation among family members; 2) Organizations –
focusing on the institutional history of Latin American immigrants in Toronto;
3) States – addressing state policies toward emigrants in countries of
origin; and 4) Remittances. The LARG team consists of CERLAC Fellows Judith Bernhard (ECE,
Ryerson University), Luin Goldring (Sociology, York University), and Patricia
Landolt (Sociology, University of Toronto) as well as several graduate
students (see http://www.yorku.ca/cohesion/LARG/html/largindex2.htm).
Reports and papers are posted on the website as they become available.
Families
The
“Latin American families” component of the project explored the character
of long distance parenting and familial relationships, and family members’
ability and willingness to negotiate and manage their personal lives across
borders. It also examined the adaptation and incorporation process of Latin
American families who had experienced family dispersion as they navigated
their way in Canadian society.
Civil
Society
The
“civil society” component of the project was designed to understand the
institutional/organizational history of Latin American immigrants in Toronto,
and the relationship between incorporation in Canada and transnational
engagements. The project addresses fundamental questions such as how
immigration, settlement and other public policies encourage or discourage the
process of political incorporation in Canada; what
kinds of organizations have immigrants formed, what shapes the
organizational culture of Latin American immigrants; and, how organizational
mandates develop and evolve over time.
State
Policies
The
“state policies” component of the project seeks to understand whether, how
and why immigrant participation is encouraged through government outreach
programmes and policies aimed at the “diaspora,” and how the relationship
between sending states and emigrants has changed over time.
Remittances
There
is currently virtually no empirical data on remittances from Canada to Latin
America and the Caribbean. Existing
research has begun to address this through research on remittances
to Jamaica and Haiti. The “remittances” component of the project collected data
among Latin Americans who send money back home, to produce a profile of
senders in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area).
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RELAC Virtual
Library
The
Red de Estudios sobre Latinoamericanos en Canadá, (RELAC)/ Latin Americans in
Canada Research Network (LAC-RN)/ was formed by a group of Latin American
community leaders, professors and students from York, Toronto and Ryerson
universities who share an interest in contributing to Latin American
communities in Canada.
RELAC
has developed a keyword searchable virtual library with more than 230
references and documents to academic work as well as community organization
reports and other fugitive literature on Latin Americans in Canada. This
library was launched in December, 2004 with the support of the Centre of
Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement, Toronto (CERIS) and the
University of Toronto at Scarborough (UTSC). RELAC’s virtual library is the
first compilation of available written materials on Latin Americans in Canada.
We
invite all those interested in Latin Americans in Canada to use this virtual
library. If you have conducted research on Latin Americans in Canada,
please send us the document for posting: relac@utsc.utoronto.ca.
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