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Democracy, Diasporas, and Canadian Security in Global Perspective(Support for this project was kindly provided by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation) In 2007, YCISS commissioned the Democracy, Diasporas, and Canadian Security in Global Perspective research project. The objectives of the research were: to foster recognition of the importance of diasporas to foreign policy objectives; foster a different view of diasporas, one which shows how historically important, engaged and independent, diasporas have and continue to be; to show the opportunity for policy innovations in a globalizing age; and to explore the relationship between diasporas and insecurity in Canada and the world. To carry this out, twelve junior scholars and three senior scholars produced research and policy papers related to diasporas in Canada, which we circulated through the internet and to policy makers. To culminate the work done we brought together this network for a workshop in May 2008. The workshop featured presentations by the project’s scholars and the broader research, policy, and activist community in Toronto. Papers and policy briefs from these workshops can be found on this website as well as details of other papers/conferences and research organizations relevant to the project.
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The social inclusion of Canada’s multicultural population is in part dependent upon the acquisition of citizenship. Many of the texts in this section analyse the impact of the lack of citizenship status of many categories of migrants. They also argue for a regularization of the various categories of non-citizens and migrant workers who work and live in Canada, but who do not benefit from that status; for instance live-in caregivers, farm workers or refugees without status. These texts also point to the securitization of immigration in Canada as an impediment to social inclusion yet also as a catalyst enhancing the political participation of diasporic groups. |  |
Diasporic political engagement is, by definition, transnational. In this sense, diasporic communities maintain transnational relations through a variety of civic, economic and social practices that testify of their political engagement. In this sense, the importance of transnational ties in the democratic and civic participation of diasporas cannot be overstated. Diasporic communities sometimes support armed groups in their countries of origin. But they can also be agents of change, development and peace, whether in Haiti, Somalia, Sri Lanka or Ethiopia, as well as raise awareness among the Canadian public of pressing issues affecting their community members elsewhere on the globe. |
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Members of diasporas cultivate hybrid identities which resist rigid categorizations. In turn, such flexible identities give birth to different senses of belonging to the Canadian society as well as to the diasporic communities themselves. Consequently, diasporic identities are not fixed and remain negotiated in individuals’ everyday lives. Issues of proximity and distance, experiences of racialization, the emergence of diasporic consciousness, the relation between citizenship and identity, as well as transformations of identity amongst Canadian diasporic youth among the topics examined by the following papers. |
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As with every social group, diasporic communities are diverse. Young and old, abled and disabled, economically disadvantaged or privileged, they also allow for the constitution of a multiplicity of gendered and sexualized experiences. Issues of transnational marriage, gendered identities, impoverishment of women from diasporas, women’s specific experiences of exile, sexual and diasporic identities, transnational motherhood and women’s transnational involvement in nationalist struggles are among the topics covered by the listed documents in this section. Whether Philipina, Ghanaian, Kurdish, Somali, Sikh, Iranian or Indian-Canadian, these texts address the diversity of diasporic women’s experiences in Canada. |
