Panelist: Book Launch
03/24/22
“Twice Migrated, Twice Displaced: Indian and Pakistani Trasnnational Households in Canada”
Tania Das Gupta
Invited to participated on a panel for the launch of an incredibly exciting new book by Dr. Tania Das Gupta. Examining the journey of a unique group of Gulf South Asian migrants to Canada. Using a decades worth of ethnographic research, Dr. Das Gupta explores the complex factors and structures, both institutionalised and personal/familial that shape the journeys of these ‘twice migrants’, first from South Asia, to the Gulf, and then to Canada. What factors influence their decision making, and how do processes and histories of racialization in diverse contexts lead to the devaluation of professional skills and experience in Canada. Utilizing the concept of ‘neo-racism’ as a culturalist form of racism based on the difference and devaluation of people on the basis of citizenship and incommensurability gave us a new window in understanding processes of othering and differentiation. Taken together, these questions provided the basis for a powerful grounded analysis of the connections between neoliberal globalization, citizenship and labour and the ideological apparatus that accompanies these migrant journeys in ultimately defining and shaping who belongs and on what basis. Furthermore, this study challenged ideas of ‘multicultural citizenship’ in Canada as an automatic marker of belonging. In fact, as this book shows, regardless of class, radicalized minorities continue to face significant barriers to their belonging in Canada. In addition, the examination of flexible workers and flexible families under conditions of neoliberal globalization allowed us insight into the true ambivalence of many migrants to Canada, and the different levels of capital they bring and utilize on their journeys.
Organized by Dr. Ethel Tunogan, York University.
YCAR, York Center for Asian Research
GLRC , Global Labour Research Center
Book Launch poster.
Book Launch Panelists with Dr. Tania Das Gupta