Canadian Multiculturalism as Banal Nationalism: Understanding Everyday Meanings Among Sri Lankan Tamils in Toronto

Amarasingam, Amarnath; Naganathan, Gayathri; Hyndman, Jennifer

doi:10.1353/ces.2016.0016

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Most recent immigrants come from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Beyond their economic contributions, newcomers also enrich Canada's cultural diversity and quality of social interaction (Amarasingam, Naganathan, & Hyndman, 2016;Shan & Walter, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Scoping Review on Intimate Partner Violence in Canada’s Immigrant Communities

Okeke‐Ihejirika

Yohani

Muster

et al. 2018

Trauma, Violence, & Abuse

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Canada relies on newcomers for population growth, labor supply, and cultural diversity. Newcomers, in turn, see Canada as a haven of economic opportunities. However, the extent to which these mutual benefits can be realized depends on how well newcomers fare in Canada. Intimate partner violence (IPV) significantly undermines immigrants' capacity to rebuild their lives in host societies. As in other Western democracies, recent immigrants and refugees to Canada are highly vulnerable to IPV; they arrive with limited support systems, wrestle with changing family dynamics, and may have to adapt to new gender roles. IPV often occurs in the private domain of the family and poses serious risks to women, children, families, and the broader society. Our scoping review of 30 articles on IPV within Canadian immigrant groups identifies crucial differences in perceptions and experiences of, responses to, and coping mechanisms among female survivors, and a tendency to place the blame for IPV on the cultural values and practices that immigrants bring to Canada. The majority of existing services and policies, our review shows, are not well suited to immigrant women's needs and may undermine women's capacity to find satisfying solutions. Our review is limited by a dearth of literature; it is based mainly on the experiences of South East Asian immigrant women in the Greater Toronto Area. Our findings suggest that future research should address women's and men's experiences of IPV, include nonheterosexual couples, extend to the broader immigrant population, and incorporate the voices of stakeholders other than survivors.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Scoping Review on Intimate Partner Violence in Canada’s Immigrant Communities

Okeke‐Ihejirika

Yohani

Muster

et al. 2018

Trauma, Violence, & Abuse

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“…Today, multiculturalism is embedded and operationalized in schools, law and other Canadian institutions (Amarasingam, 2016;Basu 2011). Few scholars have examined how immigrant, including refugee, newcomers have taken up this concept of multiculturalism and made it their own (or rejected it).…”

Section: Acculturation Multiculturalism and The Dialogical Selfmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Few scholars have examined how immigrant, including refugee, newcomers have taken up this concept of multiculturalism and made it their own (or rejected it). One exception is a study of Sri Lankan Tamils in the Greater Toronto Area, that examined how members of this group view the relationship between their Canadian and Tamil identities in the context of multiculturalism (Amarasingam, 2016). Drawing on interviews and focus groups with both immigrants (first generation) and Sri Lankan Tamils born in Canada, his study unpacks meanings of multiculturalism among Tamil immigrants and their children (most of whom are now Canadians).…”

Section: Acculturation Multiculturalism and The Dialogical Selfmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Drawing on interviews and focus groups with both immigrants (first generation) and Sri Lankan Tamils born in Canada, his study unpacks meanings of multiculturalism among Tamil immigrants and their children (most of whom are now Canadians). (Amarasingam et al, 2016). Several scholars, for example Razack (1998) and Thobani (2007), have argued that multiculturalism is an extension of the 'white settler state' which "allows just enough room to be different and accepted by Canadian society, but not enough to change institutional power or challenge patterns of privilege that stem from the settler state and its 'whiteness'".…”

Section: Acculturation Multiculturalism and The Dialogical Selfmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring hybridity and identity negotiation of young Tamil Canadian women: an autoethnographic study

Sahayanathan¹

2021

Preprint

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This paper presents an autoethnographic analysis of hybridity and identity negotiation related to young Tamil Canadian women. Tamil women face unique challenges when it comes to maintaining cultural practices that are so heavily embedded in our upbringing. I have experienced this within my own life, in addition to observing similar challenges among women whom I have encountered within the Sri Lankan Tamil community in the City of Toronto. Young Tamil Canadian women are finding it difficult to conform to cultural expectations given their upbringing in a Western country like Canada Using an autoethnographic approach, the purpose of this paper is to examine transnational issues young Tamil Canadian women – specifically daughters, experience in their diaspora, as a result of negotiating between cultural practices and related impacts or consequences. Specifically, I employ vignette writing, a form of creative analytic practice to explore how young Tamil women are seen as carriers of culture and related implications for their agency and autonomy. Further, I examine and communicate how personal negotiations related to choosing to follow certain Tamil cultural practices and rejecting others, can result in community isolation, rejection from diasporic relations, and uncertainties about self-worth. I consider processes of identity construction and negotiation, and how this results in the creation of a third space that celebrates difference through new ways of being, encompassing cultural values from both the Canadian and Sri Lankan Tamil spectrum. My lived experiences will translate into short narratives that create a tangible example of this phenomenon and is captured by theories of hybridity, third space, acculturation and the good daughter. Key words: Diaspora, hybridity, identity, negotiation, culture, practices, gender, roles, migration, daughters

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“…However, like Kurds from Turkey, Tamils were also from a discriminated against minority. Language and access to government services characterised the early ethnic tensions between Tamils and the Sinhalese majority and became linked to violence in the 1970s and later civil war which affected the refugee generation and their children (Amarasingam, Naganathan and Hyndman, 2016).…”

Section: Language Diversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“Second generation” refugees and multilingualism: identity, race and language transmission

Bloch

Hirsch

2016

Ethnic and Racial Studies

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This paper explores the language practices, attitudes to languages and the intergenerational transmission of heritage languages amongst the UK born adult children of refugee parents. The paper draws on empirical data from a research project based on 45 qualitative interviews with three groups of 'second generation' refugees, whose parents came as Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, Kurdish refugees from Turkey and as refugees from Vietnam. The paper explores the ways in which language is central to political discussions and to national policies on race, cohesion, diversity, 'Britishness' and citizenship. These debates and policies ignore and often silence the positive role of heritage languages. This paper highlights the importance of heritage languages as a signifier for a number of wider issues of identity, which intersect with race and refugee backgrounds in complex ways.

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Canadian Multiculturalism as Banal Nationalism: Understanding Everyday Meanings Among Sri Lankan Tamils in Toronto

Cited by 14 publications

References 27 publications

A Scoping Review on Intimate Partner Violence in Canada’s Immigrant Communities

A Scoping Review on Intimate Partner Violence in Canada’s Immigrant Communities

Exploring hybridity and identity negotiation of young Tamil Canadian women: an autoethnographic study

“Second generation” refugees and multilingualism: identity, race and language transmission

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