THE CRITICAL REFUGEE + MIGRATION STUDIES CANADA NETWORK PRESENTS
Other Empires: Refugees, Imperialism, and Settler Colonialism
Other Empires: Refugees, Imperialism, and Settler Colonialism is a two-day symposium that will held virtually and in-person to bring together critical refugee scholars. We will exchange knowledge and examine the various spaces, processes, and operations of imperialism particularly in the post-colonial context of North America. The event promises to advance scholarship in the field of critical refugee studies from multiple fields of study, including migrant advocacy, refugee resettlement, empire and nation building, and settler colonialism.
This event is hosted by the Critical Refugee and Migration Studies Network in collaboration with the Siinqee Institute. It is supported by Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Toronto Scarborough, with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Canada.
The Organizing Committee:
Dr. Edward Ou Jin Lee (Associate Professor)
Dr. Gada Mahrouse (Associate Professor)
Dr. Anh Ngo (Assistant Professor)
Dr. Vinh Nguyen (Associate Professor)
Dr. Thy Phu (Professor)
Mr. John Tolentino (Master of Social Work Candidate)
Through keynote lectures and generative guided discussions, we will conceptualize the ways people with migration experience disrupts the refugee-migrant binary and the settler-Indigenous binary. This includes migrants with precarious status, fugitivity (anti-blackness), migrants of oppressive state status, racialized persons with histories of enslavement and bondage to this land, and groups and communities who do not fall neatly into the white settler: Indigenous binary of relations. We will explore the consequences of this disruption on the possibilities for connection and relationship building between migrant communities and Indigenous communities and the land. We do this through exploring the complex and multifaced acts of empire-making, how space intersects with power in sites of imperial hegemony, how groups are constituted via imperial processes, and the consequences of imperialism for relationality between internationally displaced peoples and internally displaced Indigenous communities.
Description of the event:
What are the conditions structuring the possibilities of relationality between internationally displaced peoples and the peoples and territories they are driven to? What does it mean to resettle internationally displaced peoples on colonized and contested land, and what are the responsibilities of internationally displaced peoples—and those who support them—towards local actions for social justice? These difficult questions lay at the intersection of multiple fields of study, including migrant advocacy, refugee resettlement, empire and nation building, and settler colonialism. One fruitful way of approaching these questions and the challenges they pose is through critical refugee studies, which combines approaches from critical race studies and postcolonial theory to interrogate how nation building is constituted and sustained by the refugee protection enterprise.
Critical refugee studies unpacks how individuals outside of nation-state borders—such as “refugees” (Espiritu, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2014; Mahrouse, 2008; Nguyen, 2012, Nguyen, 2013), “migrants” (Nail, 2015), and “aliens” (Day, 2016)—bolster national and imperial interests. This field is well established in the United States, where researchers from multiple disciplines have shown how American military aggression has been justified by its self-proclaimed refugee rescue work. In Canada, scholars are increasingly thinking of how domestic and international actions in refugee rescue and support—such as the ideological construction of desirable refugees (Krishnamurti, 2013; Madokoro, 2016; Mountz, 2004, 2011), Canada’s proud role as a peacekeeping nation (Razack, 2000, 2004; Regan, 2010), and the prominence of liberal humanitarianism as a tenet of national identity (Bauder, 2008; Dauvergne, 2005; Hyndman, 2000; Nyers, 2006; Razack, 2007; Tascón, & Ife, 2008)—operate to secure the hegemony of both white settler society within Canada and Canada’s place as a global power.
Probing the intersections of refugee resettlement, empire building, and settler colonialism is particularly important and timely in the Canadian context, where humanitarianism abroad remains central to national identity despite the state’s oppression of Indigenous peoples and precariously situated migrants at home. Increasingly, Canadians are being forced to address both their country’s colonial past and the on-going legacies of colonialism. One impetus for this reckoning is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), stemming from the Supreme Court settlement with survivors of the Residential School system. The TRC outlines 94 Calls to Action around the responsibilities and possibilities for improved relations between the State, settlers, and First peoples. Other Empires responds to many of these calls by conceptualizing the ways people with migration experience disrupt the refugee/migrant binary and the settler/Indigenous binary; these include migrants with precarious status, migrants with oppressive state status, racialized populations with histories of enslavement within the space of present day Canada, and precariously employed migrant labourers.
Overview of activities
Day 1: June 3rd (virtual)
Cayuga elder and author Norma Jacobs: Thanksgiving Address, drawn from their recent book, Odagahodhes: Reflecting on our Journeys with reflective response by Timothy LeDuc, Chizuru Nobe-Ghelani, and Mbalu Lumor
Guided tour of the Mohawk Residential Institute with facilitation by Krysta Longboat, Manager of Education, the Woodland Cultural Centre.
Keynote lecture by Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi on the "refugee settler condition: the fraught positionality of refugee subjects whose resettlement in a settler colonial state is predicated on the unjust dispossession of an Indigenous population" which is based on their recent book, Archipelago of Resettlement: Vietnamese Refugee Settlers and Decolonization across Guam and Israel-Palestine.
Day 2: June 10th ( in person)
Forest walk or forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku in Japanese) is a guided walk designed to facilitate the deeper connection with natural world. The participants are invited to engage with natural environment intimately and reflect on their relationships with land through a series of nature-based activities. As the participants deepen the relationship with local lands they stand on, themes of “home”, belonging, land stewardship and Indigenous-guest relations may arise. Lead by Dr. Chizuru Nobe-Ghelani in collaboration with members of the Siinqee Institute .
Members of the Critical Refugee and Migration Studies Network will facilitate small groups discussions among the participants on the themes related to Other Empires. These discussions will be guided using pre-circulated questions for exploration within small groups.
