Dispelling Terror in the Tamil Diaspora: The Case of Toronto

Date: 

Monday, February 8, 2016, 4:00pm to 6:00pm

Location: 

Bowie Vernon Room (K262) WCFIA CGIS Knafel 1737 Cambridge Street

CANADA PROGRAM SEMINAR

Dispelling Terror in the Tamil Diaspora: the Case of Toronto
JENNIFER HYNDMAN

Centre for Refugee Studies, York University

Research funded by Public Safety Canada assumes that some diasporas based in Canada 'import conflict' from their countries of origin. We take issue with the concept of 'imported conflict' in relation to diasporas, as it produces immigrant members as potential threats to Canada's security. Our research with members of the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in Toronto traces the impact of acute violence in Sri Lanka during 2009, in particular the killing of civilians and other war crimes committed by Sri Lankan government troops and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, or Tamil Tigers) that left tens of thousands of Tamil civilians dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. How, if at all, were these acts of violence translated into the diaspora based in Toronto?

Jennifer Hyndman is a professor in social science and geography at York University in Toronto, where she is also director of the Centre for Refugee Studies. Her research focuses on the geopolitics of forced migration, the biopolitics of refugee camps, and resettlement policy and outcomes in North America. Hyndman is co-author with Wenona Giles of Living on the Edge: Refugees in Extended Exile (forthcoming, Routledge). In addition to over 40 articles, she has also written Dual Disasters: Humanitarian Aid after the 2004 Tsunami (2011), Managing Displacement: Refugees and the Politics of Humanitarianism (University of Minnesota Press, 2000), and co-edited, Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones (University of California Press, 2004).

See also: Canada Seminar