ASSESSING THE COMPLEXITIES OF SOUTH
ASIAN MIGRATION CONFERENCE:
19-21ST MAY 2011
PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
Wilfrid Laurier University
75 University Avenue West, Waterloo
Peters Building
SPONSORS
WEDNESDAY 18TH MAY
WEDNESDAY, 6:00PM- 7:30PM, LOCATION: ST JEROME’S COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
LIGHT DINNER FOR CONFERENCE DELEGATES
WEDNESDAY, 7:30PM- 9.30PM, LOCATION: ST JEROME’S COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
HARJANT GILL’S ‘ROOTS OF LOVE’ FILM SCREENING, PANEL
DISCUSSION and RECEPTION TO FOLLOW.
THURSDAY 19TH MAY
THURSDAY, 8:00AM-8:40AM, LOCATION: KPMG AMPHITHEATRE SCHLEGEL CENTRE, WILFRID
LAURIER UNIVERSITY
LIGHT BREAKFAST
THURSDAY, 8:40AM-10:00AM, LOCATION: PETERS 1025/1027, WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY
OPENING REMARKS, PETER DONAHUE LAURIER INTERNATIONAL
KEYNOTE: Irudaya Rajan, Centre for Development Studies, Kerala.
THURSDAY, 10:00AM-10:30 AM, LOCATION: KPMG AMPHITHEATRE SCHLEGEL CENTRE, WILFRID
LAURIER UNIVERSITY
REFRESHMENT BREAK
THURSDAY, 10:30AM-12:30PM
SESSION A, LOCATION: PETERS
1025/1027
LABOUR MARKETS AND SOCIAL DIVISIONS
Chair: Irudaya Rajan, CDS, Kerala
Neha Wadhawan: Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
Globalization, Gender and Migration in South Asia
Nalin Singh Negi: Institute of Technology, India
Work at Office and Second Shift at Home: A Twofold Juxtaposition Faced by Female Migrants in
India
Amrita Hari: University of Oxford, United Kingdom
‘Foot in the Door’ or Double-Edged Sword: The Experiences of ICT-Skilled Immigrants in
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Canada’s Technology Triangle
Sandeep Kumar Agrawal: Ryerson University, Toronto
Indian Immigrants in Canada: Shades of Economic Integration
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SESSION B, LOCATION: SBE 1220
LAW, INJUSTICE AND TERRITORY
Chair: Kim Rygiel, Wilfrid Laurier University, Political Science
Rajesh Kharat: SIS JNU, India
Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal: Dilemma of Repatriation
Fathima Cader: University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Rocking the Boat: Immigration Policy in Canada and Australia
Manprit Kaur Virdi: SOAS, United Kingdom
Acts of (dis)Honour? Discursive Effects of Izzat on South Asian Women's Access to Justice
THURSDAY, 12:30PM-1:30PM, LOCATION: KPMG AMPHITHEATRE, WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY
LUNCH
THURSDAY, 1:30PM-3:30PM
SESSION A, LOCATION: PETERS
1025/1027
AGENCY, STRUCTURE AND DOMESTIC COMMUNITY
Chair: Lucie Edwards, Balsillie School for International Affairs
Srabani Maitra: York University
Contesting the Labor Market Barriers: Exploring the Transition of South Asian Immigrant Women
from Professional Workers to Home-Based Entrepreneurs in Toronto
Tania Das Gupta: York University, Toronto
Twice Migrated South Asian Canadians: Race, Gender and Class Relations in the Transnational
Field
Meherun Ahmed: Asian University for Women, Bangladesh
Crisis Coping Strategies of Households in Bangladesh
Sujata Gangulya & Sayeed Unisab: Mumbai, India
Husbands’ Out-migration and Familial Support at Origin: An Insight about Left behind Wives’
from Rural India
Ferzana Chaze & Usha George: Ryerson University, Toronto
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South Asian Immigrant Women Exercising Agency
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SESSION B , LOCATION: SBE
1220
CONNECTING DEPARTURES AND ARRIVALS
Chair: Chair: Josephine Naidoo, Wilfrid Laurier University
Radhika Chopra: University of Delhi, India
Surviving Illegality
Anjali Gera Roy: Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India
Revisiting the Komagata Maru
B.R.K. Sinha: Banaras Hindu University, India
Asian Immigrants in India: A Spatial Analysis
Crystal Ennis, BSIA
The Contradictions of Labour Market Reform in the Gulf
THURSDAY, 3:30PM-4:00PM, LOCATION: SBE AMPHITHEATRE, WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERISTY
REFRESHMENT BREAK
THURSDAY, 4:00PM-5:30PM
SESSION A , LOCATION: PETERS
1025/1027
LINKING SOCIAL CONFLICT AND CASUAL LABOUR
Chair: Colin Robertson, Wilfrid Laurier University, Geography & Environmental Studies
Rikil Chyrmang: Centre for Development Studies – Prasanth Nagar Ulloor, India
Assessment of Cross-Border Immigrant Workers in Assam’s North-East India
Vinod Kumar Bhardwaj: Rajasthan, India
Increasing Women Trafficking and Growing Exploitation in South Asia
Umme Naznin: University of Sussex, United Kingdom
What Drove India to Make Fence on the Border?
C. Valatheeswaran: Kerala, India
Sri Lankan Refugees in India
Mitra Bikkhu: Wilfrid Laurier University
The Untold Story of Exodus: Sri Lankan Immigrants to other Countries
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SESSION B , LOCATION: SBE
1220
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POLITICS AND YOUTH IDENTITY
Chair: Doris Jakobsh, University of Waterloo
Bandita Sijapati: Syracuse University, New York
Navigating Through Identities: The Case of Nepali Immigrants in the US
Michael Nijhawan: York University, Toronto
Colliding Memories, Intersecting Imaginaries
Gunjan Sondhi: University of Sussex, United Kingdom
Indian International Students in Toronto
Uttara Chauhan: Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Indian youth's attitudes to migration
THURSDAY, 6:00PM-7:00PM, LOCATION: KPMG AMPHITHEATRE SCHLEGEL CENTRE, WILFRID
LAURIER UNIVERSITY
LIGHT DINNER FOR DELEGATES
THURSDAY, 7:30PM-9.30PM , LOCATION: ST JEROME’S UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
TALK BY INDERPAL GREWAL, followed by reception.
FRIDAY 20TH MAY
FRIDAY, 8:15AM-8.45AM, LOCATION: KPMG AMPHITHEATRE SCHLEGEL CENTRE, WILFRID LAURIER
UNIVERSITY
LIGHT BREAKFAST
FRIDAY, 8:45AM-9:45AM, LOCATION: PETERS 1025/1027, WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY INDERPAL GREWAL
9:45-10:00AM
REFRESHMENT BREAK LOCATION: SBE AMPHITHEATRE
FRIDAY, 10:00AM-12:00PM
SESSION A , LOCATION: PETERS
2007
PRACTICES OF COMMUNAL AFFIRMATION AND BELONGING
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Chair: Filippo Osella, University of Sussex
Lina Samuel: University of Toronto - Mississauga, Toronto
Migration and cultural shifts among South Asian women in Canada
Chipamong Chowdhury: University of Toronto, Toronto
Simplicity and Complexity: Buddhist Diaspora and Monastic Migration
Sutama Ghosh: Ryerson University, Toronto
Transnational Habitus and Multiple Meanings of “Home”
Nicola Mooney: Fraser Valley University, Abbottsford
Some Complexities of Diaspora, Displacement, and Globalized Belonging among Jat Sikhs
Harjant Gill: American University, Washington
Masculinity, Migration and Shifting Meanings of the Turban in Contemporary Punjab
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SESSION B , LOCATION: PETERS
1025/1027
STATE DISCOURSES AND SUBJECTIVITY
Chair: Amali Phillips, Wilfrid Laurier University
Anuppiriya Sriskandarajah: University of Windsor, Windsor
Political Action Tamil Community in Canada?
Sailaja Krishnamurti: York University, Toronto
Queue-Jumpers, Terrorists, Breeders: Representations of Tamil Refugee Claimants in Canadian
Popular Media
Arun Nedra Rodrigo: York University, Toronto
The Refugee Hearing: Reinstating a Minoritized Subject
Anita Singh & Milan Singh: University of Toronto, Toronto & Simon Fraser University, Burnaby
Once a Unified Community: Divisions within the Indo-Canadian ethnic Diaspora
FRIDAY, 12:00PM-1:30PM, LOCATION: DINING HALL QUAD (OUTSIDE), WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY
LUNCH TIME ADDRESS, Mrs. Preeti Saran, Consul General of India
BBQ LUNCH
FRIDAY, 1:30PM-3:30PM
SESSION A ,LOCATION: PETERS 2007
GEOGRAPHIES OF HOMOGENEITY AND DIFFERENCE
Chair: Paul Maxim, Wilfrid Laurier University
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Nasreen Chowdhory: University of Delhi, India
The Politics of ‘Home’, and Homeland and Citizenship Rights among Global South Asian Population
Sanjib Goswami: SESTA Australia Inc., Australia
Migration, Religion and the Politics of Social Cohesion in North East India
Yasaman S. Munro: Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo
Substituting for Religion in Tweed’s Theory of Religion: Ayurveda and the Academic Study of
Hinduism(s) in Canada as Case Study
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SESSION B , LOCATION: PETERS 1025/1027
SOCIAL REGULATION OF BODIES
Chair: Inderpal Grewal, Yale University
Sugandha Nagpal: York University
Sex-Selective Abortion and Son Preference in Indo-Canadian Communities
Roula Kteily-Hawa: University of Toronto, Toronto
Risk Factors Contributing to HIV Vulnerability of Immigrant Women from South Asian Countries
V.J. Varghese and I. Rajan: Kerala, India
“He Selected Me”: Migration, Marriage and Desertion of Wives in Indian Punjab
Aruna Papp: Community Development & Training, Toronto
Let's All Pretend It is Not Happing: Then maybe Honour Killings will Stop
FRIDAY, 3:30PM-4:00PM, LOCATION: KPMG AMPHITHEATRE SCHLEGEL CENTRE, WILFRID LAURIER
UNIVERSITY
REFRESHMENT BREAK
FRIDAY, 4:00PM-6:00PM
SESSION A , LOCATION: PETERS 1025/1027
REPRESENTING AND APPROPRIATING 'SOUTH ASIAN' STRUGGLES
Chair: Amali Philips, Wilfrid Laurier University,
Kathleen Fernando: York University, Toronto
Leaving ‘Home’, Becoming ‘Refugees’
Amber Fatima Riaz: University of Western Ontario
The Eternal Immigrant (Mohajir)
Ishan Ashutosh: Ohio State University, Ohio
Diasporic Solidarities and Difference: The Multicultural and Transnational Politics of South Asians in
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Toronto
Shahnaz Khan: Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo
Spectacle and the Afghan Woman
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FRIDAY, 7:30PM-MIDNIGHT , LOCATION: WILF’S STUDENT UNION PUB, WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY
DINNER with MUSIC BY ‘LAL’
SATURDAY 21ST MAY
SATURDAY, 9:00AM-10:00AM, LOCATION: WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY
LIGHT BREAKFAST
SATURDAY, 10:00AM-11:00AM, LOCATION: PETERS 1025/1027, WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY
KEYNOTE BY FILIPPO OSELLA
SATURDAY, 11:00AM-1:00PM
SESSION, LOCATION: PETERS 1025/1027
MIGRATION AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT
Chair: Manmohan Argawal, Centre for International Governance Innovation
M. S. Jayakumar: Cochin University, India
Moving for Inclusion or Exclusion? Migration from Kerala through the “Exclusion-Inclusion” Lens
Terah Sportal: Guelph University
Lost in the Mini-Gulf: Migration and Kerala Development Model
V.J. Varghese and I.S. Rajan: Kerala, India
Assets far away: Transnational Properties and its Discontents in Indian Punjab
SATURDAY, 1:00PM-2:00PM, LOCATION: KPMG ATRIUM , WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY
LUNCH
SATURDAY, 2:00PM-3.30PM
SESSION, LOCATION: PETERS 1025/1027
TEMPORAL RHYTHMS, SPACE AND MODE OF PRODUCTION
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Chair: Margaret Walton-Roberts, Wilfrid Laurier University
Digambar Abaji Chimankar: Fakir Mohan University, India
Linkages between Access to Land, Common Property Resources and the Seasonal Migration in
Maharastra, India
Jaswinder Singh Brar, Punjabi University Patiala, India
Migration Dynamics, Agricultural Sector Labour and Socio-Economic Fallout: Experience and
Evidence from Punjab
Jason Neelis: Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo
Passages to India: Foreign Migrants and Religious Patronage, ca. 1st-6th Centuries CE
Simon Chilvers
Theoretical Problems of Migration and Space: Historical Evidence from South India
SATURDAY, 3:30PM LOCATION: P1025/1027
CLOSING COMMENTS
SATURDAY EVENING
SOCIAL EVENT LOCATION TBA
SUNDAY 22ND MAY
OPTIONAL FIELD TRIP TO NIAGARA FALLS
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