Vijay Agnew – författare

Memories establish a connection between a collective and individual past, between origins, heritage, and history. Those who have left their places of birth to make homes elsewhere are familiar with the question, "Where do you come from?" and respond in innumerable well-rehearsed ways. Diasporas construct racialized, sexualized, gendered, and oppositional subjectivities and shape the cosmopolitan intellectual commitment of scholars. The diasporic individual often has a double consciousness, a privileged knowledge and perspective that is consonant with postmodernity and globalization.The essays in this volume reflect on the movements of people and cultures in the present day, when physical, social, and mental borders and boundaries are being challenged and sometimes successfully dismantled. The contributors - from a variety of disciplinary perspectives - discuss the diasporic experiences of ethnic and racial groups living in Canada from their perspective, including the experiences of South Asians, Iranians, West Indians, Chinese, and Eritreans. Diaspora, Memory, and Identity is an exciting and innovative collection of essays that examines the nuanced development of theories of Diaspora, subjectivity, double-consciousness, gender and class experiences, and the nature of home.

It is a common misconception that, in the contemporary world, racism has been somehow defeated, pushed to the boundaries of acceptable social behaviour. In fact, racism has taken on a subtler guise in the ways it is expressed. This ambiguity has made racism more insidious than it once was. Interrogating Race and Racism examines the subject of racism with a view to uncovering the many ways in which it exists today.As a subject with so many permutations, racism is necessarily examined from a multidisciplinary perspective in this collection, featuring authors from a variety of backgrounds. Among the specific topics discussed are border politics and the search for asylum, exclusionary policies, and the struggle for substantive citizenship. The collection also features extended discussion of racism in the workplace, an illuminating and important sequence that reveals the institutionalization of racist hiring procedures despite legislation to curb such practices.With the heightening of tensions in the post 9/11 period and a resurgence of racist attitudes taking place, Interrogating Race and Racism is a timely analysis of cultural alienation and the ways in which it impacts upon our lives.

Despite legislative guarantees of equality, immigrant women in Canada often experience many forms of prejudice in their everyday lives. Racialized Migrant Women in Canada delves into the public and private spheres of several distinct communities in order to expose the underlying inequalities within Canada's economic, social, legal, and political systems that frequently result in the denial of basic rights to migrant women.Using interdisciplinary approaches drawn from the areas of sociology, law, health studies, and political science, the essays in this volume cover diverse topics such as the social construction of Muslim women, access to health care, and violence against women. The contributors base their work not only in cities with large immigrant populations but also in areas less densely populated with immigrants, revealing regional disparities in regard to economic opportunity and social services.

""Where do you come from?"" When Vijay Agnew first immigrated to Canada people would often ask her ""Where do you come from?"" She thought it a simple, straightforward question, and would answer in the same simple, straightforward manner, by telling them where she had been born and where she grew up. But over the years she learned that many so-called third-world people resent being asked this question, because it implies that having a different skin colour (which is what usually prompts the question) makes a person an outsider and not really Canadian. This realization inspired her to look more closely at the question - and the answer. The result is this book. Where I Come From is a reflective memoir of an immigrant professor's life in a Canadian university. It covers the period from 1967, when Canada was opened up to third-world immigrants, to the present. The book illustrates the ways in which identity is socially constructed by tracing some of the labels that were applied to the author at various stages during her thirty years in Canada - ""foreign student,"" ""Indian woman,"" ""immigrant,"" ""Indian feminist,"" and ""third-world woman."" She shows how each of these names has affected her relationships with other people and contributed to making her the woman she is now perceived to be: a feminist, anti-racist, activist professor. This multilayered story reveals the complex ways in which race, class, and gender intersect in an immigrant woman's life, and engages readers in a conversation that narrows the distance between them, showing not only what is different, but what is shared.

Memories establish a connection between a collective and individual past, between origins, heritage, and history. Those who have left their places of birth to make homes elsewhere are familiar with the question, "Where do you come from?" and respond in innumerable well-rehearsed ways. Diasporas construct racialized, sexualized, gendered, and oppositional subjectivities and shape the cosmopolitan intellectual commitment of scholars. The diasporic individual often has a double consciousness, a privileged knowledge and perspective that is consonant with postmodernity and globalization.The essays in this volume reflect on the movements of people and cultures in the present day, when physical, social, and mental borders and boundaries are being challenged and sometimes successfully dismantled. The contributors - from a variety of disciplinary perspectives - discuss the diasporic experiences of ethnic and racial groups living in Canada from their perspective, including the experiences of South Asians, Iranians, West Indians, Chinese, and Eritreans. Diaspora, Memory, and Identity is an exciting and innovative collection of essays that examines the nuanced development of theories of Diaspora, subjectivity, double-consciousness, gender and class experiences, and the nature of home.

Marginalized in the larger society and the mainstream women's movement, immigrant women are also outsiders in women's shelters, where racially sensitive and linguistically appropriate counselling is generally unavailable. In this book, Vijay Agnew documents the struggles of Canadian women's centres to provide better services to victims of wife abuse from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.The study looks at every aspect of community-based women's organizations, including their funding, operation, and services. The result is a detailed picture of the problems and challenges they encounter on a daily basis. Agnew uses case studies, reports, and interviews to document the work of these groups and to show how race, class, and gender intersect in the everyday lives of the women who depend on them. Although the women's movement initiated public discussion of wife abuse, the fight against abuse is now conducted primarily by the state through its allocation of resources. Agnew underscores the tension that often arises between the patriarchal state and feminist-inspired organizations, and the resulting difficulties in bringing about social change.

It is a common misconception that, in the contemporary world, racism has been somehow defeated, pushed to the boundaries of acceptable social behaviour. In fact, racism has taken on a subtler guise in the ways it is expressed. This ambiguity has made racism more insidious than it once was. Interrogating Race and Racism examines the subject of racism with a view to uncovering the many ways in which it exists today.As a subject with so many permutations, racism is necessarily examined from a multidisciplinary perspective in this collection, featuring authors from a variety of backgrounds. Among the specific topics discussed are border politics and the search for asylum, exclusionary policies, and the struggle for substantive citizenship. The collection also features extended discussion of racism in the workplace, an illuminating and important sequence that reveals the institutionalization of racist hiring procedures despite legislation to curb such practices.With the heightening of tensions in the post 9/11 period and a resurgence of racist attitudes taking place, Interrogating Race and Racism is a timely analysis of cultural alienation and the ways in which it impacts upon our lives.

Despite legislative guarantees of equality, immigrant women in Canada often experience many forms of prejudice in their everyday lives. Racialized Migrant Women in Canada delves into the public and private spheres of several distinct communities in order to expose the underlying inequalities within Canada's economic, social, legal, and political systems that frequently result in the denial of basic rights to migrant women.Using interdisciplinary approaches drawn from the areas of sociology, law, health studies, and political science, the essays in this volume cover diverse topics such as the social construction of Muslim women, access to health care, and violence against women. The contributors base their work not only in cities with large immigrant populations but also in areas less densely populated with immigrants, revealing regional disparities in regard to economic opportunity and social services.