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Migration, Nationhood
and Human Rights
YOUR UBC CONNECTION
FALL/WINTER 2020 NEW WORLD DISORDER THE CHINESE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE LAND GRABS IN LATIN AMERICA
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Editor’s Note
EDITOR
Vanessa Clarke, BA
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Pamela Yan, BDes
EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS
Rachel Glassman, BA’18
Eric Davenport
A MORE WELCOMING WORLD
UBC PRESIDENT & VICE‑CHANCELLOR
Santa J. Ono
UBC CHANCELLOR
We’ve already been through a lot of change in 2020, but here’s one more – Steven Lewis Point, LLB’85, LLD’13
a comprehensive rethink of Trek magazine. We’re hoping you’ll find it one of
VICE‑PRESIDENT, DEVELOPMENT
the more agreeable changes this year has dished up. We’ve kept the best bits, & ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT;
created some new best bits, and have extended it into a digital-first publication PRESIDENT’S DESIGNATE
with a much more substantial online presence at trekmagazine.ca. We’ve also Heather McCaw, BCom’86
made the shift to themed issues – in this case, human migration.
ASSOCIATE VICE-PRESIDENT /
People have always moved between countries, and it’s estimated that there EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALUMNI UBC
are more than a quarter of a billion international migrants in the world today. Natalie Cook Zywicki
But recent years have seen increasing numbers of people on the move because
TREK
they have no choice. War, persecution, natural disaster, poverty and other
Trek magazine is published two times
negative forces have displaced approximately 70 million people, with about a year in print by the UBC Alumni
26 million of them seeking refuge across borders. Association and distributed free of
Although the vast majority are hosted by less developed countries, an charge to UBC alumni and friends.
Opinions expressed in the magazine do
influx of refugees to wealthier nations has been accompanied by a rise in not necessarily reflect the views of the
anti-immigration sentiment and a striking effect on the social and political Alumni Association or the university.
landscape. While some see immigration as a welcome benefit that can
Address correspondence to:
counteract the disadvantages of an aging population and help create a
The Editor, alumni UBC
dynamic and prosperous society, there is also a common perception that 6163 University Boulevard,
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high, leading to calls for international cooperation on a fairer and more
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dialogue around the opportunities immigration represents if it is managed Mail Agreement #40063528
well. Over the summer, the migration research cluster learned it was to
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become a fully-fledged UBC centre of research. And that development
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must rank as one of the year’s best changes of all. Records Department
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VANESSA CLARKE Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3
Editor
TREK / ALUMNI UBC 1
Who B
THE
MIGRATION
ISSUE
4 Understanding the
new world disorder
8 Tracking land grabs
in Latin America
14 Turning journalism
inside out
18 Poetry: Dear Nour
20 Chinese Canadians: the
fight for a seat at the table
28 Poetry: Movement
30 C hanging the locks on
the Canada-US border
Cover: A mother and son wait at a refugee shelter in Bulgaria. (Dimitar Dilkoff/Afp Via Getty Images)
This page: Immigrants land in Greece.
elongs?
With today’s polarized politics, people may
not agree on the terminology – immigrants?
refugees? invaders? – but there’s little doubt
that migration is reshaping the world.
P H OTO G R A P H BY M Y R TO PA PA D O P O U L O S
THE MIGRATION ISSUE / WORLD STAGE New World Disorder Syrians are fleeing. Americans are building walls. Indians are battling brain drain. And Hungary is incentivizing childbearing so that immigrant labour is no longer needed. Antje Ellermann explains why. 4 TREK / ALUMNI UBC
the university’s Institute for European Studies. Her cur-
rent focus is on the political dynamics that drive immigra-
tion policy, and why countries faced with similar situa-
tions have adopted strikingly different policy approaches.
I
Her new book, The Comparative Politics of Immigration:
Policy Choices in Germany, Canada, Switzerland, and the
United States will be published in March by Cambridge
University Press. We asked her about the factors at play
behind negative receptions of immigrants, and what can
be done to promote peaceful and cohesive societies.
THE NUMBER OF FORCIBLY DISPLACED PEOPLE IS AT
A HISTORIC HIGH. WHAT ARE THE MAIN CAUSES AND
CONSEQUENCES OF THIS?
Today, about one in every 110 people on Earth has been
forced to flee. Another way of thinking about this is
that every two seconds someone is forced to leave their
home. Armed conflict is the number one reason for this.
Over the past decade, the number of major civil wars has
almost tripled, civil conflicts have become more protract-
ed and more violent, targeting civilians. We just need to
look at what has been happening in Syria, Myanmar, and
Afghanistan, or in Somalia, the Sudan, and Congo. A sec-
ond driver of displacement is the inability of governments
to ensure the political, economic, or physical security of
their citizens. Think Venezuela or El Salvador. In future,
we will see a lot more displacement as a result of climate
change, because of widespread crop failure and the fact
that entire regions will become uninhabitable because of
heat, desertification, and flooding.
To make matters worse, the historic high in human
displacement in the Global South has triggered nationalist
responses across the Global North. The wealthy democ-
racies of Europe, North America, and Australasia for the
most part have sealed and externalized their borders,
which means that those fleeing violence or poverty cannot
IN THE 1990s, when Antje Ellermann first turned even make it to those countries who have the fiscal and
her academic attention to the politics of migration and administrative capacity to offer protection.
citizenship in liberal democracies, many of her political There is a drastic imbalance between the need for, and
science colleagues considered it a niche area. Today, as the provision of, protection. More than half of all refu-
millions of people seek refuge from war, poverty, and gees have been displaced for five or more years, many for
violence in their home countries, and anti-immigration several decades. Millions of children grow up in refugee
sentiment has established itself as a dominating factor in camps, deprived of their childhood. Of all the refugees
politics and elections, academics are paying much closer in UN camps awaiting resettlement to countries in the
attention to large-scale migration and its consequences. Global North, only one per cent will ever be resettled.
Two years ago, Professor Ellermann founded UBC’s
Migration Research Excellence Cluster. It’s a group of WHAT FACTORS LIE BEHIND THE RISE OF RIGHT-WING
about 60 researchers from various disciplines who col- POPULISM IN EUROPE AND THE US?
laborate on research that “seeks to understand the causes, Explanations of the rise of right-wing populism focus on
consequences, and experiences of global human mobility,” two sources of insecurity. The first is a sense of economic
everything from forced displacement and statelessness insecurity, prevalent among those in the lower half and
to border governance and refugee integration. This year, middle of the income distribution. This reflects a pattern
the research cluster successfully applied to become a of stagnating wages and increases in precarious employ-
new centre in the Faculty of Arts – a development that ment associated with globalization, as the postwar era
she hopes will boost fund-raising efforts in support of of sustained economic growth and rising wages came to
its work. an end in the 1970s. Increased economic insecurity is not
As well as being founding director of the new UBC only the result of a structural shift from manufacturing to
Centre for Migration Studies, Ellermann directs service sector employment, but it is also the consequence
TREK / ALUMNI UBC 5
of political choices made under neoliberal Canada’s geographic isolation allows for
policy agendas that led to the retrenchment of controlled immigration. Unlike the EU and
the welfare state and the weakening of trade the US, Canada does not share a border with
unions. refugee-producing regions, and relatively few
The second source of insecurity that is refugee claimants and undocumented mi-
driving anti-immigrant populism is cultural grants manage to make their way to Canada.
change. It is associated with major societal
changes over the past decades, including WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE THE
changes in family structure, increasing MOST PRESSING ISSUE IN MIGRATION IN
>>
female labour-force participation, a decline CANADA TODAY?
in religiosity, and, most importantly, increas- ANTJE One of the most pressing issues today is the
ing social diversity resulting from high levels
ELLERMANN situation of refugee claimants who seek pro-
Born and raised
of immigration from non-Western and, in tection in Canada, for two distinct reasons.
in Germany, she
some cases, Muslim-majority countries. is the founding First, in response to COVID-19, the Canada-
Social psychologists tell us that humans director of the US border remains closed to non-essential
tend to overestimate differences between new UBC Centre travel, including refugee claimants. Despite
“us” (the in-group) and “them” (the out-group), for Migration the fact that there is a long list of exemptions
whilst underestimating differences within the Studies. to these travel restrictions, they do not include
in-group. So we end up with an exaggerated refugee claimants. In other words, travel
sense of difference in relation to those with for the purpose of making a refugee claim
>>
different social group characteristics from us, is considered “non-essential,” comparable
CLAIM
whether that is linguistic, ethnic, or religious to travel for the sake of tourism, recreation,
TO FAME
difference. When this process takes places in She is the or entertainment.
a context of widespread feelings of insecurity, co-president A second reason why humanitarian protec-
heightened by the threat of terrorism, then of the American tion is such a pressing issue is the Safe Third
populist leaders have an easy time mobilizing Political Science Country Agreement between Canada and the
the public with anti-immigrant and anti- Association’s United States. The Agreement, which came
Muslim policy agendas. Migration &
into force in 2004, rests on the premise that
Citizenship
Canada and the US have roughly equivalent
section.
WHY HAVEN’T WE SEEN THE RISE OF POPU- systems for adjudicating refugee claims, which
LISM TO THE SAME EXTENT IN CANADA? means that refugee claimants arriving at a
It is not the case that there is no populism Canadian border crossing can be legitimately
>>
in Canada – think Doug Ford in Ontario or NEXT turned back to the US to make their claim
Jason Kenney in Alberta. But, at least out- PROJECT there, and vice versa.
side of Quebec, we haven’t seen the kind of She is leading an In July, Canada’s Federal Court ruled that
success enjoyed by anti-immigrant parties interdisciplinary the Agreement was unconstitutional, because
and agendas elsewhere. There are a number team of UBC the US is no longer a safe country for refugees.
migration scholars
of reasons for this. Most important, perhaps, Refugee advocates have long made the case
and local organi‑
is the fact that no major Canadian party that the many policy changes that have been
zations to study
can afford to alienate immigrant and ethnic how long-term implemented in the US since the Agreement
minority voters. The “ethnic vote” is critical to residents and came into force have undermined the integrity
electoral success in urban ridings, especially newcomers of the US refugee adjudication system. Even
in Metro Vancouver and the Greater Toronto to Vancouver when the border re-opens, the US has in place
Area. Canada’s electoral system amplifies the negotiate an asylum transit ban and refuses to adjudicate
belonging in
power of geographically concentrated groups refugee claims from anyone who has travelled
a city built on
such as immigrant communities, at the same unceded Coast through any country other than their own
time as Canada’s high levels of immigration Salish territory. before arriving in the US. These measures
and high naturalization rate combine to give were imposed by the Trump administration
immigrants electoral clout. to counter the rising number of families from
There are also other reasons that discourage Central America who filed refugee claims in
Illustration: Margie and the Moon
anti-immigrant populism. Canada has done the US. The US also returns refugee claimants
a better job than most countries at managing to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to
immigration. To a much greater degree than pursue their claims from there, even though
is the case in Europe or in the United States, these countries are among the world’s most
Canada’s immigration policy privileges violent. As the Federal Court’s ruling recog-
high-skilled immigrants. As a result, many nized, Canada returning refugee claimants
Canadians consider continued immigration to the US amounts to a violation of the rights
to be in the national interest. In addition, guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and
6 TREK / ALUMNI UBC
Freedoms. Yet, despite these concerns, the policy has done a better job than most inte-
government has decided to appeal the ruling, BETWEEN gration policies elsewhere in doing so – even
with the effect that the Agreement remains in BORDERS though it struggles to recognize the reality of
place for now. When one in racism – and we have a relatively open citizen-
every 110 people ship policy. But Canada also recruits a huge
HOW CAN WE PROMOTE PEACEFUL AND on Earth has number of temporary foreign workers, many
COHESIVE SOCIETIES? been forced of whom will never be able to transition to
Let me share three thoughts. First, I believe to flee, some permanent residence, and I don’t think this is
that peaceful co-existence and social soli- nations respond sustainable over the long run without creating
darity will only have space to develop when a with barriers, societal tensions. The pandemic has exposed
society is willing to confront its dark side. If like “the wall” how much Canada depends on the work that
that doesn’t happen, conflicts will continue to between the many of these workers perform, and we should
fester below the surface, ready to erupt. Here United States recognize their contributions by allowing
and Mexico.
in Canada, we are just beginning to face up to them to remain here.
the truth about our settler colonial past and Lastly, I believe that investing in our public
the ways in which Indigenous dispossession education system is critically important.
continues today. Coming to terms with our Strong public schools can serve as a kind of
dark side is not a pleasant process, but it is a equalizer among kids and youth from diverse
Photo: Getty Images, Hector Mata
necessary one if we want to move forward as socioeconomic backgrounds, and also nurture
a society. In my view, this is the foundation on relationships that bridge social divides.
which everything else needs to be built.
Second, assuming that we want to continue
to open our doors to immigrants, we need
to do so in a welcoming way, valuing what
immigrants have to offer us, and treat them
as future citizens. Canada’s multiculturalism
TREK / ALUMNI UBC 7
THE MIGRATION ISSUE / LAND GRABS
A
THEORY
OF
VIOLENCE
Global sociologist Jasmin Hristov is
uncovering the secretive forces at play behind
land dispossession in Latin America.
BY A N T H O N Y A . D AV I S | I L L U ST R AT I O N BY D A Q
TREK / ALUMNI UBC 9THEY SPED AWAY FROM THE VILLAGE, AS FAST AS THEIR CAR COULD GO ON RUTTED ROADS THROUGH SUGAR CANE FIELDS. STOPPING WAS NOT AN OPTION. AT THE WHEEL that day was a academic researcher, yet this wasn’t I face is minimal compared to the member of a peasant organization the first time Hristov had been in a people who are activists and live who had been driving Jasmin Hristov, dangerous situation. there,” says Hristov. assistant professor of sociology As part of her research unearthing at UBC’s Okanagan campus, and how corrupt capitalism, hand-in- ACADEMIC EMPOWERMENT filmmaker Benjamin Cornejo to hand with paramilitary violence, has TO THE PEOPLE a remote village in the Mexican stolen land from generations of Latin Hristov teaches political sociology, state of Chiapas. Hristov, fluent in American peasants and Indigenous globalization and human rights, gender Portuguese and Spanish, planned peoples, Hristov has made many and women’s studies, and sociolog- to interview families who had been trips to such countries as Colombia, ical theory. Her research examines forcibly displaced from their land El Salvador, Brazil and Honduras. a wide span of political violence in by paramilitary forces. Cornejo was It’s academic work of a courageous South and Central America, including there to film the encounter for a doc- nature that connects this professor to violence carried out by state forces umentary he and Hristov are making activists, victims of land disposses- and irregular armed groups, and the on displaced peoples. sion and journalists in many parts of social ailments, such as sex traffick- Nearing the village, their driver was Latin America. ing and other abuses of human rights, warned by phone that a paramilitary She recounts her Chiapas experi- arising from economic globalization. group was shooting at dwellings ence reluctantly. Not because that Hristov’s research, contrary to much there. “We turned back,” recounts particular trip frightened her – she’s of the existing sociological literature, Hristov. “But we worried the group had more harrowing experiences posits that land dispossession cannot might catch up with us as we were doing research in Colombia – she be explained solely as a product driving away.” just doesn’t want the dangers of her of abuse of power or criminality. It’s not a typical scenario for an research sensationalized. “The risk Neither can the parallels between 10 TREK / ALUMNI UBC
the activities of armed groups and Central American countries such as were imposed in Colombia, local
capitalist interests be considered co- Guatemala amassed at an unwelcom- NGOs reported that armed groups
incidental. She has developed a novel ing US southern border, where tens had taken advantage of the situation
theory of “pro-capitalist violence,” of thousands of them were detained to murder three rural activists –
offering a new way to see and un- in inhumane conditions. Marco Rivadeneira, Ángel Ovidio
derstand the secretive relationships During the month of May 2019 Quintero, and Ivo Humberto
between paramilitaries, large-scale alone – at the height of this flight to Bracamonte – and they feared
capital, and oppressive governments. illusory safety – the US made 132,865 more victims would follow.
“My fieldwork with different actors border apprehensions. By last fall, Hristov regards herself as part of
involved in these conflicts… shows that number had dropped by 75 per a small but growing number of “global
that violence and legislation work cent, suggesting the Trump adminis- sociologists.” She hopes her particular
in tandem towards achieving the tration’s unsympathetic immigration research, books, and teaching –
economic objectives of capitalists, as policies, backed by a false narrative exposing the veiled mechanisms of
well as those set out by international that the Central American wave was greed and profit behind the atrocities
institutions such as the World Bank,” largely composed of murderous gangs of land dispossession – will empower
she says. and drug dealers, were having their its victims in Latin America and
Hristov has done more than intended effect. elsewhere to find the lives and justice
100 interviews with victims of land “We often hear of explanations they deserve.
dispossession. She has used those in- for the Central American exodus Both the Office of the UN High
terviews to illustrate – in her books, being centred on poverty and gang Commissioner for Human Rights
courses and forthcoming publications violence,” says Hristov. “While and the UN’s Food and Agriculture
– the massive human suffering and these are certainly key reasons, Organization recognize the dire
injustice that is still taking place in poverty and gang violence have a situation peasant populations in de-
Latin America. deeper structural driver, and that is veloping countries face today because
People are dispossessed of their land dispossession.” of economic power imbalances and
land through market mechanisms a lack of protection from violence.
(such as free trade agreements), LOCAL RESISTANCE In 2018 the UN General Assembly
judicial mechanisms (such as the In Hristov’s office, the walls are approved the UN Declaration on the
commodification of collectively brightened by a colourful blanket Rights of Peasants and Other People
owned land), or through violence. from Chiapas and other craftworks Working in Rural Areas. The next
Land dispossession, says Hristov, is collected from research trips. The step – effective implementation by
“a process that destroys sustainable walls also sport a red flag with an nation-states – is a “huge challenge,”
rural livelihoods and the social image of Marxist revolutionary frets Hristov, given that those who
fabric of communities, and generates Che Guevara and a poster of Berta hold power in countries such as
‘surplus humanity’ – people with no Cáceres – one of Hristov’s heroes. Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico
livelihood and no job prospects.” Cáceres was an Indigenous can still manipulate laws to their own
Many migrate to nearby urban Honduran activist trying to stop advantage. “Countries in the North
centres and end up living in slums. construction of an internationally should support the will of the popular
“Given the lack of economic opportu- financed hydro-electric dam on the movements seeking change on the
nities and the extreme food insecuri- Gualcarque River, a river considered ground in these countries,” she says.
ty – as well as being trapped in spaces sacred by the Lenca people, whose “They should not recognize illegit-
ridden by gang and organized crime land was threatened by the project. imate political regimes, such as the
violence – young people are left with Cáceres was murdered in 2016 by present one in Honduras.”
few options: mainly to join the crimi- now-convicted former members of
nal world or to be victimized by it.” the state military and employees AN INGRAINED SENSE
During her research Hristov heard of DESA, the company building OF INJUSTICE
first-hand stories from people and the dam. Hristov authored Blood and Capital:
families involved in land struggles Tragically, Cáceres is one of many. the Paramilitarization of Colombia
in Honduras and Chiapas, Mexico. “Some [peasant] leaders are under in 2009, and followed that five
Without access to land, they felt constant threat,” says Cornejo, who years later with Paramilitarism and
their only chance of survival was met Hristov in Toronto during the Neoliberalism: Violent Systems of
migrating to the United States and early 2000s. “Some of them have Capital Accumulation in Colombia
seeking asylum. been shot, kidnapped and seriously and Beyond.
Yet the large-scale suffering hurt. We have to be careful when In simple terms, neoliberalism is
propelling involuntary migration we interview them and with the an economic philosophy that supports
was largely invisible to the North locations we choose.” a free market, deregulation, govern-
American public until caravans Just this March, as COVID-19 ment austerity and privatization of
of desperate immigrants from quarantine and lockdown measures business and services.
TREK / ALUMNI UBC 11Yet her preface in Paramilitarism in Latin America.” Private security
ABOVE THE and Neoliberalism makes it clear that forces working for such companies,
GROUND Hristov sees neoliberalism as a ruth- as well as state security acting on
Paramilitary forces less dog-eat-dog ideology that favours their behalf, she contends, have
(above left) guard a the rich and powerful and locks more “grossly violated” human rights
contentious mining site and more people into an inescapable among the local populations,
in Guapinol, Honduras, cage of poverty. particularly those opposed to the
where in 2018 police In Latin America, neoliberal operations of these companies.
and military personnel governments and other actors often Hristov is angered by the misery
violently evicted approxi-
use paramilitary groups to do their and injustice created by uprooting
mately 100 unarmed
dirty work. Paramilitaries – armed people from their land and is fiercely
peasants protesting
groups organized and financed by committed to fighting the forces that
against the mine’s
sectors of the elites but unofficially generate poverty and dehumaniza-
alleged contamination
supported by the state – have been tion. The roots and impacts of land
of local water sources.
involved in widespread human dispossession is not a field of study
Indigenous Honduran
activist Berta Cáceres rights violations. Hristov chose for herself. “It chose
(depicted above right) Corporations too, including some me,” she says.
was murdered in 2016 in developed countries outside South She was just five when she began to
after preventing and Central America, have had a have a growing sense of the injustice
construction of a hand, wittingly or otherwise, in Latin in the world. “When I was growing
hydro-electric dam on American land dispossession. Foreign up, there was a part of me that
her people’s land. corporations benefit from operating rebelled against, or felt indignation
under repressive states that protect towards the ways in which poor
their economic interests, and some people in Brazil did not matter and
Canadian, US, and European cor- were silenced – and had to, on a daily
porations, says Hristov, “have been basis, swallow the humiliation as if
directly implicated in land conflicts they were lesser human beings than
12 TREK / ALUMNI UBCthe wealthy. The bloody conflicts Hristov’s research garners
over land in the Brazilian north were wide-ranging attention from the
a product of the landowning elite media. In 2019 she received the
robbing the rural poor of their human Early Investigator Award from the
dignity, and having the power to Canadian Sociological Association
decide who had the right to exist.” in recognition of the theoretically
It all left an indelible impression on novel nature of her work and her deep
her. “I know millions of people live “I KNOW commitment to human rights. But her
MILLIONS OF
in these countries that are very un- commitment goes far beyond theory.
equal, and are accustomed to the way The central goal of her research is to
the poor are robbed of their dignity.
And it has become as natural as the PEOPLE LIVE IN contribute to social change, and she
wants her work to reach audiences
air they breathe. But it was never that
way for me.”
THESE COUNTRIES beyond academia. She hopes her find-
ings will be published in journals read
Even after moving to Canada with
her parents as a teenager, part of
THAT ARE VERY by policy-makers from the Canadian
government and the World Bank, and
Hristov always wanted to, one day, UNEQUAL, AND wants to raise awareness about the
have the power to make oppressors ways economic legislation architec-
pay for what they do. ARE ACCUSTOMED tured by international entities such
THE REBEL IN THE RESEARCHER TO THE WAY as the World Bank create conditions
for investment conducive to violence
Today, Hristov is the principal inves-
tigator for two major projects funded
THE POOR ARE and dispossession.
Hristov has also written expert-
by the Canadian federal government’s
Social Sciences and Humanities
ROBBED OF THEIR witness reports for human rights
violation trials in the US and Canada
Research Council.
With the “Violence and Land
DIGNITY. AND related to incidents in Latin America,
and she is not averse to directly
Dispossession in Central America IT HAS BECOME challenging those in influential
political positions. In December 2017,
AS NATURAL AS
and Mexico” project, Hristov leads
an international team that includes when Juan Orlando Hernández was
three UBC research assistants, two
international research assistants, the THE AIR THEY installed for a second term as president
of Honduras, Hristov gathered signa-
documentary filmmaker Cornejo, and
collaborators in each of the countries
BREATHE. BUT IT tures for a collective letter to Chrystia
Freeland, Canada’s Minister of Foreign
where research is being conducted.
The team is documenting the
WAS NEVER THAT Affairs at the time. The letter asked
Freeland and the Canadian govern-
prevalence and core patterns in
the relationship between land
WAY FOR ME.” ment to take a stand against what
was widely regarded as a fraudulent
dispossession and paramilitary election. Hristov also was involved in
and/or state violence in Honduras, urging Canada to take a stand against
Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.
~ JASMIN HRISTOV, a wave of violence, including 30 mur-
They have also funded and created UBC PROFESSOR OF ders of civilians, by Honduran police
a website that the peasant movement and military. The minister, Hristov
in Honduras can use to post news
SOCIOLOGY says, took a year to reply, only to say
and urgent action alerts. that Canada is monitoring the human
In her role as principal investigator rights situation in Honduras.
for the “Human Rights Monitor of Hristov acknowledges that in some
Honduras” project, Hristov is working academic circles there are those who
in partnership with a Honduran NGO, are uncomfortable with her social
the Association for Democracy and justice approach to academic inves-
Human Rights, and 15 researchers in tigation – seeing her as too much
that country. The team is collaborat- the activist, rather than an impartial
ing with 20 community organizations researcher. “Being a passionate
in Honduras and has conducted more academic seeking social transforma-
than 220 interviews in the process tion can be harmful to one’s career in
of creating a database documenting many ways,” explains Hristov. “But it’s
political violence and human rights not something that I planned for. It’s
violations over the past decade. part of me. And I can’t change that.”
TREK / ALUMNI UBC 13THE MIGRATION ISSUE / THE NEW JOURNALISM
Inside Out
UBC’s Global Reporting Centre steps away
from traditional “parachute journalism”
in favour of empowering local voices.
BY C H R I S C A N N O N
I L L U ST R AT I O N BY F E R N A N D O VO L K E N TO G N I“99.999 per cent of Germans don’t want you here.” on stories that affect the local community but still carry
ripples of international relevance.
MOHAMED AMJAHID LAUGHS, reading from a piece Such experiments are unusual in the competitive media
of anti-immigrant hate mail. Amjahid is not an immigrant – landscape. The large companies that dominate the
he’s a 32-year-old native of Frankfurt – but that doesn’t seem markets are profit-driven, lacking the stomach and the
to matter. His skin is brown. His name is foreign enough. expertise to take risks. Independent media simply lack
And the emails pile up, sometimes hundreds in a day. the funding, relying on donations and grants just to keep
But he laughs, and the audience laughs with him. afloat. So it falls to rare organizations like the GRC to
This is “Hate Poetry,” an evening of humour and incred- innovate in the reporting arena.
ulous eye-rolls, where German journalists turn xenopho- Built on a three-tier system of studying global journalism,
bia into sketch comedy to highlight the growing nativism experimenting with reporting techniques, and teaching
and rise of the right wing in 21st century Europe. their findings to the next generation of reporters, the GRC
The scene is hyperlocal – if you weren’t in the room, you resembles a lean start-up as much as a news organization.
wouldn’t have seen it were it not for the digital story- “Most media organizations just produce journalism,”
telling project Strangers at Home. An initiative of UBC’s says Klein, who officially founded the GRC in 2016 but
Global Reporting Centre (GRC), Strangers at Home offers began creating its content nearly three years earlier.
unique, locally told perspectives on the state of attitudes “But because we’re part of a university we want to take
towards immigrants in modern Europe. advantage of that, to really bring some scholarly rigour
But it’s not just the stories that stand out, it’s the way to what we’re doing.”
they are told. The short films are authored by the subjects To blend scholarship with practice, the GRC teams
themselves. Rather than going the traditional route of reporters and academics who work together on stories
reporting on the subjects, the GRC is reporting with them, through every phase of the project – from conception to
providing production and technical support, but allowing field reporting to critical analysis of their techniques.
“99.999 per cent of Germ
the subjects to write and direct their own tales. This replaces the traditional model of reporters simply
This new kind of experimental reporting is called interviewing academics for a small slice of the story.
“empowerment journalism,” putting control in the hands One challenge for the GRC has been addressing the
of the first-person storyteller. “Hate Poetry” is just one of issue of “fixers” in the practice of “parachute journalism.”
10 short documentaries that make up Strangers at Home, A Western reporter drops into a place they know little
ranging from Roma life in Macedonia, to migration in about and relies on a local journalist (the fixer) to translate
Greece, to the intersection of fascism and charity in Italy. the language and make the connections needed to tell
Born from a desire to challenge traditional methods of the story. But it’s an exploitative relationship that favours
international reporting, empowerment journalism is an the outsider’s narrative at the expense of the local, often
attempt to overcome the blind spots and bias inherent in marginalized, community’s perspective. “It’s easy and
having local stories told by outsiders. convenient to use fixers,” says Klein, “but once you take
“There seems to be a growing sense among journalists that traditional methodology out of the equation, then
that traditional foreign correspondence is antiquat- you’ve got to come up with new things. You’re sort of
ed,” says Peter Klein, professor at the UBC School of forcing yourself to experiment. So we’ve intentionally put
Journalism, Writing, and Media, and executive director ourselves in this awkward position of saying let’s try to do
of the GRC. “It has traditional neocolonial trappings that global journalism in a new way.”
most journalists are unaware of. You’re basically sending When Strangers at Home was first proposed in 2013, its
a privileged, usually white, western reporter to some far working title was History Repeated, focusing on the rise of
off place to see the poverty or disease or war or whatever, right-wing nationalism similar to that which brought the
taking something from that place, and bringing it back Nazi party into power eight decades ago. The initial plan
home and telling everybody about it in a way that’s rele- followed the traditional path of international journalism:
vant only to them. There are a lot of missing perspectives get some funding, go to Europe, interview subjects, and
and missing voices in that model.” tell the obvious story – the nationalists rise to power,
By supporting locals in telling their own stories about the world looks away, and we unleash another holocaust.
the intersection between immigration and human rights “That was an interesting historical touchstone from
in Europe, Strangers at Home uses empowerment journal- a simplistic storytelling standpoint,” says Klein. “But
ism to offer a much different, more personal perspective then we started talking to scholars and experts on refugee
16 TREK / ALUMNI UBCissues, experts on xenophobia and nativism and the rise dependency in their community. The powerful documen-
of the right, and consistently what I heard from them was, tary reimagined the newsroom as a first-person account
‘Please, please don’t do the predictable story of history rather than a third-person observation, illustrating the
repeating itself.’” need for journalists to transition from gatekeepers of
As it turns out, Nazi-era Germany is a poor historical the information to collaborators with their subjects.
analogy for what’s happening in today’s interconnected “We wouldn’t have done Turning Points if it weren’t for
world, and the various forms of racism and xenophobia the lessons we learned from Strangers at Home,” recalls
throughout Europe are too diverse to be understood in all Klein. “Alcohol dependency in Indigenous communities
their complexities by outsiders. Foreign journalists often is one of those topics a lot of people in those communities
approach these issues in sweeping brushstrokes, assum- want told, but they don’t want it told in the traditional
ing there is little difference between Greece’s Golden way of outsiders coming in and – intentionally or unin-
Dawn and Italy’s CasaPound, or between anti-semitism tentionally – perpetuating stereotypes. So we handed the
in Hungary and anti-semitism in Sweden, chalking them storytelling power over to them. Just like with Strangers,
all up under the simplistic rubric “the rise of the right.” it was proof of concept that you can empower people who
“So we thought, rather than us coming in as outsiders are not professional storytellers and get really compelling
imposing our own view on these issues, why don’t we stories out of them.”
empower people to tell their own stories?” says Klein. But the stories don’t come easily. Empowerment
“Why don’t we embrace that complexity and nuance?” journalism is expensive, risky, and producers give up
The project was renamed Strangers at Home, and the a lot of control – the occasional failure is inevitable. In
first person Klein tapped was the series’ project manager traditional newsrooms, people get fired if they fly around
Shayna Plaut, a PhD student in UBC’s interdisciplinary the world chasing a story and then come back without
program who was teaching a class on human rights at the one. Staff journalists can’t take that risk, and freelancers
School of Journalism. With Plaut taking the academic can’t afford to – there’s an unspoken pressure to contort
ans don’t want you here.”
lead, and Klein providing the journalistic support, they your story to fit some preconceived idea that may not
assembled a team that ranged from journalism students be accurate.
to a Pulitzer-winning producer, ultimately working with Because funding for the centre also defies journalistic
two dozen researchers, reporters, producers, technical norms, this issue is easier to sidestep. The GRC accepts no
professionals, and storytellers to help locals deliver their corporate sponsorships or commercials, relying primarily
niche perspectives. on academic backing and philanthropic support from
But to what end? What is the point of telling stories foundations and individuals. Strangers at Home was 100
from a local perspective for an audience on the other side per cent crowdfunded. But so far the GRC has managed to
of the world? produce dozens of award-winning projects in partnerships
Because we are more interconnected than we think. Many with leading media organizations around the world, includ-
North Americans have attributed the rise of the right in ing NBC News, the BBC, the CBC, and the New York Times.
Europe to an extension of the emboldened American white The GRC’s biggest challenge, Klein admits, is raising op-
nationalists after Trump’s inauguration in 2017. But the erational support. “It’s great for a foundation or individual
Strangers at Home project began in 2013, and was complet- to have a connection to a documentary or book project,”
ed in 2016, when the political climate in the United States he says. ‘I funded a documentary’ sounds awesome.
was much different than it is today, and anti-immigrant ‘I funded the infrastructure to allow an organization to
ideologies such as the Tea Party movement seemed like grow’, well, that’s less interesting, but it’s what we need
they might be more of a fashion statement than an estab- most. You can’t grow an organization without that kind
lished base. These small stories from the corners of Europe of funding, and you can’t take the risks.”
revealed the roots of what soon became a global trend “The system isn’t designed for experimentation and
in nativism. Traditional foreign reporting wouldn’t have failure,” he continues. “But this is the value of a non-profit
told them until the issues were on our doorstep. journalism model – we can take risks, we can fail. As long
The success of Strangers at Home – which has won as we can afford to fail and accept the occasional loss,
several awards and was presented at the United Nations – then we’re learning a lot from it.”
led to other projects such as Turning Points, which empow-
ered members of Indigenous communities in Yellowknife The Strangers at Home documentary series and more can
to tell their own stories about the problem with alcohol be viewed at globalreportingcentre.org
TREK / ALUMNI UBC 17THE MIGRATION ISSUE / LONGING I L L U ST R AT I O N BY G R A C I A L A M
DEAR NOUR
BY D A N N Y R A M A D A N
Danny Ramadan,
MFA’20, is an
award-winning
novelist, speaker,
and LGBTQ-
refugee activist.
His debut novel,
The Clothesline
Swing, won multiple
awards, and he is
also the author
Winter here is a freshly cleaned glass of the children’s
building no one lives in and I wonder if you would curse book Salma the
Syrian Chef. He
the clouds the way you cursed me when your husband went to the sea. talked about his
experiences as
There is no open fire in houses here unless it’s a decorative fireplace a Syrian refugee in
the popular TED
on TV with a mysterious hand flipping burning woods I stand by it talk The Refugee
hands extending it offers no warmth. Tree: A Queer
Journey from
Syria to Canada.
No one knows how to play backgammon and I haven’t
played since you and I last battled in the living room with heavy tea
and the dices twirled around like a dervish.
You slam the table with your hand
and the dices stop twirling they rested on two sixes you won that
round and made me Turkish coffee that healed my broken soul.
Your home tucked away in the old corners of Damascus
neighboured by abandoned wooden houses waiting forgotten filled
With the dust of old souls abandoned waiting forgotten.
Your hair is waiving tales on your shoulders freed
a nightly sky with a hidden moon you wash it with olive oil
to keep it nourished and soft.
My hair is humid like a wet cloth. I can clean a
kitchen floor with it. I can even clean the
salt and snow off my boots.
Every time I pack for a new place I remember you
packing my bags
begging me to stay.
I wanted to tell you that yesterday
I bought myself a bottle of olive oil made in California
I called it home.
TREK / ALUMNI UBC 19THE
MIGRATION
ISSUE / RESLILIENCE
A
SEAT
AT
THE
TABLE
A new exhibit on Chinese
immigration and British Columbia
highlights belonging, racism,
and resilience
BY M A D E L E I N E D E T R E N Q UA LY E , B A’ 0 7
20 TREK / ALUMNI UBCTREK / ALUMNI UBC 21
MANY SCHOOLCHILDREN IN BC understand as well their strategies migrants. He paid the $500 head
today (at least those who pay attention for resistance, whether it was creat- tax (a fee amounting to two years’
in their history classes) are familiar ing alternative business networks or wages) and spent four decades as a
with the milestones of discrimination building partnerships with Indigenous cook on a CPR cruise ship, returning
that Chinese Canadians have suffered: communities,” adds Yu. “97,000 to China just once to marry. Because
the head tax of 1885, the race riot of Chinese came to Canada during the of Canada’s Exclusion Act and the
1907, the Exclusion Act of 1923, and head tax era. What motivated them to Chinese Communist Revolution, it
segregation in housing and jobs until cross an ocean and be separated from was 28 years until he would meet
the 1960s. In 2006, the federal gov- their families?” And what continues his daughter (Yu’s mother), when she
ernment formally apologized for this to motivate newer waves of migrants? immigrated to Vancouver with her
omnibus of past wrongs. In 2014, the husband and children in 1965.
province followed suit, and in 2018, JOURNEYS OF HOPE By then, Canadian society had
so did the City of Vancouver. Both Henry Yu and Denise Fong can evolved. Although discrimination
“You have to remember the parts of turn to their own family histories for endured in subtle and not-so-subtle
the past that did damage in order to answers. Yu was born at Vancouver ways, the legal framework of racism
move forward together,” says UBC General Hospital in 1967, the year was being dismantled. Yu’s father,
historian Henry Yu. Yu says these of Canada’s 100th birthday. (He was equipped with an engineering degree
public apologies help promote a more a “Chung baby,” one of over 7,000 from a top Chinese university, quick-
inclusive society. Learning about infants delivered by legendary OB- ly found employment in BC’s boom-
histories of discrimination can also GYN Madeline Chung, who was for ing mining sector, despite speaking
teach us how us-versus-them narra- decades the only Chinese-speaking little English. “Within weeks he’d
tives emerge. As xenophobia takes on obstetrician in BC.) Although Yu’s landed a job that paid three times
new but familiar expressions – includ- parents had immigrated to Canada what my grandfather ever made,”
ing a recent surge of anti-Asian hate
crimes related to COVID-19 – that
lesson seems more relevant than ever. “My father’s seat at the table was
earned by people who fought
Title page: The Lee family sitting down for dinner. Albert Lee, Saint Mary’s University, Gorsebrook Research Institute, GRI_134 (1958)
But Yu says it’s equally important to
learn how victims of racism – both
discrimination, who literally fought
then and now – respond to and fight
for justice.
STORIES OF RACISM for the vote by going to war for
AND RESILIENCE
As the co-curator of a new temporary Canada. They’re the ones who
exhibit that opened in August in
Vancouver’s Chinatown, with a sister
made Canada a better, more
exhibition opening in November at
the Museum of Vancouver, Yu hopes
inclusive place.”
to inspire audiences with stories – Henry Yu, UBC professor of history
about how Chinese Canadians battled
exclusion and helped to build a better
society. Curated with PhD candidate just two years earlier, making him says Yu. “That really astounded my
Denise Fong (BA’03, MA’08) and MOV the first the Canadian-born member grandfather, who until that point had
curator Viviane Gosselin (PhD’11), of his family, he is simultaneously figured his son-in-law was sort of
these exhibits, entitled A Seat at the a fourth-generation Canadian whose useless as a new immigrant.”
Table, are also the launching pad for great-grandfather was one of the But Yu says it’s only thanks to earlier
a new multi-sited provincial Chinese earliest Cantonese migrants to arrive generations that his father was able
Canadian Museum that will have in BC in the 1880s. to saunter into an industry that had
hubs and spokes throughout BC. Like many of his compatriots, previously been off limits. Until 1947,
“What we’re trying to do is Yu’s great-grandfather spent his life Chinese Canadians were banned from
humanize the stories and not just isolated from his family, working a practicing as engineers, doctors and
see Chinese Canadians as victims of string of difficult jobs to send money lawyers. “My father’s seat at the table
racism, but instead to look at stories home. He gradually saved enough to was earned by people who fought dis-
of resilience,” says Fong, who is com- bring his four sons to Canada, one by crimination, who literally fought for
pleting her PhD on cultural heritage one. The youngest was Yu’s maternal the vote by going to war for Canada.
and identity in museums. grandfather, Yeung Sing Yew, who They’re the ones who made Canada
“We understand what was done crossed the Pacific in 1923, just before a better, more inclusive place.”
to the Chinese, but often we don’t Canada shut its doors to Chinese Yu hopes that’s a lesson people
22 TREK / ALUMNI UBCBRINGING
STORIES TO LIFE
In a new exhibit
at the Museum of
Vancouver, Henry
Yu and Denise Fong
trace the histories of
Chinese Canadians.
reflect on as they look forward. “If a sense of being pulled between two and Sino-Cambodians who spent
you want to know why BC is a great cultures. The split family is another four generations in Southeast Asia
place to live, but can be an even enduring theme that has found a new before coming to Canada as refugees.
better place to live, look to those who expression in the 21st century – with Surfacing that complexity and creat-
aren’t enjoying all the privileges of so-called “astronaut families” whose ing an ongoing mirror is crucial.”
living here. They’re the people who lives straddle Canada and Asia. To that end, Yu has empowered
will make Canada a better society.” “There’s been this reversal where his own students at UBC to expand
now it’s often the families who are on textbook histories of Chinese
NEWER WAVES OF MIGRATION here raising their kids so they can Canadians. For the past 15 years,
Having migrated from Hong Kong have a good quality education and instead of only assigning scholarly
in 1990, Denise Fong’s story re- better upbringing, while Dad is articles and exams, he has sent
flects a newer wave of cosmopoli- overseas making money.” students into the community to
tan, educated, Cantonese migrants conduct oral history media projects.
who bypassed Chinatown, settling COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT The relationships they have built form
in affluent places like Richmond Fong says the exhibit and Chinese a network of knowledge exchange
and Kerrisdale. Canadian Museum broadens the idea that Yu and his colleagues have drawn
Fong wanted the exhibit to reflect of Chinese Canadian by incorporat- from for projects like the Chinese
this more recent history of Chinese ing a tapestry of stories from diverse Canadian Museum. Many of his
Canadian migration, but wondered communities while highlighting former students now work as film-
how newer migrants would connect these universal themes. Visitors makers, museum curators, journalists
to stories about earlier migrants who will also be invited to share their and digital storytellers, continuing
built railroads, ran laundries, and own stories of exclusion, belonging to expand the story of Chinese
endured forced segregation, when and resilience. Canadian history.
their lived experiences appeared to Yu says that reflecting the diversity Yu emphasizes that it took 15 years
be so different. of Chinese Canadian experiences is of capacity-building to get to this
Photo: Kyrani Kanavaros
But in her interviews with different critical. “It’s no longer from eight point. “We don’t just collect histories,
communities, Fong discovered that small counties in southern China,” exhibit them, and archive them. It’s
while migrants’ trajectories and rea- says Yu. “We have Chinese Peruvians a continual process of reciprocal
sons for migrating have shifted, there who speak Spanish as a first language; relationships. That’s what community
are several common threads: belong- Chinese from Malaysia or Trinidad engagement has to look like.”
ing and identity, family businesses, or South Africa; Sino-Vietnamese
TREK / ALUMNI UBC 23Racism and 2
Resilience
The story of Chinese Canadians –
from boycotts to beauty queens.
CAPTIONS BY PROFESSOR HENRY YU
1
3
3) RBSC-ARC-1679-CC-PH-10725, 4) RBSC-ARC-1679-CC-GR-00010, 5) Canada Illustrated News, RBSC-ARC-1679-CC-GR-00009, 6) RBSC-ARC-1679-CC-PH-00217
Photo: 1) Yucho Chow Archive: Ming Wo/Wong Family Collection; UBC LIBRARY, THE CHUNG COLLECTION: 2) RBSC-ARC-1679-CC-PH-04092,
4
1. AIRBRUSHED 2. THE CANTONESE Cantonese workers Lore, and Tong Louie grant land for the
FAMILY PHOTO PACIFIC (1926) helped build in the would be celebrated in establishment of a
Early Chinese migrants From the 1840s to the 1880s, was part of a Vancouver’s Chinatown. sugar-refining business
to BC were often sepa- 1930s, Cantonese global transportation At a time when they “on the condition that
rated from their families migrant networks network that includ- were treated as second the said Company shall
for years or even de- connected ports ed ships such as the class citizens and con- not at any time employ
cades. This made family such as Victoria and Empress of Asia, which sidered inferior, soccer Chinese labor in and
photos, like this one of Vancouver to Yokohama, carried many Cantonese provided a set of rules about the said works…”
the Wong Chew Lip fam- Melbourne, Sydney, migrants between China and a level playing field
ily, particularly precious. Honolulu, San Francisco and Canada. that allowed Chinese 5. A WHITE MAN’S
The photo uses an early and Hong Kong. Canadians to prove that PROVINCE (1879)
form of airbrushing to Chinese merchants 3. THE CHINESE they were inferior to In 1872, one of the first
stitch together family and labourers moved SOCCER TEAM no one. legislative acts in the
members who were across and around (1926) newly formed province
split across the Pacific the Pacific as well as The Chinese students’ 4. CITY-SANCTIONED of British Columbia
– a common practice throughout Southeast soccer team won city RACISM (1890) was to disenfranchise
at this time. Asia, the Caribbean, championships in In its grant to the BC Chinese and Indigenous
South America, and Vancouver year after Sugar Refining Co. residents. The politics
Africa. The transcon- year. After a victory, Ltd., or Rogers Sugar, of white supremacy
tinental Canadian players like Quene Yip, the City of Vancouver imagined a ”white”
Pacific Railway, which Dock Yip, William stipulated that it would Canada that would be
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