Brown Bag Sessions - Audie Klotz and Prema Kurien - Maxwell Citizenship Initiative

The Maxwell Citizenship Initiative, Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs present: 

The Brown Bag Sessions

Audie Klotz - Should Security (Ever) Trump Rights?

Are the Trump administration’s attempts to restrict entry into the US a response to legitimate security concerns or an abrogation of basic legal protections for individuals and families? To what extent is Brexit driven by concern of Eastern European migrants or Syrian refugees? Do EU designations of “safe” countries or deals with Turkey and Libya to preclude migration around the Mediterranean undermine the non-refoulement norm? Should anti-foreigner sentiment in South Africa be labelled xenophobia, a term typically associated with racism? We can better understand these rising tensions between migration as a potential security concern and a sphere for rights protections through the politics of threat construction. Three dimensions of security--interstate, societal, and human—provide distinct perspectives. Examples from around the world underscore that the inclusion of migration within security studies also requires a reassessment of the field’s Eurocentric roots.

Prema Kurien - The Socio-Political Incorporation of South Asian Minorities in Canada and the United States 

My presentation will draw on ongoing research to examine two minority religious groups of South Asian origin (Hindus and Sikhs) that have broadly similar patterns of migration to Canada and the United States and have close ties with their compatriots across the border, but yet manifest divergent activism profiles around North American as well as homeland issues. My presentation will examine how different opportunity structures (both national and local), and differences in the characteristics of the groups, shape how they frame their grievances and mobilize. It also aims to uncover the factors that influence the form that their mobilization takes, specifically, whether it is "ethnic," "racial," or "religious." Focusing on Hindu and Sikh communities and advocacy organizations serving these groups in Toronto, Vancouver, New York/New Jersey, and northern California, this project is being conducted both through interviews and analysis of available information about the organizations.

For more information, please contact Marc Albert at 315-443-9248.