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Negotiating Diasporic Identity in Arab-Canadian Students: Double Consciousness, Belonging, and Radicalization Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar
Negotiating Diasporic Identity in Arab-Canadian Students: Double Consciousness, Belonging, and Radicalization Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar
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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN
EDUCATIONAL FUTURES
Series Editor
jan jagodzinski
Department of Secondary Education
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB, Canada
The series Educational Futures would be a call on all aspects of education,
not only specific subject specialist, but policy makers, religious education
leaders, curriculum theorists, and those involved in shaping the educational
imagination through its foundations and both psychoanalytical and
psychological investments with youth to address this extraordinary
precarity and anxiety that is continually rising as things do not get better
but worsen. A global de-territorialization is taking place, and new voices
and visions need to be seen and heard. The series would address the
following questions and concerns. The three key signifiers of the book
series title address this state of risk and emergency:
1. The Anthropocene: The ‘human world,’ the world-for-us is drifting
toward a global situation where human extinction is not out of the
question due to economic industrialization and overdevelopment, as
well as the exponential growth of global population. How to we address
this ecologically and educationally to still make a difference?
2. Ecology: What might be ways of re-thinking our relationships with
the non-human forms of existence and in-human forms of artificial
intelligence that have emerged? Are there possibilities to rework the
ecological imagination educationally from its over-romanticized view
of Nature, as many have argued: Nature and culture are no longer ten-
able separate signifiers. Can teachers and professors address the ideas
that surround differentiated subjectivity where agency is no long
attributed to the ‘human’ alone?
3. Aesthetic Imaginaries: What are the creative responses that can fab-
ulate aesthetic imaginaries that are viable in specific contexts where
the emergent ideas, which are able to gather heterogeneous elements
together to present projects that address the two former descriptors:
the Anthropocene and the every changing modulating ecologies. Can
educators drawn on these aesthetic imaginaries to offer exploratory
hope for what is a changing globe that is in constant crisis?
The series Educational Futures: Anthropocene, Ecology, and Aesthetic
Imaginaries attempts to secure manuscripts that are aware of the precarity
that reverberates throughout all life, and attempts to explore and experi-
ment to develop an educational imagination which, at the very least, makes
conscious what is a dire situation.
Negotiating Diasporic
Identity in Arab-
Canadian Students
Double Consciousness, Belonging,
and Radicalization
Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB, Canada
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
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For my loving and lovely wife Sue
And
For Nano and Zico:
May you too follow your dreams with all your heart.
Preface
vii
viii PREFACE
xi
Contents
xiii
xiv Contents
Index169
CHAPTER 1
c olonizing powers moving eastward and the volatile postcolonial era. This
project serves as an extension of the concept of double consciousness,
rather than a departure from Du Bois’s interpretation. Viewed as such,
this study offers insights into how Arab-Canadian consciousness resonates
with the matrix of double consciousness.
1
Students who either were born in Canada or arrived before their early teens when their
parents immigrated to Canada.
4 W. KH. ABDUL-JABBAR
The countries that fulfill all these conditions constitute a coherent group
extending across the whole of North Africa, the Arabian peninsula, and the
western part of Asia, frequently referred to as the Fertile Crescent. They
incorporate some 150 million citizens and cover an area of about 13 million
square kilometers. (pp. 4–5)
Arabs are often confused with nations from neighbouring countries, mainly
because these other nationalities are either Muslim or Middle Eastern:
Iranians, Afghans, Turks, and Pakistanis are not Arabs. Although these
groups are predominantly Muslim, a commonality they share with Arabs,
each of them is culturally and linguistically distinct, with its own artistic
traditions. Even within the geographical Arab world, there are non-Arab
ethnic communities: Berbers, Kurds, Armenians, Chaldeans, Assyrians,
Circassians. (Salaita, 2011, p. 9)
Indeed, the most accepted definition of Arab today is one who speaks
Arabic. None other seems to work. The real Arab comes from one of the
thirteen tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, but what about the millions who
don’t? Most Arabs are Muslim, but what of the six million Egyptian Coptic
Christians? A European lives in Europe, an Asian in Asia, but does an Arab
live in Arabia? (p. 12)
6 W. KH. ABDUL-JABBAR
The Arabic language itself, by contrast, has a single word, ‘arabi, an attribu-
tive adjective derived from what must be one of the earliest words in the
history of language, ‘arab, a collective noun that was originally used to
describe the nomadic peoples of the central regions of what is now the
Arabian Peninsula. Quite how far back the existence of the ‘arab can be
traced is difficult to say, but a group called the ‘ar-ba-a’ are cited as compo-
nents of an army in cuneiform inscriptions dating from as early as 853 BC.
(Allen, 1998, p. 11)
There are two distinctive periods of Arab Immigration to Canada which are
labelled as the ‘pioneer wave’ and the ‘new wave’ respectively. For example,
the new wave of Arab immigration to Canada is different from the pioneer
wave not only in terms of volume but also in terms of countries of origin of
the immigrants and the immigrants’ social, economic, political, and educa-
tional characteristics. Additionally, over the last ten to fifteen years new-wave
INTRODUCTION: BUT, SERIOUSLY, WHAT’S THIS BOOK ABOUT? 7
Arab immigrants have included two types that did not figure prominently in
the pioneer wave: refugees and investors/entrepreneurs. (Abu-Laban,
1999, p. 203)
References
Abu-Laban, B. (1999). Arabs. In P. R. Magocsi (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Canada’s
peoples (pp. 202–212). Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Abukhattala, I. (2004). Educational and cultural adjustment of ten Arab Muslim
students in Canadian university classrooms. Retrieved from Proquest Digital
Dissertations.
Allen, R. (1998). The Arabic literary heritage: The development of its genres and
criticism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Dajani, G. (2014). 750,925 Canadians hail from Arab lands. Canadian Arab
Institute. Retrieved from http://www.canadianarabinstitute.org/publica-
tions/reports/750925-canadians-hail-arab-lands/
Dimitriadis, G., & McCarthy, C. (2001). Reading and teaching the postcolonial:
From Baldwin to Basquiat and beyond. New York: Teachers College Press.
Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Atlantic: Modernity and double consciousness.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Johnston, I. (2003). Re-mapping literary worlds: Postcolonial pedagogy in practice.
New York: Peter Lang.
Lamb, D. (1987). The Arabs: Journey beyond the mirage. New York: First Vintage
Books Edition.
Lo, M. C. M. (2002). Doctors within borders: Profession, ethnicity, and modernity
in colonial Taiwan. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Pratt, M. L. (1991). Arts of the contact zone. Profession, 91, 33–40.
Rodinson, M. (1981). The Arabs. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
8 W. KH. ABDUL-JABBAR
Salaita, S. (2011). Modern Arab American fiction: A reader’s guide. New York:
Syracuse University Press.
Sandset, T. (2011). Some thoughts on hybrid identity: Dictionaries, identities and
“Are we all hybrids”? New Narratives: Hybrid Identity (1). Retrieved from
https://newnarratives.wordpress.com/issue-1-hybrid-identity/some-
thoughts-on-hybrid-identity/
Statistics Canada. (2007). The Arab community in Canada. No. 9.
Suleiman, Y. (2003). The Arabic language and national identity: A study in ideol-
ogy. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.
Zine, J. (2008). Canadian Islamic schools: Unravelling the politics of faith, knowl-
edge, and identity. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
CHAPTER 2
gained more scholarly attention in the past several years “with respect to
their integration, a process of considerable relevance to the ideals and lived
realities of Canadian multiculturalism” (p. 61). Studies of second-
generation youth involve “several debates pertaining to the nature of the
group, research method, representation, and interpretation, all of which
are central to youth studies generally” (p. 61). These studies generally
demonstrate “new cultural flows and new modes of belonging in local and
global spaces [and] new modes of identity production” (p. 61). The des-
ignation “second-generation youth” refers to “the stage in life when major
transitions usually take place, such as graduating from school, entering
post-secondary institutions, entering the labour market, forming new
households, but also coming to terms with ethno-cultural identities”
(Tastsoglou, 2008, p. 1). Shariff (2008) suggested that what sets second-
generation youth, who have spent most of their lives in the countries to
which their parents immigrated, apart from first-generation immigrants
are two main factors that have brought second-generation research to the
forefront of academic attention. First is the growing population of visible
minorities: “Based on the 2006 Statistics Canada census data, one-in-five
people in Canada is foreign-born, an increase of 13.9% from the previous
census, an immigration surge unprecedented in a quarter century. The
population of visible minorities is now more than five million (16.2% of
the population, a growth rate five times more than the rest of the popula-
tion)” (p. 69). In 2011, the foreign-born population in Canada
The second factor is the foreign labour market that is attracting more
immigrants “who come to Canada to begin a new life. In addition, their
children will constitute a large group of second generation youth who will
have to negotiate issues pertaining to race, culture, school, and identity”
(Shariff, 2008, p. 69). Likewise, Reitz and Somerville (2004) explain how
the emotional and socioeconomic ties of the family shape the psychologi-
cal well-being of the second generation:
THE EDUCATIONAL CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVE: ETHNIC IDENTITY… 11
They must ensure the continuity and transmission of their own cultural val-
ues and heritage, while simultaneously promoting their children’s integra-
tion into the host society … this complex task becomes, at times, particularly
difficult and sometimes results in significant family and parent-child conflict.
(2008, pp. 171–72)
They share a sense of pride in their origins and emphasise their need to
maintain a close-knit community and traditions, especially when experienc-
ing racism. They take up the discourse of multiculturalism for its potentiali-
ties, and their ethnicity is not necessarily their most defining characteristic.
Moreover, they have a strong sense of national allegiance, belonging, and
civic identity as Canadians and a strong understanding of civic and political
issues. (p. 63)
and Greton asserted that the multicultural model can build bridges
between ethnic membership and national affiliation:
Research reveals that ethnic connectedness declines as the use of the ethnic
language decreases. For example, a person who speaks an ethnic language is
thought to be more ethnically connected than one who is more assimilated
… Thus, as use of their ethnic language declines, individuals may tend to be
less ethnically connected. (p. 5)
the educational system, and entered the labour market? And what do these
experiences tell us about the overall integration of racial-minority groups
in Canadian society?” (p. 386). They pointed to the rise of second-
generation ethnic minority youth in the second half of the twenti-
eth century:
Educators and researchers have pointed to racial biases among teachers and
in the curriculum in the primary and secondary school system, the streaming
of minorities into non-academic programs, the devaluation of the role of
minority parents in their children’s schooling, and the lack of minority rep-
resentation on school boards. Some research suggests that racist sentiment
in schools causes visible minority youth to perceive that they are discrimi-
nated against. (Reitz & Somerville, 2004, p. 399)
"Denver ja Lattimer unohtivat yhden asian", sanoi hän. "Se oli se,
että minulla on silmät. Sieltä, missä olin vähän aikaisemmin kuin te
juoksitte vastaani, saatoin nähdä vuorenharjanteen. Näin Denverin
kiipeevän sinne ja pidin silmällä mihin hän kätkeytyi. Sitäpaitsi,
vaikka en olisi nähnytkään häntä, niin —" Hän pysähtyi, pani
molemmat kätensä Josephinen olkapäille ja loi häneen katseen,
jossa oli moitetta ja samalla ihailua.
"Te ette valehtele vakuuttavasti, Jo", sanoi hän, "te ette ole kylliksi
harjaantunut siihen. Mutta te teitte suurenmoisen työn —
suurenmoisen työn!"
Neljäsneljättä luku.
Josephine arveli, ettei hän olisi sama. Mahdollisesti olisi hän yhtä
taipumaton ja jyrkkä, mutta Josephinen kotiseudun ankarien lakien
alaisena murtuisi hänen terästahtonsa ja hänen täytyisi hillitä
väkivaltaisia taipumuksiaan. Laki ei siellä olisi hänen kädessään,
vaan koko kansan käsissä, joka sitä vain valitsemainsa edustajain
kautta toteutti. Sen vuoksi hän ei olisi sama Brannon siellä.
"Tehän olette aikeissa jättää meidät", sanoi hän. "Kuulin sen juuri
eräältä miehistä. Tulin sanomaan hyvästiä teille."
"Enhän toki" sanoi hän, silmät leimuten, "te olette ollut erittäin
mielenkiintoinen."
"Brannon", sanoi Josephine — sillä kun hän nyt oli lähdössä pois,
tahtoi hän olla varma siitä, ettei Brannonille jäänyt pahaa mieltä, sillä
hän muisti sen illan kun Brannon oli pannut kätensä hänen päänsä
päälle miltei hyväillen, "oletteko varma, että minä olen mielestänne
ollut ainoastaan mielenkiintoinen?"
"Niin."
"Mitä ei tehnyt?"
"Ei hän vihannut sinua. Eikä koskaan tule sitä tekemäänkään. Kun
sinä puhuit hänen kanssaan kuistilla juuri ennen lähtöä, niin hän
sanoi —"
"Kuuntelitko sinä?" syytti Brannon. Hän taivutti itseään Bettyn
puoleen nähdäkseen hänen kasvojaan hämärässä ja huomasi, että
ne olivat tulipunaiset.
"Minä — minä en voinut sille mitään, Brannon. Minä olin näet juuri
tulossa ulos ja kun minun piti — piti —"
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