Mahmut, D;
Waite, E;
(2021)
Lost in Translation: Exploring Uyghur identity in Canada.
Taboo: the Journal of Culture and Education
, 20
(1)
, Article 11.
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Abstract
This article discusses the identity reconstruction experiences of the highly educated/skilled Muslim Uyghur immigrants in some Canadian contexts. As a marginalized Muslim ethnic group in China, their migration to the West could be regarded as one of the most effective ways to gain socio-economic and political freedom. With this background, this article tries to explore 12 highly educated/ skilled Muslim Uyghur immigrants’ integration experiences in Canada, through the perspectives of critical race theory, identity politics and Lost in Translation (Hoffman, 1989)—the story about a Jewish family’s new life in Canada. The Hoffman family, as part of a marginalized Jewish community in the communist Poland in the 1950s, would struggle to integrate into Canada during the 1960s and later, which resonates much with the experiences of the Uyghur immigrants who participated in this study. In a context of “blurred genres” (Geertz, 1983), where literary works can influence the production of academic texts in multifarious ways, we consider how our engagement with Hoffman’s Lost in Translation compares to how other scholars have sought to make use of her memoir. The findings show that the Uyghur participants have been experiencing very similar dilemmas and challenges that the Hoffman family underwent, but they are not only lost in the relatively apolitical local culture, but the much politicised “White” culture hidden in the discourses around nation building which continue “to centre the experiences of the ‘two founding’ nations of Canada” (Leroux, 2012, p. 67). Their experiences belie the more optimistic assumptions that Canadian multiculturalism inevitably fosters fluid pathways to inclusivity and belonging.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Lost in Translation: Exploring Uyghur identity in Canada |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/taboo/vol20/is... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10122252 |
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