Being Canadian and Ahmadi Muslim: exploring identity formation of young Ahmadi Muslim women

This study explored the identity formation of young women from a minority Muslim group known as Ahmadis in Canada. Nine unstructured interviews were conducted with women between the ages of 20-26. The questions that this study explored were: How do Ahmadi Muslim women understand and negotiate their identities? What are the factors that shaped and influenced their identity? The participants noted various components of Canadian and Ahmadi identity. Being Canadian meant having multiculturalism/ diversity, being accepting, polite, watching hockey and eating foods such as poutine. Being Ahmadi Muslim meant to have a strong sense of community (Jama ‘at), a sense of sisterhood and unity. The study also found various factors which shaped the identities of these young women which included family, friends, location, the Jama ‘at (community) and parent’s immigration history. Recommendations for theory and practice are provided as well as implications for future research. Key Words: Identity, Ahmadi Muslim women, Identity formation, Canadian

Being Canadian and Ahmadi Muslim: exploring identity formation of young Ahmadi Muslim women

This study explored the identity formation of young women from a minority Muslim group known as Ahmadis in Canada. Nine unstructured interviews were conducted with women between the ages of 20-26. The questions that this study explored were: How do Ahmadi Muslim women understand and negotiate their identities? What are the factors that shaped and influenced their identity? The participants noted various components of Canadian and Ahmadi identity. Being Canadian meant having multiculturalism/ diversity, being accepting, polite, watching hockey and eating foods such as poutine. Being Ahmadi Muslim meant to have a strong sense of community (Jama ‘at), a sense of sisterhood and unity. The study also found various factors which shaped the identities of these young women which included family, friends, location, the Jama ‘at (community) and parent’s immigration history. Recommendations for theory and practice are provided as well as implications for future research. Key Words: Identity, Ahmadi Muslim women, Identity formation, Canadian

Analysis of mobility homophily in Stockholm based on social network data

We present a novel metric for measuring relative connection between parts of a city using geotagged Twitter data as a proxy for co-occurrence of city residents. We find that socioeconomic similarity is a significant predictor of this connectivity metric, which we call “linkage strength”: neighborhoods that are similar to one another in terms of residents’ median income, education level, and (to a lesser extent) immigration history are more strongly connected in terms of the of people who spend time there, indicating some level of homophily in the way that individuals choose to move throughout a city’s districts.

Ethnic Chinese in the Sino-Vietnamese Borderlands

This study examines the immigration history, cultural characteristics, and political construction of the ethnic identity of the Chinese communities in the northeastern borderlands of Vietnam. It considers Vietnam’s policies toward the Chinese as applied in the border region before and after the 1979 border war. It suggests that states view ethnicity from the lens of national political cohesion and therefore see ethnicity as a means to obtain both foreign and domestic objectives. Thus, when China-Vietnam relations became strained, the overseas Chinese in the borderlands were caught in the middle of the confrontation.

Flipping Our Scripts about Undocumented Immigration

This critical family history explores a common script about undocumented immigration: that undocumented immigrants unfairly have refused to “stand in line” for official, sanctioned immigration and instead have broken rules that the rest of “our” families have followed. Noting a hole in her knowledge base, the author put herself on a steep learning curve to “clean her lenses”—to learn more information about opportunities past and present, so she could see and discuss the issue more clearly. The author sought new and forgotten information about immigration history, new information about her own family, and details about actual immigration policy. She wrote this piece to share a few script-flipping realizations, in case they can shortcut this journey for others.