The "Uyghurs in the Diaspora in Canada" 2021 Survey Report

Authors

  • Susan J. Palmer McGill University and Concordia University
  • Marie-Ève Melanson McGill University
  • Dilmurat Mahmut McGill University
  • Abdulmuqtedir Udun McGill University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26443/jcreor.v3i1.60

Abstract

This report presents the results of “The Uyghurs in the Diaspora in Canada” survey. It was conducted between November 2020 and January 2021, by the research team affiliated with the project, Children in Sectarian Religions and State Control at the School of Religious Studies, McGill University.[1] Our aim was to gather information on the Uyghurs who left their Homeland (East Turkestan/Xinjiang) and relocated to Canada. The survey consists of 45 questions that focus on why and how these immigrants came to Canada and what challenges they faced in China. Our respondents numbered 106, and our findings indicate that they were subject to widespread discrimination and oppression in China before emigrating to Canada. Other questions explore their contact with relatives in their Homeland and their level of religiosity since arriving in Canada. Finally, we sought to understand how they are currently attempting to preserve their Uyghur culture and language while living in diaspora.

 

[1]. For further information on the project please visit the following site: Spiritual Childhoods – Children in Minority Religions, http://www.spiritualchildhoods.ca

Author Biographies

Susan J. Palmer, McGill University and Concordia University

Susan J. Palmer is an Affiliate Professor at Concordia University, where she teaches. She is an affiliate member of the School of Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts at McGill University and a researcher at the ‎Centre d'expertise et de formation sur les intégrismes religieux et la radicalisation (CEFIR) at the Cégep Édouard-Montpetit. Her research in the field of new religious movements has been funded by six federal grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). In April 2017 she was awarded a five-year Insight Grant (SSHRC).

Marie-Ève Melanson, McGill University

Marie-Ève Melanson is a PhD candidate in the School of Religious Studies at McGill University. Her fields of research are freedom of religion and minority rights in Canada. In this project on Children in Minority Religions, she investigates alternative modes of education in Quebec, notably homeschooling and privately funded religious schools. Her research focuses on the Christian Essene Church, the Society of Saint Pius X, and the Mission de l’Esprit Saint. She is interested in issues related to the transmission of minority religious worldviews in the context of a secular society. Currently, she is conducting research on the upbringing of children in the Twelve Tribes community, which recently relocated from Germany to the Czech Republic. She received the SSHRC Joseph-Armand-Bombardier Scholarship in Honour of Nelson Mandela for her PhD research and was a collaborator on the SSHRC Connection Grant awarded for McGill-CREOR’s Religion and Violence Colloquium.

Dilmurat Mahmut, McGill University

Dilmurat Mahmut's research interests include Muslim identity in the West, equity, violent extremism, immigrant/refugee integration and Uyghur diaspora identity.

Abdulmuqtedir Udun, McGill University

Abdulmuqtedir Udun is a Uyghur researcher and interpreter based in Canada, currently studying law at Carleton University in Ottawa. Since 2018, he has worked as a journalist for the Uyghur Times, a Uyghur-led multi language news agency based in Washington, D.C. He is also a translator with the World Uyghur Congress and a research assistant at McGill University on Susan Palmer’s research project, Children in Sectarian Religions and State Control.

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Published

2022-08-29

How to Cite

Palmer, Susan, Marie-Ève Melanson, Dilmurat Mahmut, and Abdulmuqtedir Udun. 2022. “The ‘Uyghurs in the Diaspora in Canada’ 2021 Survey Report”. Journal of the Council for Research on Religion 3 (1). Montreal, QC, Canada:1-12. https://doi.org/10.26443/jcreor.v3i1.60.

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2021): The Uyghurs in Diaspora

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Susan J. Palmer, Marie-Ève Melanson, Dilmurat Mahmut, Abdulmuqtedir Udun

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.