(Digitized proceedings are now available on SFU Library's website)
A 2-day Conference on Migration of Bengalis to British Columbia was packed with many scholarly, informative and stimulating presentations over the Six Sessions and two Round Tables involving community leaders, front-line settlement workers and community activists. On Day 1, the Conference Organizers – Professor Habiba Zaman (GSWS, Simon Fraser University) and Dr. Sanzida Habib (CISAR, University of British Columbia) welcomed the participants at the SFU Harbor Centre. In her opening remarks, Dr. Jane Pulkingham, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) underscored the importance of the Conference in documenting the history of Bengalis in Canada due to lumping this linguistic and cultural group under the umbrella category of South Asians by Statistics Canada as well as academic researchers. As a result, the Dean observed, the presence and contributions of Bengalis in Canada are not visible and easily recognized. The keynote speech for the day was by Professor Tania Dasgupta of York University, a Torontonian Bengali, who questioned what it means to be a Canadian Bengali. This was followed by a lively discussion on the Bengali identity in the diaspora. The discussions then moved on to migration and settlement, history, demography, religion, and health and wellbeing with many personal stories of initial encounters as new immigrants, survival and adjustments in their newly adopted homes. The papers in the afternoon sessions largely focused on gender, culture, family, work, and community organizations with a discussion of multiculturalism, relationship with Indigenous/First Nation people and social justice issues.
