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  #1  
Old Posted Feb 25, 2018, 11:33 PM
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Is Canada's foreign policy too heavily driven by diaspora/ethnic politics "at home"?

Since it's a bit of a topic in the news, as with Trudeau and Modi and the issue of India not being happy with Canada's perceived long-standing softness towards the Sikh separatists among the Indo-Canadian community.

There is a perception that diaspora politics are a thorn in the side of Canada's international relations.

You have articles with opinions like this:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...ticle38103174/

"Even harder to banish will be our obsession with diaspora politics. No one is denying that we derive wonderful advantages from our multicultural society. But other multicultural countries, such as the United States, Australia and Britain, are far less inclined to view their international interests so completely through the prism of diaspora communities. We need to understand that Canada's interests in India are not entirely the same as those of influential portions of the Indo-Canadian community or of the Sikh-Canadian subset of that community. Worse, our continuing insistence on the political importance of diaspora groups makes it more likely that their countries of origin – and this is particularly true of China and India – will be inclined to interfere in Canadian affairs."

I think to claim that Canada's diasporic groups have disproportionate influence among Canadians more broadly is overly strong of a claim.

Sure, there are examples where Canadian diasporas residing domestically have some influence in complicating if not steering Canada's foreign policy.

For example, the large proportion of Ukrainian Canadians and Canada's foreign policy on the Ukraine-Russia conflict a while back (a few years back when Harper was in office), the Tamil protests that blocked traffic in Toronto at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war a while back too, or the influence of Chinese dissidents who emigrated to Canada on China-Canada relations.

But are they really that influential and/or problematic (depending on your perspective) for Canada?

I think these views as expressed in the article (and many others) are a bit exaggerated in saying that Canada is exceptional among multicultural nations in being swayed by diaspora politics, as if diasporas didn't have a long history of influence elsewhere, in protesting or lobbying for their own interests abroad and domestically.

After all, there are plenty of examples elsewhere, such as in the US. Bostonian Irish Americans being supporters of the IRA was also an issue for America's relations with the UK (eg. during the Reagan-Thatcher years in the 80s). Cuban Americans who were anti-communist exiles strongly disliked the US establishing diplomatic ties with Cuba. People talk about domestic diaspora politics influencing the US too, from Israel to Taiwan. Some scholars even argue that African Americans, after the civil rights movement, domestically played a really big role in US switchover from uneasy support, if not lack of condemnation, to boycotting and putting pressure on apartheid South Africa.
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Old Posted Feb 25, 2018, 11:45 PM
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Well, luckily, Canada is not a major global power, so governments can placate immigrant groups like Sikhs and Ukrainians and it won't have major geopolitical ramifications.

That said, I want Canadian diplomats to look out for Canada's economic and strategic interests more than to look out for small constituencies of voters. I think it would be better if we have a good trade relationship with what might one day become the world's third largest economy (India), than win seats in Surrey and Brampton.

I'm of Taiwanese descent. If ethnic Taiwanese in Canada had formed some powerful pro-Kuomintang lobby group that pressured the Canadian government to strengthen diplomatic ties with Taipei, and Trudeau engaged in saber-rattling with the Beijing government that threatened a major trade war, I'd probably write my Liberal MP and tell them to cut it out.
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Old Posted Feb 26, 2018, 2:08 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hipster duck View Post
Well, luckily, Canada is not a major global power, so governments can placate immigrant groups like Sikhs and Ukrainians and it won't have major geopolitical ramifications.

That said, I want Canadian diplomats to look out for Canada's economic and strategic interests more than to look out for small constituencies of voters. I think it would be better if we have a good trade relationship with what might one day become the world's third largest economy (India), than win seats in Surrey and Brampton.

I'm of Taiwanese descent. If ethnic Taiwanese in Canada had formed some powerful pro-Kuomintang lobby group that pressured the Canadian government to strengthen diplomatic ties with Taipei, and Trudeau engaged in saber-rattling with the Beijing government that threatened a major trade war, I'd probably write my Liberal MP and tell them to cut it out.
And in general they do so, when permitted to do their jobs. The issue (if there is one) is with our politicians (all parties), not with our career diplomats.
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Old Posted Mar 17, 2018, 3:57 AM
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It'll be interesting to see if the group of Indo Canadian politicians diversifies in the near future, right now Sikhs are not a majority but dominate among Indo Canadian elected officials (for instance all of Trudeau's South Asian Cabinet ministers are Sikhs).
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  #5  
Old Posted Mar 17, 2018, 5:54 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Capsicum View Post
I think these views as expressed in the article (and many others) are a bit exaggerated in saying that Canada is exceptional among multicultural nations in being swayed by diaspora politics, as if diasporas didn't have a long history of influence elsewhere, in protesting or lobbying for their own interests abroad and domestically.

After all, there are plenty of examples elsewhere, such as in the US.
From a Washington Post article about Trudeau's India visit and diaspora politics.

"Multiculturalism has always brought foreign-policy consequences. There’s an old joke about American politicians having to make mandatory trips to the “three I’s” — Ireland, Italy, and Israel — and it is inevitable that immigrant-rich democracies will view the outside world through a lens informed by the memories and experiences of its foreign-born residents. The reverse, however, is also true: nations who have experienced net emigration will invariably have opinions on how the people who left have affected the character of their new home."


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.958a78b7917c

Quote:
Originally Posted by Docere View Post
It'll be interesting to see if the group of Indo Canadian politicians diversifies in the near future, right now Sikhs are not a majority but dominate among Indo Canadian elected officials (for instance all of Trudeau's South Asian Cabinet ministers are Sikhs).
Maybe because Sikhs are more "established" in Canada than other Indo-Canadians? Of the four Sikhs in the Cabinet, Harjit Sajjan, and Amarjeet Sohi are India-born, and immigrated to Canada during the 70s and early 80s respectively (both having prior family in Canada), while the two younger ministers, Navdeep Bains and Bardish Chagger, were born in Toronto and Waterloo, in 1977 and 1980.

Jagmeet Singh was also born in Scarborough in 1979.

In general, aren't first generation Canadians (or Americans, Australians etc.) less likely to go into politics than second-generation or multi-generational?
I know it seems like in the US, Latino Americans and Asian Americans seem less politically active than African Americans and it may be due to their larger immigrant share, since African Americans are mostly native born multi-generational Americans.
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Old Posted Mar 17, 2018, 6:17 AM
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Birthplaces of Indo-Canadian origin MPs (from a rough google/wikipedia search).

Deepak Obhrai -- Tanzania
Ramesh Sangha -- India
Darshan Kang -- India
Tim Uppal -- New Westminster, BC
Raj Grewal -- Calgary
Kamalpreet Khera -- India
Ruby Sahota -- Toronto
Sonia Sidhu -- couldn't find birthplace info
Navdeep Bains -- Toronto
Gagan Sikand -- Toronto
Raj Saini -- India
Bardish Chagger -- Waterloo
Bob Saroya -- India
Yasmin Ratansi -- Tanzania
Chandra Arya -- India
Harjit Sajjan -- India
Jasvir Sandhu -- India
Sukh Dhaliwal -- India
Jati Sidhu -- couldn't find birthplace info
Anju Dhillon -- Montreal

Looks like the Canadian-born Indo-Canadian politicians are generally younger than the foreign-born, as one would imagine, and interestingly despite BC having the longer history of Indo-Canadians (and proportionally more who are native-born or have longer family histories), Ontario and the GTA seems to have more of the Canadian-born share, compared to BC.
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Old Posted Mar 17, 2018, 6:57 AM
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There's also at least someone who was a Canadian politician and practicing Sikh (I think he was a convert) of non-Indian origin, Martin Singh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_De...2#Martin_Singh
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Old Posted Mar 17, 2018, 7:06 AM
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Yeah but he was never elected to anything.
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