Young Ismaili Muslims embrace Canadian values

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Jennifer Hyndman, 604.291.5464; hyndman@sfu.ca; or Arif Jamal, ajamala@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 604.291.4323

Canadian-born Ismaili Muslims strongly identify with Canadian values of multiculturalism and feel at ease practising their religion in Canada, according to a Simon Fraser University study.

The study examined the ways in which parents’ migration shapes expectations for their Canadian-born children. Its findings are based on a series of focus groups and in-depth interviews with 47 Lower Mainland Ismaili Muslims from East Africa — many of whom fled Idi Amin’s violent regime in the 1970s — and their Canadian-born children.

“We found that these expectations, especially in terms of education and professional achievement, are exceedingly high,” says Jennifer Hyndman, an associate professor of geography at SFU. ”Parents’ economic and social sacrifice, and loss of business and property taken by local governments in their countries of origin accentuated hopes and aspirations for the second generation born in Canada.” Hyndman calls it “a remarkable success story.”

The study also found that second-generation Ismaili Muslims don’t experience dissonance between their faith and their identity as Canadians.

The findings are part of a larger research project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and supervised by Hyndman. Graduate student Arif Jamal carried out the study for his master’s thesis, Linking Migration and Education across Generations: Ismailis in Vancouver. Jamal came to Canada from Kenya in the mid-1980s, one of three young siblings. His brother is a dentist and his sister is an instructor at UBC.

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(Excerpts from the study are available)