Negotiating “Public” Spaces: Strategies of Somali-Canadians Facing Heightened Informal Surveillance

• In Event: Race, Ethnicity and Fear in the Media

Abstract

Bolstered by promises of better paying jobs and greater opportunities, Alberta (Canada) is considered amongst immigrant communities as a highly desirable location to find employment and foster a high quality of life. Despite these utopian visions, Somali-Canadian immigrants report being subjected to highly generalized and unprovoked suspicion in public spaces. Based on the analysis of about 100 in-depths interviews with Somali-Canadians residing in Edmonton/Canada, findings suggest that there is a perceived relationship between negative media attention—exemplified by reports of pervasive violence and recruitment to radical groups (al Shabaab) within the Canadian Somali diaspora—and their experiences of increased informal surveillance. This paper draws a theoretical background from Thomas Mathiesen's seminal text, “The Viewer Society” which posits that a synoptic model of surveillance, characterized by ‘the many watching the few’ has eclipsed historical conceptions of surveillance that rely on Foucauldian understandings of the Panoptic structure. Given this understanding of how the changing nature of surveillance relates to mass media reporting, this paper will provide an empirical analysis of the psychological and behavioral coping strategies of Somali-Canadians in Edmonton (Alberta), in light of increased media scrutiny and surveillance by the general public.

Authors

• Kaitlyn R. Dick, University of Alberta

• Sandra M. Bucerius, University of Alberta

• Sara K. Thompson, Ryerson University