On Friday 8 July the Catholic University of Leuven organised a conference on South Asian immigration, chaired by Professor Dr Idesbald Goddeeris.
Group picture of the learned speakers at the conference
from left to right
Second row: Tom de Bruyn, Prof. Dr Idesbald Goddeeris, Quincy Cloet, Prof. Dr Mario Rutten
First row : Malasree Neepa Acharya, Hannelore Roos, Prof. Dr Meenakshi Thapan, Sara Cosemans
K. U. Leuven Conference on
South Asian Migration
Morning session: 10.00 – 12.30 Belgium
South Asian Migration to Belgium: Along the pathways of the diamond trade and the ICT sector, Hannelore Roos, K. U. Leuven.
About highly educated and trading communities including the Antwerp Gujerati Jaina who work there together with an increasingly orthodox Jewish community.
South Asian night-shop owners. The case of Leuven, Nele Bossens, K. U. Leuven.
Leuven night shop owners of Pakistani (Panjabi) and Nepali background.
Sikh migration: a Belgian perspective, Quincy Cloet, K. U. Leuven.
Perception of Sikhs in Belgian Dutch language newspapers.
Sikh migration: a gender perspective, Sara Cosemans, KU Leuven.
Mainly about the South Limburg Sikh community with an emphasis on both younger and older women in the community.
Afternoon session 14.00 – 16.30 Beyond Belgium
Brain-Gain, Return of India’s High Skilled Entrepreneurs: Constructing Home as Resistance in the Cosmopolitan Global South. Malasree Neepa Acharya, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Returning ‘home’ to gated communities in Bangalore !
Migrants’ remittance to South Asia, Tom de Bruyn, K U Leuven.
Money sent back home by South Asian migrants, but also touching on money flowing from South Asia to western countries.
Strangers and their Others: Understanding Migration in Europe. Professor Dr Meenakshi Thapan, University of Delhi.
Mainly about South Asian immigrants in Italy. Her view of the position of the South Asian community in rural Italy was rather negative.
This does not match the reports I get from Italian Sikhs.
Middling Migrants, upwards and downward social mobility among Indian youngsters in London. Prof. Dr Mario Rutten, Universiteit van
Amsterdam.
Interesting project based on Gujarati youngsters of lower middle-class background living in East London.
Harjinder Singh, Sint-Truiden, and Theo Singh, Noord Brabant, attended both the morning and afternoon session.
