Refugee memory-making

Decolonial counterstories from Eelam Tamil and Vietnamese communities

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7473937
AutoresVivetha Thambinathan (0000-0002-4572-9554, University of Michigan, autor de correspondencia), James Huỳnh (0000-0002-8455-7062, University of Michigan)
Año2026
Volumen19
Número1
Páginas115-131
Fecha de publicación2026-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaMemory Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1750-6980 • E-ISSN: 1750-6999
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/17506980251397832
OpenAlexW7110052517
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas26

Between the Eelam Tamil genocides (1983–2009) and America’s military intervention in Vietnam (1955–1975), Eelam Tamil and Vietnamese refugees fled to North America, forming their largest diasporas in Toronto and Orange County. This article critically juxtaposes how these communities engage in memory-making as a part of place-making and vice versa. Grounded in critical refugee studies, we as scholar-organizers from these communities, use a comparative case study approach drawing on interviews with 12 Eelam Tamil individuals in Toronto and 20 Vietnamese individuals in Orange County. We theorize a refugee praxis of care and healing that resists displacement and state-sanctioned violence. Our analysis reveals how memory-making serves both as resistance to erasure and as a way of healing wounds of displacement, while igniting critical consciousness that bridges generations. This article highlights decolonial methods of community-engaged research, emphasizing refugee counterstorytelling as a site of knowledge production and solidarity between diasporic communities

Displaced person · Internally displaced person · Refugee · Solidarity · Tamil · Vietnamese · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration