2009 Trudeau Scholar

laura.madokoro@trudeaufoundation.net

Profile

Laura Madokoro is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at the University of British Columbia. Driven by an interest in the circumstances that lead to the displacement of people around the world, her research examines the politics governing aid and assistance to refugees from the People's Republic of China from 1949-1989 and focuses on how countries that were historically closed to Chinese migrants dealt with the novel concept of a Chinese refugee and the growing international humanitarian agenda that advanced the cause of refugees in Asia. Laura's research investigates the changing norms around Chinese migration and refugee resettlement in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa over the course of forty years.

National histories tend to ignore the difficult issues of refugee resettlement from Asia to the West during the Cold War in favour of more triumphant narratives. Laura's research is therefore inspired by a desire to ensure that important stories of human justice become part of the collective conscience. Laura interrogates how the emergence of a vigorous human rights agenda in the postwar period intersected with state desires to regulate and control migration flows and, more significantly, how individuals negotiated changing refugee resettlement and liberalized migration schemes in the postwar period. Studies in history at the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto instilled a profound commitment to the documentation and dissemination of untold stories from the distant and recent historical pasts. This dedication led Laura to work on heritage preservation projects in Africa while working as a freelance writer before returning to Canada to pursue a career at Library and Archives Canada. In pursuing doctoral studies that give voice to refugees and migrants who experienced the difficult circumstances of the Cold War, Laura hopes to raise awareness about the manner in which inequalities were perpetuated historically and how they continue to reverberate in discussions about contemporary refugee movements.

Trudeau Foundation Themes

Human Rights and Social Justice »
Canada and the World »