Global Migration Challenges Speaker Series
The Global Migration Challenges series offers accessible, policy-focused conversations with leading experts, civil society, and practitioners. The series was presented with support from Immigration, Refugees, & Citizenship Canada, and the Canada Research Chair in Global Migration.
Past events
16 November 2020
RE-EXAMINING THE CANADA-US SAFE THIRD COUNTRY AGREEMENT
Dr. Craig Damian Smith (discussant) Senior Research Associate, Ryerson University; Global Migration Lab
Chris Alexander former Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship; former MP for Ajax-Pickering
Heather McPherson MP for Edmonton Strathcona, NDP Critic for Human Rights
Robert Falconer Research Associate, School of Public Policy, University of Calgary
Prasanna Balasundaram Staff lawyer, Refugee and Immigration division, Downtown Legal Services
In light of the migrant crisis in Central America and along the southern US border, it was valuable to re-examine the obstacles which the Canada-US Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) created with respect to those seeking refuge from violence and horror in Central America. Bringing together experts in law, government, and public policy, the Global Migration Lab Student Research Initiative explored the ongoing questions surrounding the STCA.
April 18, 2019
HYSTERICAL BORDERS: BARRIERS, INCARCERATION, AND MIGRATION DETERRENCE POLICIES
Alison Mountz (discussant) professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Migration at the Balsillie School of International Affairs at Laurier University
Craig Damian Smith Associate Director of the Global Migration Lab
Philippe M. Frowd Assistant Professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada
Luis Campos Immigration Counsel to Haynes and Boone LLP in Dallas, Texas and a former Assistant Professor of Law at the University of New Brunswick
Irregular migration represents a tiny fraction of overall global mobility. Most irregular migrants overstay visas or lose legal status rather than attempt to cross borders on foot or arrive at shores by boat. Among these, a significant proportion have legitimate claims to asylum.
Nonetheless, irregular migration over borders plays a disproportionate role in political discourse, and politicians in liberal states have embarked on progressively more restrictive policies to close borders, detain migrants, and extend controls to transit and host states. These policies can have far-ranging effects, including more lethal migration routes, larger markets for smugglers and traffickers, undermining liberal international norms, and fostering hysterical domestic responses to irregular migration.
This panel discussion looked at the effects of EU attempts to externalize migration controls in West Africa, unpacked the Trump administration’s policies of deterrence, detention, and family separation, and presented evidence about how changes in US policy affect irregular migration to Canada.
April 2, 2019
DEFINING AND DEFENDING SANCTUARY CITIES
Chris Brillinger (discussant) Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration at City of Toronto
Alexandra Délano Alonso Associate Professor and Chair of Global Studies at The New School in New York City
Idil Atak was a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow at the McGill Centre for Human Rights & Legal Pluralism
Ritika Goel served as both the Lead Physician at the Inner City Family Health Team and the Population Health Lead for ICHA
While the concept of sanctuary cities ancient, it has taken on new importance along with the politicization and securitization of migration.
In the US, local sanctuary policies and social movements can play an important role in defending undocumented people. This is particularly important given schisms between city, state, and federal policy, and the proportion of undocumented people with partners, spouses, and children with US citizenship. Sanctuary policies can also play an important role in ensuring that undocumented people can access healthcare and social services, and feel safe to report crimes, unfair labour practices, and domestic abuse.
At the same time, sanctuary policies can serve as a point of backlash from law enforcement agencies, immigration authorities, and often first and second-generation immigrant communities.
This panel discussion will unpack the role of sanctuary movements in the US context, and compare them with policies in Canada, where the role of immigration enforcement and undocumented populations is far less politicized from either end of the spectrum.
This panel discussion brought together practitioner and academic perspectives, in conversation with policymakers from the City of Toronto.
March 12, 2019
FORCED MIGRATION IN CENTRAL AMERICA: THE CAUSES OF ‘CARAVANS’ AND CANADA’S RESPONSE TO A REGIONAL CRISIS
Patricia Landolt (discussant) Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, University of Toronto
Arnau Baulenas Bardia human rights lawyer at the Instituto de Direchos Humanos Universidad Centroamericano, San Salvador, El Salvador
Jean-Nicolas Beuze UNHCR Representative in Canada
Carol Girón Regional Coordinator of Policies and Programming, Scalabrini International Migration Network, Guatemala City, Guatemala
States in the North of Central America (NCA)– El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala – are characterized by endemic poverty, corruption, gang violence, criminality, sexual-identity and gender-based violence, and weak or repressive states. The situation has given rise to a major displacement crisis.
The region saw a tenfold increase in refugees and asylum-seekers from 2011 to 2016. Over 350,000 people claimed asylum globally from 2011 and 2017, with 130,500 in 2017 alone. Most made claims in Mexico and the US, but an increasing number sought refuge in Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama. In the first two months of 2019 alone, almost 8000 refugee claims were made in Mexico; the majority from Honduras and El Salvador. Women, families, and unaccompanied minors are over-represented in displaced populations.
Internal displacement is likewise significant. The region has the world’s most urbanized displaced population, with roughly 95% living in urban areas, making traditional, camp-based humanitarian assistance challenging.
Regional displacement has international implications. Between 400,000 and 500,000 NCA nationals cross irregularly into Mexico annually, most attempting to reach the US. Mexico has become a country of destination, and the new Mexican government has quickly put in place reception measures and enhanced access to the labour market for refugees.
To manage large displacements, states need to apply a comprehensive regional approach. UNHCR is supporting a state-led process known as the MIRPS – the Comprehensive Regional Protection and Solutions Framework – which seeks to promote mechanisms of responsibility-sharing for the prevention, protection and solutions of displaced populations.
This panel offered an in-depth analysis of the situation at that time, examined the policies of the government in Mexico, and asked what Canada could do to assist host states and displaced people.
March 6, 2019
A RELIGION / MIGRATION NEXUS? FAITH GROUPS, IMMIGRATION POLICY, AND PUBLIC OPINION IN CANADA
Michael Donnelly (discussant) Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Policy
Shachi Kurl Executive Director of the Angus Reid Institute
Geoffrey Cameron (MPhil, PhD) Research Associate with the Global Migration Lab
Sadia Rafiquddin freelance writer, broadcaster and photographer focusing on human rights stories for various organizations
Immigration to Canada has progressively changed the religious composition of the country, and stimulated a number of heated policy debates around questions of citizenship and belonging. Religious groups have also long been some of the most vocal advocates for family migration and refugee resettlement. At the same time, narratives of displacement, welcome, and belonging have largely ignored the experience and opinions of Indigenous populations.
This panel discussion examined how religion shaped migration and vice versa: How faith groups influenced immigration patterns and policy? How was immigration changing religion in a secular Canadian society? And how did Indigenous experiences of displacement inform us about popular narratives of welcome?
February 28, 2019
THE REFUGEE AND MIGRATION COMPACTS: COOPERATION IN AN ERA OF NATIONALISM
Jennifer Hyndman (discussant) Director of the Centre for Refugees Studies, York University
Randall Hansen Interim Director at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy
James Milner Associate Professor of Political Science at Carleton University
Anne Balke Staver senior researcher at the Oslo Metropolitan University, focusing on migration and integration policies
Signed in December 2018, the Global Refugee and Global Migration Compacts are an admission that the challenges of migration are best approached through cooperation and collective action.
The Compact on Refugees recognizes the unequal burden placed on Global South states, which host refugees, and rich Global North states, which pay to keep them in regions of origin. Recognizing that most refugees will not return home or be resettled, the Compact proposes new solidarity, development, and finance mechanisms to foster the inclusion and development of displaced people and host populations alike. While promising, displacement crises continue to proliferate, host states remain under-funded, and programming faces major delivery challenges.
In terms of the Migration Compact, scholars have long argued that state interests are largely incompatible with attempts at global migration governance. Yet, in 2016 the International Organization for Migration became a UN agency, and the vast majority of states supported the Compact with a goal of facilitating safe, orderly, and legal migration. At the same time, right-wing parties in liberal democracies rallied against the Compact, arguing it would erode state sovereignty, and several prominent states “pulled out”.
This panel unpacked the potential for global migration governance, responsibility-sharing, and addressed collective action problems in the face of burden-shifting, populism, and a growing desire to assert control.
February 13, 2019
THE ARC OF PROTECTION: TOWARD A NEW INTERNATIONAL REFUGEE REGIME
Randall Hansen Interim Director at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy
Audrey Macklin Professor & Chair in Human Rights Law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Alex Aleinikoff served as Director of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at the New School since January 2017
The international refugee regime is broken. Too many people remain refugees for too long, as states in the Global North have cut resettlement programs and adopted policies to deter asylum-seekers while conflicts causing flight go unresolved.
To repair and reform the current system, The Arc of Protection (co-authored by T. Alexander Aleinikoff and Leah Zamore) suggests a new focus on refugee rights, autonomy, and mobility and attention to the role that development actors can play in responding to refugee situations. Serious changes are needed at the level of structures and institutions, especially when it comes to global responsibility-sharing.
These changes are unlikely to be made by states, who have watched over the decline of the refugee protection system. Reform will require new actors and ultimately political action.
February 6, 2019
MEDITERRANEAN MOBILITY BEYOND EUROPE: THE ROLE OF TRANSIT STATES AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Dr. Craig Damian Smith (discussant) Associate Director, Global Migration Lab
Kelsey Norman SSHRC postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Political Science and the Institute for European Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada
Hiba Sha’ath second year PhD student in Human Geography at York University
The Central Mediterranean has been the site of mass irregular migration for at least the past decade. Overloaded boats full of desperate people have come to dominate media and popular imagery. Growing attention to the often-dire conditions of migrants in Sahel and North African transit states provides an important check on European claims that “breaking” smuggling rings and criminalizing humanitarian NGOs can co-exist with the promise of development aid and protecting the rights of migrants. Indeed, it is now clear that Europe’s externalized migration controls have dire consequences for migrants, help support autocratic governments, and undermine international protection norms.
However, the focus on Europe’s policy challenges and its ability to “externalize” controls ignores the interests, choices, and domestic politics in African transit and destination states. Likewise, International Organizations are characterized as passive vehicles of European policies, obscuring their significant interests and internal politics.
This panel discussion unpacked the policies and interests of Mediterranean transit and receiving states, explored how International Organizations mediate between their own and diverse state interests, and asked how these dynamics affect irregular migration in the region.