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RCIS Digital Series, Session 6 – Refugee Resettlement and Integration in Canada: Lived Experience, Lessons Learned, and Promising Practices

Date
February 26, 2021
Time
4:00 PM EST - 6:00 PM EST
Open To
Students, Faculty, Public
Contact
rcis@torontomu.ca


Refugee Resettlement & Integration Series – Session 6

 

Between October 2020 and February 2021, the Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement (RCIS) hosted a six-part digital series focused on Canada’s approach to refugee resettlement and integration. The series aimed to engage stakeholders to consider Canada’s approach to refugee resettlement and identify changes to policy and practice that will make Canada more inclusive and responsive to refugees’ needs. Over the course of the six sessions, refugees, settlement workers and service providers, policymakers, researchers, and students were brought together to share insights and lessons learned from lived experience, settlement practice, and research.

The sixth session of the series took place on February 26th, 2021 and featured three speakers, including Dr. Idil Atak, Associate Professor within the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Arts’ Criminology Department and Director of the Criminology and Social Justice graduate program at Ryerson University; Dr. Jennifer M. Hyndman, Professor in the Department of Geography and the Department of Social Science and past Director of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University where she is Resident Scholar; and Dr. Anna Triandafyllidou, Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration and Professor of Sociology at Ryerson University. The session was moderated by Sohail Shahidnia, a PhD student in Policy Studies at Ryerson University. 

0:01 (external link) ​ – Opening by Sohail Shahidnia, PhD student in Policy Studies at Ryerson University

1:11 (external link) ​ – Welcome by Dr. Usha George, Director of the Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement


Self-introductions


Question #1 – What motivated you to become involved in the work you are doing now as it relates to migration and refugees?


Question #2 – Can you underline the involvement of settlement agencies and NGOs in refugee sponsorship and resettlement process worldwide? Was it a spontaneous or pre-structured participatory model?


Question #3 – Can you provide us with an overview of your years of working on policies preventing asylum seekers from accessing protection and other rights in Canada?


Question #4 – Drawing from your current and past project - e.g. how private refugee sponsorship is sustained over time in Canadian communities; the motivation of sponsors and the meanings they attach to the work they do; and the social determinants of well-being and integration of Syrians - can you elaborate how such initiatives are linked to participation and social inclusion of refugees in Canada?


Question #5 – How does the media use anxieties around nationalism in its presentation of refugee issues and what is the impact of this?


Question #6 – In a poll featured in a 2019 issue of Macleans “most Canadians think securing the border is more important than helping asylum seekers and that the country shouldn’t take more of them.” How can public opinion be shifted around this matter?


Question #7 – Based on your experience, what are some of the policy differences between Canadian governments over time in handling refugee resettlement?


Question #8 – How have governmental policies impacted the non-profit sector’s ability to advocate on behalf of refugees? Is there an alternative approach to improve refugee resettlement and enhance advocacy?

1:24:17 (external link)  – Discussion


 (PDF file)  Read the summary of session 6  (opens in new window) 
View all series sessions

This series was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Series coordinators: Saad El Hakmi and Sohail Shahidnia
Series director: Dr. Usha George
Series producer: Tearney McDermott

TMCIS occupies space in the traditional and unceded territory of nations including the Anishnaabeg, the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples, and territory which is also now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. This territory is covered by Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, as well as the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas.