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*In April 2022, the university announced our new name of Toronto Metropolitan University, which will be implemented in a phased approach. Learn more about our next chapter.*

RCIS Digital Series, Session 4 – Refugee Resettlement and Integration in Canada: Lived Experience, Lessons Learned, and Promising Practices

Date
December 18, 2020
Time
2:00 PM EST - 4:00 PM EST
Open To
Students, Faculty, Public
Contact
rcis@torontomu.ca


Refugee Resettlement & Integration Series – Session 4

 

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 fourth session of the series took place on December 18th, 2020 and featured three speakers, including Shireen Salti, Executive Director of the Canadian Arab Institute; Rania Younes, Co-founder and Director of Welcome Home TO; and Dr. John Carlaw, Research Fellow with the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration at Ryerson University. The session was moderated by Saad El Hakmi, a PhD student in the Policy Studies program at Ryerson University.

  • 0:04 (external link)  – Welcome by Dr. Usha George, Director of the Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement 
     

Question #1 – What motivated your engagement in refugee resettlement efforts? 

Question #2 – Did the involvement of NGOs in Canada’s resettlement response follow a spontaneous or pre-structured participatory model? 

Question #3 – What is the role of universities as institutions in Canada’s resettlement response and refugee advocacy? 

Question #4 – Describe the partnerships between NGOs and civil society around refugee resettlement. 

Question #5 – How did some university students contribute to engagement work around refugee matters in Canada? 

Question #6 – How have governmental policies impacted the not-for-profit sector’s ability to advocate for and respond to refugees’ needs? What alternative approaches to enhancing advocacy? 

Question #7 – Is language the biggest challenge refugees face?

Question #8 – What have been the policy changes over time in terms of different Canadian governments’ approaches to refugee resettlement?

Question #9 – What barriers have you encountered throughout your involvement in the refugee resettlement process?

 


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.