John Carlaw
John Carlaw is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University, which he joined in July, 2024 after his rewarding roles as a Senior Research Associate (2023-2024) and Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2020-2023) at CERC Migration.
His research examines continuity and change in the politics of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism, including the criminalization of migration and resistance.
John is currently the lead investigator on a SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2023-2025) funded project entitled Contemporary Paradoxes and Struggles of Migration and Belonging in Canada and a Member of the Citizenship and Participation Research Theme of the Migrant Integration in the Mid-21st Century: Bridging Divides research program.
From 2015 to 2019, John served as Project Lead of York University's Syria Response and Refugee Initiative, a refugee sponsorship and education initiative at York’s Centre for Refugee Studies. There he worked in close collaboration with our university’s Lifeline Syria Challenge and civil society actors to organize events, solidarity initiatives, workshops and conferences with youth and NGO collaborators, including Amnesty International Canada, the FCJ Refugee Centre, the Canadian Council for Refugees, and Toronto Refugee Rights Month Planning Committee.
John turned to migration and refugee studies after several years of studying, working and engaging in solidarity and education efforts in the areas of democracy, human rights and political economy in Latin America, including working with the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CALACS) and Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean, York University. He is affiliated with York’s Centre for Refugee.
He has also taught in the Social Science and Glendon College Political Science Departments at York University, as well as the Department of Politics at Trent University. John organized and led CERC’s mentorship program (2020-2023) for our stipend students and has delivered guest lectures in the Policy Studies PhD program.
Recent Publications
With Azadah, K. (2024). (PDF file) Pathways to Permanence and Immigration Levels: A Critical Policy Discourse Analysis (CPDA) of Struggles and Limits to Societal Membership for Migrants Amidst and Emerging from COVID-19 (2020-2022) in Canada. Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement (TMCIS) and the CERC in Migration and Integration Working Paper Series no. 2024/07.
(2024). Time running out for more inclusive policies? ‘Pathways’ Debates and Demands for Access to Permanent Immigration Status in Canada.” (external link) European University Institute Migration Policy Centre Blog.
(2023). Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Ethel Tungohan, and Christina Gabriel, Containing diversity: Canada and the politics of immigration in the 21st Century (external link) , Journal of Austrailian, Canadian and Aotearoa New Zealand Studies, 3, 161-163.
(2023). Declining naturalizations signal larger problems in Canada's citizenship and immigration system (external link) , The Conversation.
With Winter, E. (2022). Conservatism and the Re-Communitarianization of Citizenship in Canada (external link) . Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 1-21.
(2022). Blunt talk or faux outrage? The politics of expanding migrant worker programs under Canada’s former Conservative government (2006–2015). (external link) Studies in Political Economy, 102(3), 331-353.
(2021). (PDF file) Multiculturalism and its Adjectives: Situating Neoconservative Multiculturalism (external link, opens in new window) (pp. 34-41) and (PDF file) Le multiculturalisme et ses adjectifs : Situer le multiculturalisme néoconservateur (external link) (pp. 42-46), contribution to special issue of Canadian Diversity/Diversité Canadienne on the theme of Multiculturalism @50: Promoting Inclusion and Eliminating Racism, Vol 18, No. 1. December.
(2021). (PDF file) Unity in Diversity? Neoconservative Multiculturalism and the Conservative Party of Canada.
(2020). Throne speech offers little systemic change for migrant workers, refugees (external link) , The Conversation.
(2018). Authoritarian Populism and Canada’s Conservative Decade (2006–2015) in Citizenship and Immigration: The Politics and Practices of Kenneyism and Neo-Conservative Multiculturalism (external link) . Journal of Canadian Studies 51:3 782–816.
Book Review
(2023). Containing Diversity: Canada and the Politics of Immigration in the 21st Century (external link) , Journal of Austrailian, Canadian and Aotearoa New Zealand Studies, 3, 161-163.
Media
2024. March 28. “Three Arts researchers receive SSHRC funding for projects in psychology, economics, and migration.” Toronto Metropolitan University Faculty of Arts.
2024. January 4. “Is the ‘Canadian Dream’ dead? (external link) ,” CBC Radio Vancouver Early Edition.
2023. May 2. Minu Mathew, “Triple-glass effect and language barriers erode Canadian charm, say experts (external link) ,” New Canadian Media.
2022. January 17. Taylor Lambert, "This is Kenneyism (external link) ," The Tyee.
Projects, Refugee Advocacy and Sponsorship
2023-present. Contemporary Paradoxes and Struggles of Migration and Belonging in Canada
(2022-2024). CONTESTATIONS of migration and belonging in Canada amidst COVID-19
(2015-2019). York University Syria Response and Refugee Initiative (Website). (external link)