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Claire Ellis

Manager, Operations
Education PhD, Toronto Metropolitan University
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Claire Ellis is Operations Manager at CERC Migration. She has over a decade of experience in project and program coordination, working across multiple settings including not-for-profit organizations, international research teams, government and community advocacy. Previously, Claire has coordinated several programs at Toronto Metropolitan University including onBoard Canada, Global Diversity Exchange, and The Chang School’s Gateway Programs for Internationally Educated Professionals.  

Claire also brings specialized knowledge and experience in immigration and refugee research and policy. She holds an MA in Immigration and Settlement Studies and is currently a PhD Candidate in Policy Studies (Migration Stream). Her doctoral research critically analyses the use of digital border and surveillance policy instruments in Canadian responses to refugee claimant onward mobility. She also works with a research team examining the nature, scope, and human rights impacts of Canadian border control, externalization, and detention practices on migrants and refugee claimants.

Recent Publications:

With Triandafyllidou, A. (2023). Precarity, Opportunity, and Adaptation: Recently Arrived Immigrant and Refugee Experiences Navigating the Canadian Labour Market. (external link)  Immigrant and Asylum Seekers Labour Market Integration upon Arrival: NowHereLand, 101.

With Perzyna, M., Marshia, A., Monteiro, S., Nalbandian, L., & Smith, C.D. (2022).  (PDF file) Immigration policy ‘on the fly’: A critical review of pandemic policymaking in Canada. Working paper.

With Atak, I., & Alrob, Z.A. (2021). Expanding Canada's borders (external link) , Forced Migration Review.

With Atak, I., & Alrob, Z.A. (2021).  (PDF file) Expanding refugee ineligibility: Canada’s response to secondary refugee movements (external link) , Journal of Refugee Studies

With Atak, I., and Alrob, Z.A. (2021). Refugee system as a bordering site: security, surveillance, and the rights of asylum seekers in Canada (external link) , in Migration, Security, and Resistance, Routledge.

(2020) COVID-19: Canada locks its gates to asylum seekers (external link) , Open Democracy. 

(2020) In Review: The Politics of Compassion: Immigration and Asylum Policy (external link) , The Migration Initiative.

With Atak, I., & Alrob, Z.A. (2020). Expanding refugee ineligibility: Canada’s response to secondary refugee movements (external link) , Journal of Refugee Studies.