Are Refugees Welcome Here? Trump, Immigration, and Canadian Responses

The Canadian  Association of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS) and the International Human Rights Program (UofT) invite you to an informal, information-sharing, and brainstorming session at the Centre for Ethics to discuss the implications of Trump Administration’s Executive Orders on immigration and refugee policy in the US, and political change in Canada.

See event poster here. (pdf)

Panelists:

·         Salina Abji,SSHRC Post-Doctoral Fellow, Carleton University & Rights of Non-Status Women's Network

·         Idil Atak, Assistant Professor, Ryerson University

·         Andrew Brouwer, Advocacy Chair, Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers

·         Stephanie J. Silverman, Bora Laskin National Fellow in Human Rights

·         Ethel Tungohan, Assistant Professor, York University, and others

Introduced by Samer Muscati, Director, International Human Rights Programme (IHRP), and facilitated by Petra Molnar, migrant rights researcher

This interdisciplinary conversation will situate the Executive Orders into a historic and sociolegal pattern of violence against specific communities and discuss how to effect positive change in Canadian law and policy.

Throughout the sixteen year-old “War on Terror,” Muslim and other minorities have been exposed to racially-, religiously-, and ethnically-motivated targeting. Although history demonstrates time and again that refugees are not terrorists, Trump’s Orders specifically link the two and perpetuate the dangerous fallacy that the Muslim community is a source of danger.

In the wake of the attack at the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Centre, this interactive dialogue will address how to effect realizable change quickly, effectively, and strategically in Canada, as well as how to combat Islamophobia and negative discourses around migration.

Key points of intervention include:

·         the Safe Third Country Agreement which limits asylum seekers from coming to Canada through the US and results in needlessly life-threatening journeys and drawn-out legal battles

·         the Designated Countries of Origin regime, which works in tandem and separately from the Safe Third Country Agreement to curb and discourage asylum claims from people originating from +40 countries, including the US, Mexico, and Hungary

·         the Barbaric Practices Act, a Canadian predecessor for ‘‘extreme vetting’

·         reopening the ‘quota’ on Groups of Five and Community Sponsors resettling Syrian and Iraqi refugees to Canada

For more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/261907274241544/