Canadian Studies
Conferences: 'Canada as Refuge?'

Keynote address Prof Howard Adelman (Founder of the Centre for Refugee Studies, York University) 'Conceptualising Canada as Refuge: Historical and Contemporary Reflections'

'Migrating Magyars and Canadian inclusivity: responses of the state and voluntary organizations to the Hungarian refugees 1956-1958'

This paper will examine the responses of both state and religious and ethnic voluntary organizations to the massive influx of refugees from Hungary during the period between 1956 and 1958.  In particular, this paper will highlight the efforts of the Canadian Council of Churches, the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society of Canada, both of which played a facilitative role in immigration and intergovernmental affairs throughout the Hungarian refugee crisis.  Taking some direction from overseas contacts the advocacy movement for the Hungarian refugees can also be understood within a larger, transnational context.

Full paper [pdf]

'The Language of exclusion: African migrants in Vancouver'

Drawing on interviews with 61 migrants from sub-Saharan Africa residing in Vancouver, this paper reveals that struggles to assert English language competency are less matters of miscommunication than gendered and racialized practices of power and linguistic domination located in broader colonial histories. The erasure of African immigrants’ linguistic competency, a process directed most pervasively at women, permeates encounters in workplaces, schools, shops and the like while constituting both material and symbolic forms of exclusion. Practices of linguistic domination mark African immigrants as outside the ‘imagined community’ of Canadians, making belonging tenuous at best.   

'Neoliberal Globalization: Threats to Women's Citizenship in Canada'

This paper will define the concept of citizenship rights (social, political, civil) in a Canadian context. It will use a political economic approach to examine how these citizenship rights are affected by neoliberal globalization in Canada and use a gendered lens to see how these effects can mean different things for Canadian, Aboriginal, and immigrant women. It will show how the repercussions of neoliberalism and globalization are worsened for women, calling into question many of the reasons why some come to Canada, the assumptions made about the security of our citizens, and the deplorable conditions of life for Indigenous women. It will be seen that Canadians’ social rights are being eroded by market-based ‘customer-citizenship,’ our political rights have been hollowed out by international agreements, and our civil rights have been demeaned in an uneven, economially-driven political paradigm. Bearing the burden of welfare state retrenchment, many women may find Canada not to be a refuge after all.

Full paper [pdf]

'Refuge as a site for understanding'

We argue that we need to learn more about the exceptional person, the hero, who resists complicity in illegal or immoral conduct” Refuge provides us with a unique opportunity to learn more about what social scientists have identified as the exceptional “hero” –the man or woman who refuses to follow orders that appear immoral and inhumane.

Full paper [pdf]

'Upper Canada as refuge: The failure of Simcoe's La-La land for loyalism'

This paper explores the reasons behind the foundering of these principles:

Beyond the sheer materiality of American settler occupation (“Late Loyalism”) of this desirable site, ironically promoted by Simcoe himself, lay the forces of bureaucratic territorialism, budgetary compromise and settler dispersion. All these eroded any successful implementation of Simcoe’s principles. Far from the “little England” utopian refuge that Simcoe had envisioned, Upper Canada became a mettlesome colony whose governance eventually entailed the revisionist policies that Lord Durham’s Report promulgated.

Full paper [pdf]

'From exclusion to integration: Civic Nationalism, Interculturalism and the creation of a host society in Quebec'

This paper analyses the dynamics between nationalism and immigration in Québec, suggesting that immigration played a central role in the creation of a common Québécois civic identity. It contrasts the province’s intercultural model to its federal multicultural counterpart and assesses the recent, highly mediatised polemic surrounding immigrant integration in Québec. More specifically, the paper considers the implications of Québec’s commitment to the secularisation of the public space and principles of gender equality, sometimes to the detriment of individual rights and freedom of religion. It thus highlights the present and future challenges of the province as a distinct host society in the Canadian context.

Full paper [pdf]

'From Narrative to Evidence: How Canadian legal procedures reshape refugee stories'

This paper examines the various substantive measures introduced by Canada that have rendered the process of seeking refugee protection more hazardous and difficult.  Against this background, it considers the procedures of refugee determination. It suggests that Canada’s historical commitment to protection is compromised by recent developments in refugee law. The paper offers a critique of the practice of relying on a written narrative as an authoritative version of the claimant’s story, and suggest that the deficiencies in written accounts of the claimant’s story require us to place more weight on oral accounts. It also scrutinizes the deficiencies of the current modes of hearing refugee claims.

Full paper [pdf]

'Between human rights and security concerns: The Canadian Tradition of "safe haven" recognised'

The new global practices of security, implemented by receiving states, enter in deep contradiction with human rights logic. Accordingly, it becomes difficult, even impossible, for the state to reconcile its obligations to international law (human rights, right of asylum) with state practices concerning immigration. Furthermore, the central focus on national security compromises the rights of immigrants and refugees by inserting immigration policies between these two poles (human rights and security) therefore creating confusion in immigration practices. This paper shows how the Canadian government has consistently used its authority to develop restrictions on who may and may not enter the country, making it difficult to strike a balance between security concerns and human rights. It considers whether this over-zealous focus on securing the Canadian territory might, in the long run, endanger the reputation of Canada as a “safe haven”.

Full paper (draft) [pdf]

'The Diaries of Andrew McIlwraith: Work, Self-Improvement and Refuge in the life of a mid-Victorian Scottish Emigrant in Canada'

This presentation will examine the early adult life of a mid-nineteenth century patternmaker, lepidopterist, unionist and industrialist Andrew McIlwraith, based primarily on the extensive diaries he left documenting his daily activities between 1857 and 1862.  The diaries trace the life of a recent Scottish migrant to Canada West (Ontario) who, as a young man, worked and searched for work in Hamilton, Dundas and Galt as well as New York City. A well-travelled worker, McIlwraith’s mental map of the world was drawn along the vectors of Scottish ethnicity, family friends, and craft connections—his places of refuge in his travels toward manhood in a Canadian context.

Full paper [pdf]

'Legal and Legislative issues for US war resisters in Canada, then (during the Vietnam war) and now (during the US war in Iraq)'

Jeffry House, is legal counsel representing Jeremy Hinzman, Brandon Hughey and 40 other US military deserters who had been applying for refugee status in Canada. Jeffry House is on staff, representing “Legal and Legislative” department with the Our Way Home Research Institute. Jeffry House was called to the Bar in Ontario and practices law in Toronto. Mr. House came to Canada as a US draft resister during the Vietnam War. This paper will ask; what is the history of legislation and law in Canada pertaining to US war resisters living here?  What are the legal and legislative options presented to current US military deserters living in Canada?

'Canadian gays and lesbians on firmer grounds: Doors opening to new class of refugee claims; gays gaining more power'

This paper will propose that Canada is now becoming one of the world’s leading safe havens for gay and lesbian populations. The new reality has come about as a result of decades-long public policy changes, popular support for gay lifestyles, and the induction of corresponding jurisdictional reforms. By contrast, previous advances are either stalling or being rolled back in the United States.  As part of this paper, public policy changes will be looked into and important milestones highlighted. These include the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1967, when the then justice minister Pierre Trudeau famously declared that “there is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nations.” Furthermore, gay population’s growing political clout will be examined.

Full paper [pdf]

'Altruism and Self-Interest - The Canadian National Committee on Refugees and Victims of Political Persecution'

This paper will examine The Canadian National Committee on Refugees and Victims of Political Persecution (CNCR) in order to supplement the discussion of Abella and Troper, using individual and group archival materials, as well as contemporary newspaper and journal articles. It will explain why the CNCR activists became involved when many others were either anti-Semitic or passive bystanders and suggest that these “elite nonconformists,” were swimming in two interconnected streams: the growth of post-industrial values, and changing norms of international intervention. It will demonstrate that many CNCR activists participated in other rights causes, both then and later; the CNCR can be seen as a forerunner of later human rights groups, many of which also included the Jewish associations helped by the CNCR. These activists were an important reason why Canada began to move into what has been called the Age of Rights, not only combating domestic racism and Anti-Semitism, but also increasingly opening its immigration gates for humanitarian reasons.

'Canada as refuge from 'the rule of man': the case of Lai Changxing'

This paper will outline Mr. Lai Changxing’s case, who has been trying for eight years to stay permanently in Canada; he fears being returned to China where he has been sentenced in absentia for commercial crimes, and may face the death penalty, and place him in the context of contemporary China. It will then look at the ways in which the concept of refuge operates in Canada today, at the clash between the fear that Canada will become a haven for criminals, and the legal system that permits such people to apply to stay here if they are threatened with unacceptable treatment in their home countries.

Full paper [pdf]

'Canada as refuge: American War Resisters in Canada in the Vietnam war era'

While it is estimated that approximately 40,000 draft-aged young men came to Canada during the Vietnam War era, little is known about the women who also left the United States as exiles. This presentation will raise some important questions about the history of these lesser-known war resisters, including: How did these women view their nationality, as American or Canadian, and how did this evolve over the years following their migration; how did their identity constructions relate to shifting relationships with male counterparts; and how did changes in women’s overt political roles and constructions of gender in the Sixties influence women war resisters?

Full paper (draft) [pdf]

'Group Autonomy as Refuge in Multicultural Canada: A public or private affair?'

This paper will begin by arguing against current forms of cultural “group autonomy” for national groups in Canada. I will examine the centrality of group autonomy in the multiculturalism debate, particularly in the “Canadian school” approach of Will Kymlicka (1995) and Charles Taylor (1995). Drawing on the work of ethics of care theorists (Nedelsky 1989, MacKenzie and Stolijar 2000, Freidman 2003) it will argue for a relational conception of group autonomy in an attempt to address the shortcomings of the Canadian school approach while maintaining autonomy as a necessary guiding principle. It will summarise by suggesting that only a relational approach can provide the basis for the state accountability and group participation necessary for a more robust practice of group autonomy.

'Film: Breaking Ranks: Story of Current US Military Deserters in Canada'

Breaking Ranks is a moving documentary that examines the current phenomena of US soldiers seeking refuge in Canada as part of their resistance to the war effort in Iraq. Breaking Ranks is a universal story about the painful forming of character, of men growing to manhood in more complex ways than they expected. Heroes to some and traitors to others, as these young men navigate the international controversy caused by their decisions, their stories raise challenging questions about citizenship and the meaning of duty.

'Spaces of Exclusion and Inclusion: Cultural Research on Collaborative Arts Projects and Asylum seekers in Canada'

This paper offers a close examination of the complex processes by which public discourses constitute refugees in industrialized countries where they seek asylum. The paper draws on research being currently conducted that compares public discourses in Glasgow, Scotland and Vancouver, Canada. It critically examines the lack of work on those seeking refuge in Canada from postcolonial and racialized communities. It will examine the divisions in Canadian scholarship that separate “refugee studies” into research focused on either policy (e.g., integration and service provision) or legal issues; in addition to the limits of work from racialized and more recent disaporic and postcolonial communities that, as the paper will argue, continue to set national parameters for questions regarding identity, displacement and persecution. The paper explores what would be entailed in Canadian research and cultural production that bridges these divides.

'The Roots of Canadian Muslim Youth Extremism: A comparative study'

This paper will address the ongoing examination of the root causes of Muslim youth extremism in Canada. Much of the recent research into the links between extremism, radicalisation, and experiences of marginalization and discrimination in western nations, examines Western European case studies, but there is little consideration of the Canadian context. Therefore, focusing on Canada within a comparative context, this analysis will raise the following question: In consideration of the indicators of the accommodative challenges facing Muslim youths in Canada, do they run a similar risk to that of their marginalized peers in Europe - a potential interface with extremism which may entail considerable consequences for Canadian multiculturalism and national security?

'Canada as Refuge?: Perspectives of Vietnam war resisters'

Lori Olafson recently conducted a study of Vietnam era war resisters currently living in southern British Columbia using a mixed-methods design. Findings demonstrated that the decision to leave the United States was a moral choice precipitated by perceptions that the Vietnam War was an illegal, undeclared war and that it was morally wrong to kill innocent people. Moving to Canada resulted in a number of short and long term obstacles. One such obstacle was the immigration process. All participants found it was necessary to achieve Landed Immigrant status in order to continue the process of structuring a new life in Canada. The participants in the current study were white, middle-class, and educated young men and they were able to meet the immigration requirements. For this population, Canada was indeed a place of refuge. The proposed paper will provide a detailed account of the participants’ perspectives about the immigration process.

Full paper [pdf]

'Britons in the New Dominion: British Canadian Hybridity and Canada as a Refuge from Sectarianism'

This paper will argue that in the context of mid-Victorian sectarian conflict, the idea of a compound Canadian identity offered a refuge from inherited hostilities, and an escape from the persistent violence and bigotry that marks relations between English and French, Protestant and Catholic, and Irish and Irish. It will provide a background for consideration of early configurations of Canadian nationality and difference, and provides preliminary analysis of fiction and popular history by neglected Canadian authors William Henry Withrow,  Alexander Begg,  Ethel T. Raymond and Emily Poynton Weaver.

Full paper [pdf]

'Effective Refugee Protection through asylum and resettlement'

North America has long been seen as a place of refuge and new beginnings for people fleeing persecution. Over several decades, Canada has developed policies to offer protection to 25,000 refugees each year through its immigration program. About 10,000 are resettled in Canada and about 15,000 are landed through the in-Canada asylum system. Some Europeans voice concerns that resettlement can undermine support for asylum, by creating a perception in the media and in the public mind that there are two classes of refugees, those resettled who are "good" or "real" refugees, and "bad" ones who came through the asylum stream. The Canadian experience, to the contrary, demonstrates that asylum and resettlement policies can work in a complementary fashion, each component bolstering the other. As a result, a significant number of refugees are granted protection in Canada through a cost-effective and managed program, with public involvement and support.

Full paper [pdf]

'Do population numbers matter to linguistic survival? Quebec as a refuge for speakers of the French language'

This paper considers how and why the demographic transition in Québec has been linked to national solidarity and cultural survival.  It will examine how population decline in the twentieth century has urged social and political elites in the province to construct the population of Québec as a French-speaking one. The paper will look briefly at the history of demographic concerns and the variety of population policies implemented in Québec that were meant to rectify those concerns. It will also provide an overview of the historical development of Québec’s own Ministry for Immigration. Finally, it will show that while policies like the Québec Parental Insurance Plan in conjunction with ministerial control over immigrant identity may be regarded as policies that uphold collective rights in Canada, they also pose a number of problems for Canada’s role as a civic and Liberal nation-state.

'War resistance as global movement'

The causes of violence are not difficult to understand, and we know enough to end most of it.  The difficulty is putting our knowledge into practice. Support for war resisters around the world could undermine the "legitimacy" of war and reduce international violence, while offering concrete assistance and refuge to those who refuse to kill (as required by the Nuremberg principles). Ultimately, anyone can be a war resister.   War can be relegated to the dustbin of history, but only if the people of the world demand peace (to paraphrase President Eisenhower). More than ever, the time is now.

'Taking refuge in Art: Russian mennonites in Canada'

This paper considers the questions; what were the circumstances necessary for Russian Mennonite culture to flourish?   How has the trauma of the refugee experience shaped the art that is being produced?  How do theological metaphors complicate the Mennonite varieties of exile?   These questions will be considered by means of an interdisciplinary focus:  a few selected images from the work of visual artists, brief excerpts from music recordings, and selected short texts by Canadian Mennonite writers.

'The end of the road: Canada as refuge for US slaves'

This paper will examine the role of Canada as a safe-haven for escaped slaves from the U.S.  It will deconstruct three territorial perspectives on the institution of slavery: Southern U.S., Northern U.S., and Canadian.  This historical examination will expose the foundation of a North American paradox: how neighbouring regions have been fundamentally different in their ideologies and perspectives on human rights.

Full paper [pdf]

'Canadian Church sanctuary: Making or breaking refugee law?'

This paper will show that recent years have seen an increasing number of migrants who request church sanctuary in Canada. In response, church communities have developed sophisticated screening mechanisms through which to decide who, among the many that request it, will be accorded sanctuary. Interestingly, these screening mechanisms mimic the official refugee determination system: lawyers get involved, migrants’ alleged fears of persecution are scrutinized, supporting country condition documentation is considered, and various interpretations of international refugee law are propounded. It explores this curious phenomenon whereby, when Canadian churches provide sanctuary to asylum seekers whose refugee claims were purportedly wrongly denied, they replicate the very same refugee determination system whose outcomes they reject.

'Multiculturalism as moral engagement'

In attempting to understand the internal conflict that faces refugees, who see acceptance and belonging in their adopted lands as an engagement fraught with the trauma of their displacement, we come to approach multiculturalism as a moral project, and one that implicates all Canadians.  In a time when the fear of ‘home-grown’ terror, and the continued war on terror itself, divides communities along ethnic lines, it is necessary to present our diverse communities with options other than simplistic self/other binaries, which succumb to the very same hegemonic and ethnic circumscriptions that have violently displaced them. 

'Welcoming US war resisters to Canada: The role of prejudice reduction in allowing these new immigrants to live full, satisfying lives in Canada'

This paper will ask, what is the effects of stereotypes and targeting of US war resisters in Canada, and what were and are once again the ramifications of such “stereotyping” and “targeting” for this immigrant group? As an immigrant group that found refuge, in what was the largest outward-migration in US History, why did they not coalesce and organize as a visible immigrant  entity as might be expected due to their sizable numbers (Estimates range for 75,000 to 125, 000 US war resisters and back-to-the-landers arrived in Canada during the Vietnam War.).  Recent events, since 2004 have ended their relative invisibility as an immigrant group to Canada. What were the historic conditions leading to their new found visibility and organizing efforts?

Full paper [pdf]

'Cultural Memory: The role of remembering and the politics of forgetting'

With US immigrants of conscience finding refuge in Canada during the Vietnam War and now with the US war in Iraq, this paper asks: what is the role of “remembering” and the consequence of the “politics of forgetting” within Canada’s “Cultural Memory”.  And what role in Cultural Memory might a Sculpture to US war resisters play in “remembering.” Isaac Romano commissioned the world renown sculpture to US war resisters in Canada, The Welcoming Peace Sculpture.  Honouring the contribution to Canadian life by US Immigrants of conscious, finding refuge in Canada, and thanking the thousands of Canadians that assisted these Americans of conscience, which will be displayed during the presentation.

Full paper [pdf]

'Conscientious Canadians: US war resisters pursuing 'American' values in Canada'

This paper will employ Dr Schutt’s analytical tools on himself and other “conscientious Canadians” in an effort to provide cultural and historical context for the multiple generations of Americans who have moved north seeking a less militarized society. After marrying a Canadian and living in Vancouver for several years, Schutts is about to apply for Canadian citizenship. His reflections on this newfound transnationality, where he finds contemporary Canada offers more opportunity to live up to the “American” ideals of his youth, are tempered not only by his academic discipline, but also his experiences serving in the 1980s as a US Army officer-cum-conscientious objector and his activism since in the international peace movement. Most relevant to the issue of “Canada as Refuge,” he has been intimately involved with the cases of the current generation of US soldiers seeking Canadian sanctuary from the wars of George W. Bush.

'Of blood and bone: myth and memory in the Imagining of Scottish-Canadian Identity'

Alistair MacLeod’s fiction memorializes Canada as a refuge for Clearance Highlanders in ways that produce compelling narratives for a modern international readership. My paper responds to his modernity by introducing contemporary sociological theories about the essential function of memory, both personal and communal, in the shaping of our continuing cognition. My argument introduces recent work on the shift from orality into print as one of the ways in which Canadian citizenship imagines multiple identities.

Full paper [pdf]

'Strangers in their own land: First nations and Canada as a place of peril'

Utilising historical and current socio-economic data the paper describes the extent of First Nations’ marginalisation within the Canadian state. In addition, drawing upon the extant literature the paper explores the impact of their increased economic and political disempowerment since colonisation and confederation. The paper concludes by outlining options available to First Nations to exist as free, self-governing, self-sufficient peoples. 

'Marginalizing migrants: Canada's rising reliance on temporary immigrants'

This paper examines whether Canada’s rising reliance on ‘temporary residents’ to meet labour market needs undermines the country’s image as a haven for immigrants seeking equitable terms of migrant integration. In recent years, Canada has dramatically increased the number of temporary migrant admission, while holding constant the number of permanent immigrant admissions. The paper argues that this is a fundamental departure from traditional terms of migration to Canada. In the past, the waiting period for migrants to Canada has been relatively short. Today, there are huge numbers of temporary residents in Canada – on time limited visas -- filling desperately required labour market vacancies, but with no pathway to citizenship. The rationale, terms and conditions of temporary migrant programs are examined as reflections of Canada’s response to global economic re-ordering. Is Canada adopting a ‘guest-worker’ approach to immigration? Implications for the economic, political, social and legal status of these migrants are assessed and problematized.

"Guests" not "Refugees"

This paper examines Canadian policies on child emigration during World War II specifically in relation to British children evacuated to Canada between June and September 1940, under the government’s highly controversial Children’s Overseas Reception Board scheme. It will look at the experiences of the children themselves, both in Canada and upon returning home to post-war Britain. Interest in this topic was sparked by a children’s story, so it will discuss upon both factual and fictional accounts of Canada’s young “war guests.”

Full paper [pdf]

'The hegemony of left nationalism and the American war resisters 1968-1971'

From 1965 to 1975, thousands of American war resisters came to Canada.  This paper examines how the idea of Canada as a refuge from militarism took firm hold during those years. It argues that the idea of Canada as a refuge from militarism was contingent and temporary, only made possible through the efforts of war resisters and their supporters.

' Saving or Kidnapping? Canada and the Vietnam/Cambodian Babylift April-May 1975 '

In the spring of 1975 Canada supplied one stage for the unfolding of the story of the Vietnam ‘Babylift’.  While the Dominion, like the United Kingdom, Australia, and a few European countries, provided only bit players in an international event that involved both Cambodian and Vietnamese youngsters, response  tested one treasured national identity, Canada as a refuge for children in distress.  This role normally focused on domestic scenarios: generous and responsible agencies and adults assisted and sometimes replaced inadequate, occasionally missing, biological parents. Rescue narratives also, however, involved foreign youngsters. First, this paper points to a national history of child rescue that grew gradually more racially inclusive in the last half of the 20th century. Second, it considers Canada’s relations with Asia and youngsters of Asian origin up to and including the 1970s. Third, it describes Canadians’ public response to the Vietnamese-American war and the place of children in this.  Fourth, it introduces adults engaged in rescue.  And finally it profiles the children involved and what ‘refuge’ might have entailed for them. In no case, is the story uncomplicated.

'The Indo-Canadian campaign for the franchise and immigration reform'

In 2008 Indo-Canadians occupy an honourable place in Canadian society, and their contribution to the cultural, political and economic wealth of the country is recognized.  Although there has been a South Asian presence in Canada for more than a century, the success story is a recent phenomenon.  One hundred years ago, in 1907, Canada imposed severe immigration restrictions on people coming from India, and the province of British Columbia, where most of them lived, removed the right to vote from those already there.  How they moved from a situation of rejection to one of inclusion is the subject of this proposed paper.

'The reluctant refuge: contrasting Canada's refuge and border control policies'

Engaging in the analysis of the discursive practices of media and political elites surrounding the implementation of various restrictive policy measures, this paper argues that contradictory refugee policies emerge as a result of the context in which discursive contestation over these practices takes place.  The debate over visa policies and carrier sanctions in Canada have taken place in the context of border control, where cost and efficiency are the primary values at stake; while other values, such as providing refuge, are excluded from consideration. Conversely, attempts to enact restrictive policies such as mandatory detention and refoulement have taken place in the context of refugee policy, where humanitarianism and security values were of primary concern. In this context, cost and efficacy of programs has been absent from consideration, resulting in costly and inefficient refugee policies that have contributed to more recent turns to restrictiveness.

Full paper [pdf]