Displacement

• Time period: 2019-2024
• Contact: Bree Akesson
• Laurier's Global Adversity and Wellbeing Research Group

Research with war-affected populations tends to focus on individuals, with family experience rarely considered. Yet, family is highly correlated with individual wellbeing, therefore influencing life course outcomes. Without an understanding of how displacement and resettlement impact family systems, practice and policy cannot adequately address the challenges facing these families and their communities. This research project uses innovative place-based and family-centered methodologies to generate knowledge about the war, displacement, and resettlement experiences of refugee families now living in Canada.

This project is partly funded by an Ontario Early Researcher Award.

• Time period: 2019-2022
• Contact: Bree Akesson
• Laurier's Global Adversity and Wellbeing Research Group

Pregnancy loss is an under-researched and under-discussed topic, especially in war-affected contexts. Combined with other losses, pregnancy loss can have a destabilizing impact on the war-affected family, which is already struggling under multiple adversities. This research explores pregnancy loss among Syrian refugee families resettled in Lebanon. In-depth understanding will be gained of the meanings mothers and fathers give to the experience of pregnancy loss. The role of social support in ameliorating the negative impacts associated with pregnancy loss in the context of war, flight and, displacement will also be examined.

This project is funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant.

• Time period: Ongoing
• Contact: Bree Akesson
• Out of Place: Stories from Syrian Families

As a result of the ongoing civil war in Syria, approximately 6.5 million Syrians have been displaced within Syria and an additional three million have been exiled as refugees in neighbouring Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Representing half of the refugee population, women and children are disproportionately affected by war.

In addition to its devastating physical consequences, war compromises children’s protective social systems (such family and community), necessary for healthy development. Mothers are particularly affected by war, facing violence, displacement to unfamiliar surroundings, disruptions of social support systems and lack of access to basic needs.

Although all war-affected populations may experience stress associated with conflict, flight, and displacement, mothers (especially those who are pregnant or who are raising young children) may suffer from this stress differently as they find themselves struggling to meet the needs of their family while also meeting their own physical needs.

Despite the importance of support for mothers living in the context of war, there is little research directly addressing this topic as it relates to child protection, and even less using the context of Syria. Using place-based research methods with families, this research project aims to generate knowledge regarding the experiences of Syrian refugee mothers – specifically those who are pregnant or those raising very young children – as a means by which to better understand and address child protection issues.

• Time period: Ongoing
• Principal investigators: Kim Rygiel, Wilfrid Laurier University; Feyzi Baban, Trent University
• Collaborator: Fuat Keyman, Sabanci University
• Research assistants: Diana Thomaz, Wilfrid Laurier University; Anisah Madden, Trent University
• Fostering Pluralism

Considerable research to date has focused on accommodating newcomers through official citizenship policies that promote integration through multiculturalism or assimilation or policies that securitize citizenship through restrictive border controls and security measures. Much less research has investigated creative, citizen-led initiatives of civil society organizations within communities, which seek to circumvent these citizenship policies (multicultural, assimilationist or restrictive in nature) in favor of opening communities to newcomers and fostering cultural pluralism in ways that transform understandings about who is a citizen and who belongs to the community.

This five-year project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada and conducted by Professor Kim Rygiel at Wilfirid Laurier University and Professor Feyzi Baban at Trent University in Canada.

This project uncovers how xenophobia and racism are challenged within local communities in Europe. Through projects such as kitchen hubs, arts projects, and shared living spaces, we illustrate how newcomers and locals come together and create new, shared living experiences. This living together (what we call transgressive cosmopolitanism) is rooted in the everyday lives of uprooted and marginalized peoples such as migrants and refugees and is practiced daily within neighborhoods and communities.

Our research is categorized into four themes:

• Transgressive Cosmopolitanism
• Representations
• Encounters
• Spaces

We use these four themes to organize case studies to answer the following questions:

• Why, how and under what conditions some communities are more open to cultural difference than others?
• What types of projects facilitate openness to newcomers?
• How do citizens and non-citizens participate in these projects in ways that transform understandings of citizenship and belonging?

Publications

• “A Year after “The Cologne Attacks”: How Small Community Initiatives in Europe Are Countering Right-wing Populism,” Praxis, 2016.
• “Snapshots from the margins: Transgressive cosmopolitanisms in Europe,” European Journal of Social Theory, 17:4, 2014.
• Feyzi Baban and Kim Rygiel. (2017). "Living with others: fostering radical cosmopolitanism through citizenship politics in Berlin." Ethics & Global Politics, 10:1, 98-116.

• Contact: Margaret Walton-Roberts

The final stage of the Federal Government’s five step plan was focused on resettlement, the most crucial time with regard to long term resettlement success. However, it is the stage for which Canada is least prepared. LIPs, was introduced by the CIC in 2008. The initiative was designed to address a number of long standing issues with local settlement policy including the de facto role of municipalities and the disparate relationship between stakeholders involved in the settlement process.

The arrival of over 26,000 Syrian refugees presents a pressing need to evaluate the success of LIPs in coordinating complex refugee settlement services and responses with multiple service providers and institutions. This event represents an ideal opportunity to explore how effective LIPs can be in coordinating settlement efforts and to what extent their coordination role can enhance the refugee resettlement process and outcomes.

The findings of the comparative study will shed light on LIPs’ strengths and potential in coordinating multi-sectoral stakeholders, and can be used to improve refugee resettlement policies and practices across Canada. The proposed project will enhance dialogue and reflection about the resettlement process both within and between local stakeholders in the communities of Kitchener, Waterloo, Hamilton and beyond.

Presentations

• Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs) and their role in the Syrian refugee resettlement process in three Ontario reception centres
  • Authors: Huyen Dam, Sarah Wayland, Luisa Veronis, Blair Cullen and Margaret Walton-Roberts
  • Policy Brief/Scaling Team: Marina Ghosh, Sasha Oliveira, Ahmed Mohamoud Elmi
  • Description: This presentation covers Syrian refugee resettlement, local immigration partnerships (LIPs); research questions and methods; discussion of LIPs in three communities (Hamilton, Ottawa, and Waterloo region) including local context, structure, role, effectiveness, and challenges; policy lessons; and scaling the LIPs.
• Scaling-Up Canada’s Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) Model for Proactive Refugee Resettlement
  • Authors: Ahmed Elmi, Marina Ghosh & Sasha Oliveir
  • Description: This powerpoint addresses the global issue that there is a lack of proactive and flexible systems in place for refugee resettlement in light of unpredictable refugee flows resulting from humanitarian crises and provides a solution through Canada’s Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) model.
• Waterloo: Local Immigrant Partnerships Role in Syrian Refugee Resettlement in Three Ontario Reception Centres.
  • Authors: Blair Cullen and Margaret Walton-Roberts
  • Description: This presentation goes over local Immigrant partnerships, study site and research methods: Waterloo Region, LIPs role and structure, the LIP and Syrian refugee resettlement, intergovernmental and intersectoral relations and moving forward: The LIP’s Future.
• Ottawa and the Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership (OLIP/PLIO)
  • Authors: Luisa Veronis.
  • Description: This presentation goes over the background: Ottawa and OLIP/PLIO (Ottawa Local Immigration Partnership), Syrian Refugee Resettlement and OLIP, Stakeholder Relations with OLIP, Perceptions of OLIP’s Role in the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Process, Intergovernmental Relations, and Moving Forward: OLIP’s Future.
• Hamilton: The Local Immigrant Partnerships (LIPs) in Canada
  • Authors: Margaret Walton-Roberts, Luisa Veronis, Sarah Wayland, Blair Cullen and Huyen Dam.
  • Description: This presentation goes over the Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs) in Canada, as well as their key Concepts, Research Context, Research Questions, Methodology, Findings, and concludes with Discussion.

Policy Briefs

• Scaling-Up Canada’s Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) Model for Proactive Refugee Resettlement
  • Authors: Ahmed Mohamoud Elmi, Marina Ghosh and Sasha Oliveira.
  • Description: This brief addresses the global issue that there is a lack of proactive and flexible systems in place for refugee resettlement in light of unpredictable refugee flows resulting from humanitarian crises and provides a solution through Canada’s Local Immigration Partnership (LIP) model.

Publications

• "Place‐based policy in practice and Syrian refugee resettlement: The role of local immigration partnerships in three Ontario second‐tier cities," Special Section of The Canadian Geographer, 63.3, 2019, 341-404.
  • Authors: Margaret Walton‐Roberts, Luisa Veronis, Sarah V. Wayland, Huyen Dam, Blair Cullen.
  • Description: includes introduction and articles on LIPs in Ontario.