Migration Studies Commons^™

Issue 26: Labour, Poverty, And Health Concerns Of Migrant Women And Girls Working As Kayayei In Ghana's Urban Centres, Comfort Baidoo, Robert Mcleman

International Migration Research Centre

Over the past four decades, growing numbers of women and girls have left northern Ghana for the country's cities, drawn by the promise of work, independence, and a chance to support their families. Many end up as kayayei, head porters who carry goods through Accra's crowded markets for a negotiated fee. Their labour keeps the informal economy moving, yet it comes at a steep personal cost: unpredictable earnings, punishing physical strain, unsafe housing, and a healthcare system that too often leaves them out. This brief draws together the available evidence on the economic and health conditions of kayayei in Greater-Accra. …

Issue 25: Beyond Blame: Gender-Based Violence Prevention And African Diaspora Communities In The Waterloo Region, Halima Ahmed, Valdrin Dragusha, Stella Omonigho, Fadhilah Balogun

International Migration Research Centre

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) remains a critical social, public health, and governance challenge in Canada, particularly for migrant and refugee women (Tastsoglou, 2025). This is increasingly prominent at the local level in the Waterloo Region, particularly for African and racialized diaspora communities navigating settlement, integration, and institutional access. While multi-level governance and frameworks exist at the city, regional, provincial, and federal levels to address GBV, they tend to work in silos, and local implementation gaps persist. The gaps are shaped by cultural stigma, fragmented service delivery, precarious immigration status, formalinformal networks of support, and unequal access to culturally responsive support systems. …

Issue 24: Reducing Bias In Border Technology: Policy Recommendations For The Equitable Implementation Of Facial Recognition Technology At Canadian Borders, Aniela Kola, Menka Belanger, Rukaiya Merchant

International Migration Research Centre

No abstract provided.

Tech Note 01: Financial Technology (Fintech) And Digital Remittances, Sean T. Sithole

International Migration Research Centre

No abstract provided.

Issue 23: A Rights-Based Migration Strategy For Canada: Addressing Inequities In A Time Of U.S. Political Repression, Marika Jeziorek

International Migration Research Centre

This brief argues that the growing appeal of Canada to highly skilled professionals fleeing rights-based repression in the United States presents a unique opportunity to strengthen its skilled migration strategy through an equity-focused and economically sustainable approach. As U.S. professionals—particularly women, racialized individuals, healthcare providers, and academics—seek safety, professional autonomy, and legal protection, Canada has emerged as a key destination (Favaro, 2025; Levinthal, 2024; Malkin, 2016; Jackson, 2024). This appeal is rooted in Canada’s reputation as a rights-based society, one that contrasts sharply with the erosion of freedoms in parts of the U.S. To uphold and deliver on this perception, …

Issue 22: Actors Overlooked In Economic Integration: Syrian Refugee Single Mothers In Turkey, Ayşe Perihan Kırkıç, Fatmanur Delioglu

International Migration Research Centre

Syrian refugees in Turkey are struggling with integration, as policies fail to address holistic approaches, especially at they pertain to class and gender. Previous research on this topic has focused on legal rights, employment, the impacts on Turkey's labor market, and local perceptions of Syrian refugees in the workforce. This policy paper addresses a significant gap in the integration of Syrian refugee single mothers. Specifically, this research explores how economic integration is influenced by class and gender. To understand their experiences, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Syrian refugee single mothers residing in Istanbul. We argue that the economic integration of …

No. 87: Mythologies Of Mixed Migration And The Southern Route, Jonathan Crush, Zack Ahmed

Southern African Migration Programme

In Africa, various international organizations have promoted “mixed migration” as a new governance challenge requiring innovative policy responses. The narrative, which has been repurposed from discussions on African migration to Europe to include intra-African movements, positions migration flows as primarily irregular, organized and driven by smugglers, and requiring tight control by states. This report shows that textual and cartographic representations of the so-called Southern Route are a form of cartopolitics, constructing migration as a permanent flow of irregular migrants from a singular origin toward a common destination. By portraying migration as solely a function of smuggling and coercion, the Southern …

Issue 21: Temporary Shelter To Permanent Home: Advancing Permanent Residency For Ukrainian Refugees In Canada, Marika Jeziorek

International Migration Research Centre

The Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET) program, initiated in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022, has provided temporary refuge to a significant number of Ukrainian nationals. While this program has been effective in addressing immediate safety needs, its temporary nature falls short of ensuring the long-term stability and socio-economic integration of Ukrainian refugees into Canadian society. Unlike Convention Refugees, who are individuals granted permanent residency in Canada because they have been recognized as needing protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol due to a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, …

Complexities Of Health And Care Worker Migration Pathways And Corresponding International Reporting Requirements, Margaret Walton-Roberts, Ivy Bourgeault, Denise Spitzer

Global Nurse Migration Pathways: A Comparative Project

The increasing complexity of the migration pathways of health and care workers is a critical consideration in the reporting requirements of international agreements designed to address their impacts. There are inherent challenges across these different agreements including reporting functions that are misaligned across different data collection tools, variable capacity of country respondents, and a lack of transparency or accountability in the reporting process. Moreover, reporting processes often neglect to recognize the broader intersectional gendered and racialized political economy of health and care worker migration. We argue for a more coordinated approach to the various international reporting requirements and processes that …

The Future Of Health Care Work And The Place Of Migrant Workers Within It: Internationally Educated Nurses In Ontario Canada During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Margaret Walton-Roberts

Global Nurse Migration Pathways: A Comparative Project

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of immigrant health workers in OECD nations, and intensified debates about the current and future supply and distribution of such workers, particularly nurses. This review paper considers internationally educated nurses in the case of Ontario, Canada, and the policy responses developed during the pandemic to address the increased utilization of immigrant health workers. To further consider the evolving place of migrant workers within health, the broader issue of the future of health care work is examined to imagine what a sustainable and resilient health workforce agenda that integrates internationally educated nurses might look like.

No. 86: Pandemic Remittance Shocks And Resilience In The South Africa-Zimbabwe Migration Corridor, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera

Southern African Migration Programme

This report sets out to test the conflicting global and local narratives about the impact of COVID-19 on remittance flows in the South Africa-Zimbabwe migration corridor. Remittance pessimism vanished during the second year of the pandemic as data indicated that remittances had not suffered the predicted collapse. Given survey findings, including the survey reported on here, about the depressed earning and remitting capacity and behaviour of migrants during the pandemic, there was no obvious explanation as to why remittances had not plunged in 2020. In search of a resolution to this pandemic paradox of stable or increased migrant remittances and …

No. 85: Pandemic Food Precarity, Crisis-Living And Translocality: Zimbabwean Migrant Households In South Africa During Covid-19, Sujata Ramachandran, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Elizabeth Opiyo Onyango

Southern African Migration Programme

COVID-19 has been a great disrupter of international migration and a social and economic disaster for migrants. The findings in this report come from a household survey conducted by SAMP in mid-2021 in the South African cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg. The report argues that years of crisis-living in a hyperinflationary environment in Zimbabwe left many households in a pre-pandemic state of food insecurity and vulnerable to the pandemic shock. At the same time, the COVID-19 crisis reduced the ability of Zimbabwean migrant households in South Africa to assist family back in Zimbabwe. As well as contributing to greater …

No. 84: Small-Town Xenophobia And Migrant Anxieties In South Africa’S Limpopo Province, Godfrey Tawodzera, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

South Africa’s major cities are regularly wracked by large-scale xenophobic violence directed at migrants and refugees from other countries. Informal-sector businesses and their migrant owners and employees are particularly vulnerable targets during these attacks. Migrant-owned businesses are also frequently targeted in smallerscale looting and destruction of property. There is now a large literature on the characteristics and causes of xenophobic violence and attitudes in South Africa, based on quantitative and qualitative research in the country’s major metropolitan areas. One of the consequences of big-city xenophobia has been a search for alternative markets and safer spaces by migrants, including relocating to …

'Indirect Pathways Into Practice': Philippine Internationally Educated Nurses And Their Entry Into Ontario's Nursing Profession, Lualhati Marcelino

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

While there are several studies that highlight the quantitative and statistical profiles of internationally educated nurses (IENs) from the Philippines who migrate to countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe, the United States and Canada, there is little research that delves deeply into the qualitative review and analysis of their experiences in their own words. This study addresses that gap by applying the transnational feminist concept of “global care chains” in a single case study design that explores the experience of nurses who migrated to Ontario through permanent and temporary immigration streams and were interviewed in 2011 to 2012 to …

Issue 20: Building Inclusivity In Linguistically Diverse Communities: A Role For Interpretation And Translation Services, Emma Dufour, Samaa Kabbar, Anmol Rana, Noah Ricciardi, Kim Rygiel

International Migration Research Centre

This paper investigates the importance of interpretation and translation services in resettling and integrating refugee and immigrant newcomers within the Waterloo Region. According to Waterloo’s Immigration Partnership, immigrants account for 22.6% of the region’s population (Folkema and Vandebelt 2019, 17). This places the Region’s proportion of immigrants as the eighth highest in Ontario (Folkema and Vandebelt 2019, 5). In 2016, the Region of Waterloo recorded over 120 languages as the mother tongue of more than 120,000 residents (Languages Census Bulletin 2016), including Arabic, Tigrinya, Spanish, Somali, Farsi, and Mandarin (IP 2018, 6). Celebrating living in a vibrant, multilingual community necessitates …

Issue 19: Up/Rooted: Gender, Sexuality And Refuge In Canada, Rosemary Kimani-Dupuis, Allison Petrozziello, Carol B. Duncan, Jenna L. Hennebry

International Migration Research Centre

Issues of gender and sexuality affect refugee experiences of flight, resettlement and integration, yet often remain unacknowledged and unaddressed in policy and programming to support those seeking refuge in Canada. There exists a power dimension between those being served (refugees) and those providing services and policymakers. This Policy Points presents core issues at the intersection of gender, sexuality and seeking refuge discussed during the "Up/Rooted: Gender, Sexuality and Refuge in Canada" workshop held at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo, Ontario. Participants from a range of community organizations working with refugees, community members, persons with refugee backgrounds, researchers, and …

No. 83: Between Burden And Benefit: Migrant Remittances, Social Protection And Sustainable Development, Sujata Ramachandran, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

As the role of migrant remittances for poverty reduction, economic growth and sustainable development in sending countries gains increasing attention, this report reviews the evidence for the linkages between remittances and the social welfare of receiving households, communities and countries, as well as remitters themselves. In low and middle-income countries, where national social security systems have been underdeveloped, monetary and other assistance by family and community members have long constituted an important form of non-state social welfare. Rooted in social relationships and networks of family, kinship connections and social community, individual remittances offer informal mechanisms of social protection. The report …

Issue 18: Disaster Displacement: Examining The Post-Dorian Experience On Eleuthera, Kearney Coupland

International Migration Research Centre

In September, 2019, Hurricane Dorian made landfall on the island of Abaco, its surrounding cays, and on Grand Bahama in The Bahamas. As a result of the storm, an estimated 12,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Marsh Harbour, the commercial hub of Abaco, and the surrounding cays, the small, low-lying islands off the coast of Abaco, received the majority of the damage. In addition to housing some of the most expensive resorts in The Bahamas, Marsh Harbour had two large shantytowns, the Mudd and the Peas, which were largely home to Haitian migrants who worked at the resorts and private …

Issue 17: Private Sponsorship In Canada: The Resettlement Of Syrian Refugees In The Kitchener-Waterloo Region, Suzan M. Ilcan, Diana Thomaz, Manuela Jimenez Bueno

International Migration Research Centre

The number of refugees in need of resettlement in the world is estimated to surpass 1.44 million people in 2020, with Syrians currently representing 40% of refugees in need of resettlement. In late 2015, the Canadian government made a commitment to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees and, since then, there has been abundant research analysing the large-scale resettlement process, its successes, limitations, and lessons for future policymaking and host communities.

This Policy Points contributes to these analyses by unpacking the particular lessons from the Kitchener-Waterloo region, and highlighting the resettlement experiences of privately sponsored Syrian refugees in this area. It draws …

Global Demand For Medical Professionals Drives Indians Abroad Despite Acute Domestic Health-Care Worker Shortages, Margaret Walton-Roberts, S. Irudaya Rajan

Global Nurse Migration Pathways: A Comparative Project

No abstract provided.

“Once A Lawyer, Now A Security Guard… And Anybody Can Realize How Much It Is Hurting, Right?” The Experiences Of Deskilling Among Skilled, Minoritized Immigrants In Waterloo Region, Southwestern Ontario, Karun Karki

Lyle S. Hallman Social Work Theses and Dissertations

Canadian immigration policy by and large is dominated by attracting the Economic Class immigrants, with a commitment to long-term labour market goals. The employment integration of immigrants, however, shows that many highly educated and skilled immigrants are barred from practicing in their own professions. This study investigated the deskilling experiences of skilled, minoritized immigrants of the Federal Skilled Worker program, residing in Waterloo region, a mid-sized urban centre in Southwestern Ontario. Given that employment is one of the key indicators of immigrant integration, and considering the gaps in the literature, I conducted a mixed-method study that examined the factors contributing …

No. 82: Deadly Denial: Xenophobia Governance And The Global Compact For Migration In South Africa, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

The UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration commits signatories “to eliminate all forms of discrimination, condemn and counter expressions, acts and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, violence, xenophobia and related intolerance against all migrants in conformity with international human rights law.” This commitment puts the onus on signatory governments, including South Africa, to deal with the threat that increasingly accompanies global mobility: rising xenophobia in countries of migrant destination. The global migration and development agenda puts great emphasis on the positive development impacts of migration. This report argues that, in South Africa, two decades of xenophobia governance …

Constructions Of Sympathy: A Media Discourse Analysis Of Detained Children And Youth In Canada, Lauren Ashby

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Over the last few years, there has been an abundance of media articles published on irregular migrants (Msefer, 2017). While there is much research attention on media discourse on individual adult asylum seekers and refugee claimants, there is little research attention on how media portrays detained children and youth affected by immigration detention. A deductive content analysis of 35 Canadian newspaper articles published between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2019 was conducted to explore the media discourse of youth held in immigration detention. Social construction of social problems (SCSP, Best, 2017) theory focuses on the way people create an …

Fanm Pa Chita: Mobilities, Intimate Labour, And Political Subjectivities Among Haitian Women On The Move, Masaya Llavaneras Blanco

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation asks: how does intimate labour interact with the mobility and political subjectivities of Haitian migrant women and women of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic (DR)? It answers this question in three specific ways. First, it explains the relationship between intimate labour and the spatial trajectories of women of Haitian ancestry who work as domestic workers. Second, it examines how the interaction between intimate labour and human mobility plays out in the Dominican border regime. Third, it explains how these subaltern women act politically in the midst of the intersections between borders, mobilities, and intimacy.

The dissertation proposes …

Issue 16: Irregular Migration To Canada: Addressing Current Policy Responses That Impact Refugee Claimants’ Arrival And Settlement In The Country, Monica Romero

International Migration Research Centre

The unexpected influx of refugee claimants irregularly crossing the US-Canada border since 2016 has strained Canada’s immigration system. According to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), 47,425 claims were referred to the IRB in 2017, and more than 43,000 were still pending at the end of the year (IRB, 2017). This only increased in the following years; in 2018, 55,388 claims were referred to the IRB and as of June of 2019 more than 74,000 were still pending. Compared to the total claims referred to the IRB in 2016 (23,350) and 2015 (16,592), these numbers represent a significant …

Issue 15: Economic Precarity Among Syrian Refugee Families Living In Lebanon: Policy Recommendations To Restore Hope In The Context Of Displacement, Bree Akesson, Dena Badawi

International Migration Research Centre

The conflict in Syria has been described as the largest humanitarian crisis to date. Ongoing for over eight years, the conflict has resulted in over five million refugees and 6.6 million people internally displaced within the borders of Syria. Most refugees from Syria have been displaced to neighbouring countries such as Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Lebanon. Lebanon is host to over one million Syrian refugees. Prior to the Syrian crisis, Lebanon was struggling economically, which has since exacerbated anti-refugee sentiment and government policies that aim to discourage Syrians from seeking refuge in Lebanon. Within Lebanon, Syrian families are challenged with …

Occupational (Im)Mobility In The Global Care Economy: The Case Of Foreign-Trained Nurses In The Canadian Context, Margaret Walton-Roberts

Global Nurse Migration Pathways: A Comparative Project

The twenty-first century has witnessed a number of significant demographic and political shifts that have resulted in a care crisis. Addressing the deficit of care provision has led many nations to actively recruit migrant care labour, often under temporary forms of migration. The emergence of this phenomenon has resulted in a rich field of analysis using the lens of care, including the idea of the Global Care Chain. Revisions to this conceptualization have pushed for its extension beyond domestic workers in the home to include skilled workers in other institutional settings, particularly nurses in hospitals and long-term care settings. Reviewing …

No. 81: Rethinking The South African Medical Brain Drain Narrative, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

Concerns about the negative impact of the “brain drain” of health professionals from Africa have led to a dominant narrative in which those who migrate are a permanent, and costly, loss to the country of origin and a permanent, and valuable, gain for the country of destination. South Africa is often seen as an archetypal African medical brain drain story. This report finds that, while the traditional permanent-exodus model has a powerful hold and shapes policy responses, it does not adequately capture all forms of migration by South African doctors. Noting that a significant number of physicians have taken up …

Refugees From Syria Caught Between War And Borders: A Journey Towards Protection, Maissaa Almustafa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the global crisis of protection through the lens of the Syrian refugee crisis and the particular experiences of refugees’ journeys to Sweden.

In doing so, the dissertation challenges the dominant narratives that represent refugees either as victims who deserve aid in their regions, or as threats when they exert their agency and journey towards the global north. In the same vein, the dissertation problematizes the dominant narrative of the “European crisis of migration” and proposes that the “unauthorized” arrivals of refugees in Europe are reflections of a global crisis of protection, a crisis that develops as a …

Issue 14: Welcoming Diversity: The Role Of Local And Civil Society Initiatives In Integrating Newcomers, Feyzi Baban, Fuat Keyman, Hande Paker, Kim Rygiel

International Migration Research Centre

In a global context marked by growing international forced displacement and migration, societies are becoming increasingly more diverse. The question of how to live together with newcomers has become a policy issue of utmost concern. While populist governments in Europe and in the US are failing to offer citizens and
newcomers alternative models for living together that encourage greater ethnic, cultural and religious plurality, in this report we highlight the contributions and lessons drawn from local and civil-society initiatives that have been successful in bringing hosts and newcomers together. We explore three such cases: Riace, a small Italian village where …