Abstract
Since its introduction in the 1980s, the way in which Canada as a nation accepts and processes refugees has been fueled by an underlying priority of state protection as opposed to that of protecting refugee rights. The evolution of this system consistently places Canada as a nation that acts in its own self-interest as opposed to prioritizing the protection needs of non-citizens asking for protection. The goal of this research is to analyze the experience of refugee claimants coming to Canada between the years of 2022 and 2023 as changes to the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States of America were introduced. It has been framed with a lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT) to better position the experiences of twelve refugee claimants from Afghanistan, Venezuela, and Haiti as they navigated through the Canadian reception and refugee determination system in a major Canada-USA border city of Windsor, Ontario. Through a mixture of qualitative interviews and a narrative approach, this study highlights the many experiences of those who use the system put in place to offer them protection. Through describing these experiences, challenges in the current system in Canada have been identified and recommendations have been proposed to enhance the overall approach to refugee reception and determination in a way that incorporates a more holistic approach to refugee protection and places the experience of refugee claimants at the center of policy decisions.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2024 Special Focus—The World on the Move: Understanding Migration in a New Global Age
KEYWORDS
Refugee, Cross Borders, Critical Race Theory, Migration, Administrative Law
