The Global Migration Crisis
Members of the media may directly contact:
Christina Clark-Kazak (English and French)
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, Faculty of Social Sciences
[email protected]
Professor Clark-Kazak's expertise lies in international migration, and she is the author of Documenting Displacement: Questioning Methodological Boundaries in Forced Migration Research
“The recent tragedies in the Mediterranean and on-going detention of immigrants in Canada demonstrate that we need people-centred and rights-based policies to respond to human migration.”
Patti Lenard (English only)
Associate Professor, Public and International Affairs, Faculty of Social Sciences
Professor Lenard can talk about immigration, including refugees, successes and failures of multicultural policies, trust among diverse communities; and immigrant integration, including strategies for inclusion.
“The death of migrants off the coast of Greece is the result of years of implicit collaboration among western, democratic, states to make access to their territories nearly impossible. Many of those who are dying in the ocean are asylum seekers fleeing persecution and violence, who are entitled to seek safety as a matter of international law. Even those who are not asylum seekers are entitled to be treated with respect. It is, I think, a sign of a darkening world that their lives are treated so cheaply and so callously. They have loved ones; they have children and friends; they are parents seeking better lives for their families. And the West treats their lives as disposable.”
Luisa Veronis (English, French, & Spanish)
Associate Professor, Geography, Environment and Geomatics, Faculty of Arts
Professor Veronis is interested in issues related to migration, immigrant settlement, minority and migrant groups, community organization and belonging. She also examines the role of environmental factors in international migration to Canada.
“The current regime of international migration and asylum is on the brink of collapse. It was put in place in the aftermath of World War II, but clearly it is no longer working. Mobility and asylum are human rights, but our governments are increasingly avoiding their responsibilities. Criminalizing migration, detaining and deporting migrants are not adequate responses to the flows of displacement we currently see. These migrant waves are the symptom or result of much graver political, economic and social problems in the regions of origin, and they will not go away on their own. We urgently need to reconsider the very foundations of our globalized world, rather than the band-aid policies our governments put in place stop migrants from seeking better lives.”
Joao Velloso (English, French, & Portuguese)
Associate Professor, Faculty of Law - Common Law Section
Professor Velloso can comment from a legal perspective about the immigration control, and the immigration law.