2024 Abstracts

Enduring Empire: Colonialism and the UK’s Migration Policies

As the number of displaced people increases worldwide, so too have the variety and intensity of mechanisms aimed at preventing them from reaching wealthy, developed countries. In 2023, the UNHCR found that number of people forcibly displaced has exceeded 110 million, underscoring the vast and complex asylum needs across the globe (UNHCR, 2023). Yet amidst this need, wealthy states rely on migration externalization as a framework for preventing ‘undesirable’ migrants from arriving or remaining. Externalization allows for a manipulation of the border, extending the reach of migration controls beyond the territorial contours of the sovereign state. These “extraterritorial state actions…prevent migrants, including asylum-seekers, from entering the legal jurisdictions or territories of destination countries or regions or…[make] them legally inadmissible without individually considering the merits of their protection claims” (Frelick et al., 2016). Some countries are engaged in externalization even after migrants have arrived. These states are typically wealthy and signatories to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which obliges them to provide migrants with a fair refugee determination process. Instead, many of these countries are outsourcing that responsibility. In some instances, this is achieved refugee ‘deals’ or ‘swaps’, which are arrangements that facilitate the transfer of migrants to supposedly ‘safe’ third countries.   

Refugee ‘deals’ are but one example of how migration externalization is realized. Its many forms include: “interception, offshore networks of civil servants, increased transit visa requirements, development of detention facilities in transit zones, bilateral arrangements for joint policing and repatriation, and so on” (Mountz, 2020, p. 32). These varied embodiments create “an architecture of repulsion,” made physical through cages, domes, buffers, moats, and barbicans (FitzGerald, 2019). Through this architecture, border enforcement and migration controls extend themselves into airports, into islands, into prisons, into the ocean, their tendrilled form holding tightly. In turn, the presence of the border in all of these spaces makes access to asylum a more and more elusive prospect.  

My dissertation project seeks to locate practices of migration externalization within projects of contemporary colonialism. I will specifically examine current, escalating efforts by the United Kingdom (UK) to restrict access to asylum and safety, particularly through the Illegal Migration Act and the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Rwanda. My contribution to the symposium would demonstrate how contemporary migration policies in the UK are shaped by contemporary colonialism and contribute to border selectivity and the policing of ‘othered’ bodies. In addition to the deal with Rwanda, other sites are swept up in the UK’s border policing, including the city of Calais in France, and the British Indian Ocean Territory, the only remaining British colony in Africa. By focusing on how other sites are entangled and enmeshed in British border policy helps illuminate the ways in which the UK continues to act as an Empire.

Indigenous self-determination in Canada: Overlapping sovereignties and jurisdiction

This paper will examine the links and contentions between Indigenous self-determination, self-governance, and sovereignty both in theory and practice, using the Canadian context as a case study. The Canadian context offers insights into shared and imposed borders and jurisdictional control while also highlighting the contentions between Indigenous and settler ideologies of self-determination and sovereignty. Extending beyond theory, these contentions play out in numerous ways on-the-ground for Indigenous nations and their diverse efforts to implement self-government.

To provide an overview, Indigenous Peoples have the inherent right to self-determination and self-government. These inherent rights are also recognized and affirmed through international law and Canadian domestic law. Even though the right to self-determination and self-government are inherent, the way these rights are upheld (or not) in Canada are influenced by international law and enacted through Canadian policies. Arguably, the most contentious issue that arises in discussions about Indigenous self-determination is the concept of sovereignty. The issue of sovereignty is often brought up in reference to Indigenous self-determination as well as Canada’s attempts at upholding the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Critics claim that Indigenous self-determination conflicts with Canadian sovereignty (Borrows et al., 2019; Curry et al., 2014). However, these critiques do not take into consideration Indigenous notions of sovereignty or the present realities of the current jurisdictional landscape that exists in Canada. The hegemony of the Westphalian system has resulted in the dominant understanding of sovereignty to be linked to bordered and singular jurisdictional control.

Western notions of sovereignty are centered on the Westphalian state system (Sherwin, 2022). However, Indigenous conceptualizations of sovereignty are focused on self-determination in the sense of leading and directing policies that enhance the wellbeing of Indigenous nations and uphold responsibility to the land (Monture, 2008). Indigenous Peoples want recognition and respect of their rights, which can be accomplished without challenging the sovereignty of Canada (Manuel & Derrickson, 2017). As Audra Simpson asserts (2014), it is possible for multiple sovereign political orders to be nested within a sovereign state, despite the tensions around jurisdiction and legitimacy. This same view is iterated by other scholars, like Feit (2009) who details the messiness of co-governance. Multiple sovereignties might reflect a decentralized system of governance, where decision-making authority exists in more than one place, which can enhance the ability to respond to governance issues (Asch et al., 2021). Decentralized should not be mistaken as being a system without order.

These concepts will be highlighted with examples from the Canadian context to demonstrate some of the challenges and opportunities for Indigenous nations, with special attention given to Indigenous legal scholars and theorists.

Coloniality of Dams: Enclosures and bordering in the regimes of occupation

Military occupation transforms natural and built environments through walls, camps, prisons and territorial boundaries (Bhan and Duschinski 2020), as well as through infrastructures like hydroelectric dams (Bhan 2018). Occupation also transforms everyday lived spaces into internal border zones within which colonized peoples are disciplined, monitored, and surveilled, constraining their mobility and access to resources (Bhan and Duschinski 2020). Drawing from two interconnected sites of occupation and resistance – Kashmir and Palestine – this paper will examine the ways in which hydroelectric dams function to sustain colonial occupation, particularly through social and spatial reconfiguration and the enclosure of occupied places. This paper will bring settler colonial theoretical frameworks in conversation with convergent literatures on occupation to examine the modalities of settler-colonial logics and state violence, which travel between and translate across the occupations of Kashmir and Palestine.

Conceiving dams as patriarchal infrastructures of colonial control (Curley 2019), the paper will examine how dams reconfigure socio-ecological landscapes (Bakker et. al. 2017), appropriate and fragment space (Bhan and Duschinski 2020), and introduce new regimes of (im)mobility (Peteet 2017) thus creating borders within borders (Bhan 2018). It will contend that the construction of hydroelectric dams cements occupation, which thereby creates gendered and spatialized immobility (Walia 2021) alongside systematic displacement to limit or deny colonized people use of their land and resources. After a new space is produced out of the process of violent bordering, it is heavily controlled to extract resources which provide energy to the core (Bhan 2018) – here, Israeli and Indian states and settlers. In this way, dams become critical instruments for maintaining control over the water resources of the occupied place (Bhan 2018) while simultaneously undermining the self-determination of colonized peoples.

Further, this paper will argue that the construction of hydroelectric dams in occupied places aims towards securing a colonial-capitalist future, partly by attempting to erase and reorient understandings of home, intimacy, and familiarity (Peteet, 2017). The remaking and carving up of places through violent infrastructures transforms familiar and intimate physical worlds into unfamiliar and carceral spaces (Bhan and Duschinski 2020); in particular, occupying forces build dams to control the fate of the rivers, using water as a weapon to wipe out local villages (through flooding) and subaltern ways of life (Bhan 2018). Historically, dams have notoriously enclosed peasant and Indigenous communities globally (Kaika 2006) and have been deployed as a means to severe people’s relationships with land and water (Curley 2019). They have also facilitated forceful assimilation of communities to take part in the capitalist social relations (Bhan 2018). In occupied contexts, dams operate as an extension of states’ military apparatus and as a neoliberal counterinsurgency strategy (Gasteyer et al. 2012) which reproduces the logics of bordering through intensive policing, surveillance and disciplining around its immediate space.

However, flows of water - like movements against colonial-capitalism - transgress borders. While water rapidly undergoes commodification, it cannot be contained or completely exhausted despite the attempts of the state and capital to bound and extract it (McAllister 2020). Water becomes a symbol and agent of resistance and liberation where Kashmiris draw strength from the defiant flow of Jhelum (Bhan 2018) and Palestinians geographically territorialize their historical land from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean Sea (Kelley 2019). Drawing from Critical Indigenous Studies, this paper will illuminate how water knowledges and relations can uphold self-determination by exceeding, subverting and destroying settler-colonial boundaries and accompanying rigid notions of territory and nationhood (Daigle 2016). Lastly, it will discuss how multidimensional, multi-scalar, and multi-temporal imaginaries of water (Yazzie & Baldy 2018) can contest dam enclosures and shape conceptions of autonomy and alternative life-giving infrastructures (Cowen 2017).

Expertise and Power in Border Enforcement: Examining the Role of Foreign Experts in Shaping Migration Policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The increasing technological and organizational innovation of border enforcement necessitates the opinion of experts for policy development and implementation (Gricius, 2022). As such, security experts gain political privilege by proposing policies they identify as being in the best interest of states (Haas, 1992). Despite the importance of understanding how legacies of foreign economic and political influence provide the foundation for political privilege and uneven distribution of power (Georgis and Lugosi, 2013), the literature has not adequately addressed that topic. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the role of expert knowledge in border enforcement capacity building in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It investigates changes in migration governance structures and the impact of EU policies on local decision-making, exploring how interactions and negotiations between multiple actors shape geopolitical spaces.

The Multidimensional Impacts of Technology on the EU's Border Governance: States vs. Migrants

This research examines the impact of technology on migration governance, mainly focusing on border governance. This study is timely as it explores the diverse actors engaged in European Union border governance and the consequential effects on contemporary migration governance. In the intricate domain of migration governance, many stakeholders operate across various echelons of authority to effectively execute their respective functions. A complex network of entities, including national governments, international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), intergovernmental agencies, private sector entities, refugees, solidarity networks, and smugglers, engage in a dynamic interplay of negotiations and interactions. As evident in the EU border policies, these interactions are crucial in shaping and enforcing policies and practices that border governance.

The perception of migration as a security concern has resulted in a paradigm shift, transforming borders into dystopian laboratories for extensive border security measures (Walia, 2021). With more than $500 billion in investment, border security incorporates intrusive electronic surveillance, automated decision-making, predictive analytics, facial recognition, and biometric technologies, creating a burgeoning industry (Walia, 2021). Contrary to the anticipated function of halting migration, these technologies serve as catalysts that foster novel networks among the public and private sectors, promoting both cooperative and competitive dynamics, harmony, and conflict (Andersson, 2015). Remarkably, states and corporations are not the only entities that use advanced security technologies in border governance. Refugees, solidarity networks, and smugglers also take advantage of technological advancements to navigate and transcend border barriers. Consequently, while states leverage technology to impede immigrants, these technologies enable immigrants to breach borders, extending beyond mere border protection mechanisms (Dijstelbloem & Broeders, 2015). By examining the EU in border governance, mainly the European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR), and the consequential impacts on contemporary migration governance, this study aims to contribute to the growing studies on the highly complex and multi-level actors involved in the EU border governance.

“Pothi Visa”: Cross-border Marriage, Citizenship and Nepali Brides in South Korea

The trend of cross-border marriage between Korean men and foreign brides increased in the 1990s (Kim 2010). However, the marriage migration from Nepal to South Korea is of recent origin. The brides, mainly belonging to socio-economically marginalized Tibeto-Burmese ethnic origins, are preferred due to their physical similarity to Korean people (Kim and Dios, 2017). Based on the Korean Immigration Service, in 2022, there were 556 Nepali women under F6 visa (spouse of Korean national or marriage migrants) status in Korea (Korea Immigration Statistics 2022). For the brides, cross-border marriage with Korean men is a way to escape poverty and unemployment and to support left-behind families. Although Korean society is based on ethnic and cultural homogeneity, such transgressive matrimonies increased due to rapid industrialization, the increasing gap between sex ratio (son preference), the unwillingness of native women to marry poor farmers, and the mobility of young women toward urban areas (Kim, Lee, and Choi 2014). The Korean state also supported such cross-border marriages to prevent “depopulation” in rural areas (ibid). Additionally, the mushrooming of matchmaking agencies in both origin and destination countries also played an important role in women’s decision to participate in such cross-border marriages (Seol 2006).

These marriage migrants fill the bride shortage vis-à-vis the ongoing social reproduction crisis in Korea’s rural households. Therefore, brides often face structural violence through exclusionary citizenship and migration regimes based on the preconceived notions that female marriage migrants are ethnic “others” in Korean society (Kim 2013). Korean society is based on an “ethnically/racially pure and homogenous nation” (Lim 2010:52); consequently, non-Koreans including marriage migrants and their biracial children are likely to face social discrimination (Kim 2010). Furthermore, the Korean government’s effort to assimilate these marriage migrants through multiculturalism is based on “gendered policies, programs, provisions, and practices” that are to “encourage women’s reproductive labor” for instance the work required to continue the practices of filial piety including “childbearing and child rearing” (Kim 2018:3).

This paper is based on secondary literature, 10 semi-structured interviews with Nepali brides, and 6 key informant interviews with community activist groups, and representatives of relevant NGOs in Korea and Nepal. Using the concept of border and othering (Vollmer 2020), migration, and citizenship (Kim 2013 & 2018), this paper analyzes how the border operates to categorize Nepali brides not just through citizenship and migration regimes but also in the form of the othering process through stigma, prejudice, and discrimination. Based on the findings this study illustrates that Nepali brides face two types of borders – one from South Korea through exclusionary citizenship provisions (increasing restrictive policy measures or the criterion for naturalization requirements) and the other from their own Nepali diaspora community in Korea by subjecting them to gender stereotypes, stigma, and ridicule (by othering of different visa categories, for example, calling out Nepali brides as those who entered Korea through a “pothi visa”). In Nepal, the word “pothi” or a hen is a derogatory colloquial term that evinces male dominance or superiority over women. Mostly, in Nepali, the word “Pothi basyo” is used to ridicule women by men saying, “since when has the hen started crowing?” (Lama and Buchy 2002:34). Lastly, this paper will critically analyze the different strategies/measures taken by these brides contesting or mediating the social exclusion and structural violence that they experience as ethnic others.

Transnational lives interrupted: The Canadian state and Indian international student experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper explores the experiences of Indian international students in Canada during the pandemic and how they managed disruptions to their studies, work and living arrangements. Using survey and interview data collected in 2022, the paper aims to examine the way students managed their mobility and immediate and long-term migration plans, and how this influenced their decision making process and migration strategies pursued. Canada has emerged as one of the most important study destination for international students. The number of international students (measured here as the number of study permit holders in Canada) has increased steadily since the mid-2000s to reach 638,300 in 2019. India has become the largest source of international students to Canada in recent years, surpassing those from China. A large majority of Indian international students attend colleges for their studies and also represent a growing number of those transitioning to permanent residence in Canada.

The covid-19 pandemic and the following lockdown had a significant impact on international students already studying in Canada, and for potential international students anticipating the start of their studies in Canada. State response the world over towards the pandemic with extreme border control measures and the hierarchy of measures and policies towards immigrant populations resulted in considerable confusion, and uncertainty for a particularly transient group of population in the global economy. The temporary resident status of international students and the transnational nature of their lives and identity in Canada placed them in a particularly unique position regarding the impact of the pandemic and its resulting financial and psychological stress. Various digital platforms and technologies aided in the resumption of their studies online and communication with their families at home, but significant anxieties surrounded their future migration plans, work, housing affordability and travel plans between India and Canada. Canada implemented differential travel restrictions and bans with various countries and regions around the world during different stages of Covid-19. Canada’s decision to ban all direct flights from India beginning in April 2021, which continued till late September 2021 was particularly challenging and difficult as many chose to fly via a third country, a more time consuming, stressful, and potentially dangerous option. These flights were extremely expensive, compared to the usual flight tickets to Canada, which was an added burden to students paying high tuition fees. The admissions by colleges and universities across Canada continued as usual but the ban led to considerable level of insecurity for new international students as well as returning students who have heavily invested in their plans to migrate and were looking forward to beginning their studies in Canada.

Indian international students’ transnational lives and identity including their temporary legal status, already places them in a precarious state to various shifts and changes in policies along with migration and integration related challenges. Such aspects were particularly exacerbated in a global emergency where international students found themselves caught between the resulting large-scale disruptions to the economy and various institutional and state responses with shutdowns, complete lockdowns, and extreme border control measures. International students significantly contribute to the higher education sector that has come to financially depend on the high fee-paying international students, the money they bring into local economies also contributes to regional development. Various institutions felt the financial disruption caused by the pandemic because of the effect on international student migration. Ongoing international student admissions represented a contrast to the strict border control measures that caused significant uncertainty and confusion. This paper reveals the deeply embodied and personalized consequences for students in the face of state responses to balancing pandemic control and retaining financial and economic contribution during the pandemic.

Diaspora and the Reshaping of Identity: The Generational Rifts in Framing Copts’ Traumatic Memory and Persecution Narratives

As a diasporic community, Copts in North America have actively seized political opportunities and engaged in vigorous activism, leading to the establishment of numerous organizations. Despite their earnest efforts, most Coptic organizations have encountered limited influence. This paper aims to integrate socio-psychological elements with cultural and cognitive inquiries. Focusing on Copts as a previously overlooked diaspora of a religious persecuted minority in their homeland, this paper seeks to provide insights into the social construction of Copts’ movements and political participation in North America, considering the Copts’ identity, historical narratives, and traumatic experiences.

Traumatic experience varies significantly, and does activism. For example, first-generation Copts are stuck with the old traumas, resentment, and anger of the 70s through to the 90s, when they left Egypt. Consequently, they are more conservative compared to the new generations and second- and third-generation Copts, who tend to be more liberal in how they deal with the Copts’ plight. As the second-generation has limited personal recollection or firsthand experience of significant sectarian violence events, it relies primarily on the transgenerational transmission of memories and mediated representations from their parents and the church to understand and interpret those events.

Therefore, the paper addresses two central questions: How has Copts’ self-image negatively impacted their mobilization efforts in the diaspora? To what extent has the second-generation Coptic diaspora been reshaped by these traumas? The study addresses these questions by employing various approaches within the scope of social movement theory, particularly framing theory.

The study argues that, despite the underlying dynamics and obstacles related to opportunity structures and organizational resources, Copts’ mobilization efforts in North America have been negatively impacted by the framing of Coptic identity and traumatic memory.

Copts immigrated from Egypt to North America with memories of sectarian violence, political oppression, unequal treatment under the law, and a lack of political experience. Therefore, two factors frame the Copts’ shared memory and self-image: a long series of persecutions, massacres, martyrdom, and discrimination, and the systematic attacks on Copts by extremists, along with the systemic denials, minimizations, and rationalizations of those attacks by government officials.

When it comes to activism, relying solely on traumatic experiences as a catalyst for mobilization may not lead to sustained engagement. Trauma has the potential to ignite activism, as individuals are more likely to mobilize when they feel victimized. Traumatic memories can serve as a driving force for Copts to mobilize, seek justice, and confront hidden truths. However, while traumatic experiences can initially spark attention and support, they may not provide a solid foundation for long-term activism. This is where framing comes into play.

Furthermore, the majority of second-generation Coptic individuals residing in North America demonstrate a lack of awareness regarding the history of sectarian violence in Egypt, alongside a limited proficiency in the Arabic language. These individuals are distanced, both historically and culturally, from Egypt, which is not their native country in the same profound sense as it is for their parents, who immigrated during the 1960s and 1970s. As the first generation, characterized by vivid recollections and personal experiences of traumas, gradually diminishes in number, the succeeding generation becomes increasingly disconnected from the significant events that unfolded in Egypt. This results in a diminished capacity for the majority of the second generation to fully comprehend the profound suffering endured by their families and, consequently, a diminished ability to mobilize.

To substantiate this argument, the paper will first examine how framing theories can assist in understanding the Copts’ experience in North America. Second, it will discuss the primary challenges associated with identity and the Coptic self-image. Third, it will explore the generational rifts in framing Copts’ traumatic memory and persecution narratives. Lastly, the paper will conclude with recommendations and future implications.

Flying in, flying out: Offloading responsibility and blame during COVID 19 Pandemic

During global emergencies such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, governments and organizations have the moral license to depart from business as usual. At the contemporary airport however, these very anomalies are in fact becoming the norm, often by curtailing the mobility of marginalized populations. While scholars like William Walters, Simone Browne and Peter Adey have written extensively about racism at the airport, air deportation, and the fraught liminal position of the airport, surveillance studies scholars such as Martin French and Torin Monahan bring attention to how the COVID-19 pandemic feeds off the entangled web of social relations and the increase in surveillance paraphernalia. These perspectives, however, do not address the impact of COVID-19 in complicating flight, mobility, and the contemporary airport space. This paper sheds light on the phenomenon of offloading responsibility on the working class, racialized traveler at the port of entry and exit at the pandemic-era airport. In this context, offloading of pandemic blame upon the disenfranchised takes place in two distinct ways. Firstly, the brunt of government incompetence in battling COVID-19 is meted out to the traveller, banking on their blameworthiness; especially if they are working class, racialized or both. Secondly, immigration and related border officials are offloading the responsibility of scrutiny to private airline companies to create another layer of security and surveillance at the airport, be it at the port of exit, transit, or entry. The project, hence, closely examining air travel in the age of the pandemic, points to the inherent inequality of disease and disaster in the world.

Exploring the use of arts among the Rohingya in the world’s largest refugee site in Bangladesh

Despite vast research in the field of arts and refugee studies globally, little is known about the role of arts in the world’s largest refugee settlement in Bangladesh, where nearly a million Rohingya refugees have been living since 2017 since escaping persecution in Myanmar. Anecdotal evidence suggests that art- based projects – such as musicals and paintings – play a role in influencing the Rohingya refugees’ sense of belonging, but academic studies have been rare. Examining the role of arts is important to develop a better understanding of how refugees build relationships and preserve or develop their cultural traditions. Globally, the literature in this field largely deals with the use of arts to overcome trauma and integrate refugees in the West or in older refugee camps in Africa and the Middle East. But refugee settlements are not homogenous in nature, as such it is important to research on newer settlements to better understand different situations. This study will undertake a qualitative approach. Interviews will be held with an array of Rohingya refugees who have encountered art-based activities. Key stakeholders such as NGO and government officials will also be interviewed.

Impacts of Language Barriers on Healthcare Access Among Afghan Refugee Women

Through my research, I will examine how language is a barrier that prevents Afghan refugee women from accessing medical care. A clear exchange of information between healthcare providers and patients is necessary for the provision of safe and optimal healthcare. Language barriers are often a major obstacle to refugees seeking healthcare in host nations. Non-English speaking Afghan refugee women have to rely on interpreters to communicate their health-related concerns to healthcare providers, but in some cases, the interpreters do not have the expertise to translate the medical terms discussed by the doctors. A language barrier impacts the quality of care non-English speaking Afghan refugee women receive as the presence of professional interpreters or family members acting as interpreters may prevent Afghan refugee women from fully communicating their mental and physical symptoms to healthcare providers. I will also discuss the limitations of hiring professional interpreters, as it is widely believed that hiring a professional interpreter or being provided with such services allows patients to communicate with healthcare professionals as an individual who speaks English fluently would, but that is not the case. Afghan refugee women have concerns relating to judgement by interpreters, confidentiality when the interpreter is from the same community, and some Afghan refugee women may feel particularly uncomfortable discussing their symptoms with a male interpreter.

In some cases, Afghan women refugees rely on other family members to attend their appointments with them and fulfill the role of an interpreter, but this can lead to a host of other problems. For example, Afghan women may feel uncomfortable discussing their sexual or reproductive health in front of a family member or may not accurately tell the doctor their symptoms due to fear of being judged by their family members. There are many instances when young children have served as interpreters for their parents, and this creates an additional barrier for Afghan refugee women, as they may not accurately describe their condition to their young child due to the fear of causing them stress or anxiety, which therefore prevents healthcare professionals from gaining a thorough understanding of the condition their patient is suffering from.

The focus of my research is examining the ways in which the presence of an interpreter, either a professional or a family member or friend who has stepped in, shapes the experiences of Afghan refugee women with the healthcare system in the Greater Toronto Area. Professional interpreters are often situated as supports for non-English speaking individuals seeking medical assistance; however, I intend to shed light on how the presence of an interpreter can negatively impact non-English speaking refugee women’s access to healthcare, as it could create a barrier for them to communicate openly and honestly with a healthcare professional. Additionally, I would like to examine how non-English-speaking Afghan refugee women navigate the healthcare system in the Greater Toronto Area. To adequately examine the role of language in shaping Afghan refugee women's experiences with the healthcare system, I would like to compare the healthcare experiences of English and non-English-speaking Afghan refugee women. In my sample, I will include both English and non-English-speaking Afghan refugee women to determine how significant language is in shaping the experiences of Afghan refugee women with the healthcare system.

I hope to generate impactful knowledge through my research that is directly applicable to addressing the challenges Afghan refugee women face when attempting to access quality healthcare. The findings of this research can also benefit other non-English speaking refugees and immigrants in Canada, as it sheds light on the challenges non-English speaking individuals experience when attempting to access healthcare.

Exploring the sociocultural needs of older Canadians of Japanese descent living in Toronto

Japanese Canadians represent a small ethnocultural group in Canada and are at risk for social isolation. Japanese Canadians are a heterogeneous group comprising first-generation Japanese-speaking Japanese immigrants from Japan and second and third-generation Japanese Canadians. A lack of culturally sensitive resources and appropriate social programming is often responsible for decreased participation. Participation in occupations is important to health and well-being, especially in late life. The role of such programming and resources for older Japanese Canadians is uniquely complex compared to other ethnic populations due to the heterogeneity of the ethnocultural group concerning their experiences as they have aged.

Research Objectives. The overarching objective of this study is to identify sociocultural and environmental aspects required to maintain and increase occupational participation for older adults of Japanese descent living in Canada. To achieve this overarching objective, this study focuses on the following sub-objectives:

1) to explore occupations and activities in which older adults of Japanese heritage participate
2) to explore the benefits and limitations of current formal social supports that facilitate occupational participation for older adults of Japanese heritage.

Study Population. This research will be conducted as part of an academic community partnership between Queen’s University and Momiji Healthcare Society. Momiji offers independent living to primarily older Japanese Canadians of first, second and third generations. Therefore, participants will include Momiji tenants of Japanese heritage who are at least 60 years old.

Study Design. This research will be completed using a transformative explanatory sequential (quantitative-qualitative) mixed-method approach. The first phase will involve interviewing the tenants at Momiji to understand which activities and occupations are being maintained and which ones they may have had to give up due to a lack of cultural tailoring or other reasons. To do so, the Activity Card Sort (ACS) community living version will be used. The ACS uses 89 photographs of elderly people in activities to capture the level of participation (score range: 0 to 100) measured by the percentage of activities that are currently preserved, compared to those they had to give up more recently in the last 3-5 years of their life. The preliminary results from this phase will help narrow the focus for the second phase involving a photovoice project. The photovoice project will involve participants taking photos of activities and services at Momiji that are meaningful to them. They will also participate in interviews and focus groups, participatory analysis, and photo exhibition planning.

Data Analysis. Descriptive statistics will be used to analyze the quantitative data. Thematic analysis will be employed to analyze the qualitative data. Data will be integrated using joint displays.

Significance. This research will inform Momiji to make changes in their programming to increase occupational participation among their tenants. Furthermore, the results from this study could provide important implications for strengthening and developing culturally-sensitive community programs in the broader community for older Japanese Canadians.

Analyzing Sheikh Hasina's Decision to Open Borders for Rohingya Migrants: A Comprehensive Study through Bangladesh's The Daily Star Newspaper

The Rohingya crisis has become one of the most pressing humanitarian issues in recent times, with hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims seeking refuge in neighboring countries. Bangladesh, under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, made the decision to open its borders to accommodate Rohingya migrants fleeing persecution in Myanmar. This research aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of Sheikh Hasina's decision to open Bangladesh's borders for Rohingya migrants through an examination of coverage in The Daily Star newspaper. The study seeks to explore the context and background of this policy decision, analyze media representation, assess its impact on Bangladesh's internal and external dynamics, and examine public and international reactions as reflected in The Daily Star's reporting. By employing a textual analysis approach, this study focuses on the content analysis of Daily Star newspaper articles. This methodology entails a dedicated analysis of the textual material, placing particular emphasis on comprehending the subtleties and recurring patterns present in the newspaper articles that serve as the principal source of information. The study's significance resides in its contribution to the comprehension of the ways in which media influences policy decisions and impacts public opinion, specifically within the framework of a humanitarian crisis. It is anticipated that the results will provide valuable perspectives on the media's portrayal of Sheikh Hasina's choice, the wider consequences for both domestic and international affairs, and the influence of the media in shaping public opinion regarding political movements.