Gender equality has been a policy goal of EU and other government institutions for over 30 years. Yet the gains in gender equality and women’s rights have been tenuous at best, with the COVID-19 pandemic only making things worse – particularly for migrant women. In fact, socio-economic outcomes for migrant women in the EU have lagged significantly …

Canada is lauded for its multiculturalism and being a welcoming host society to migrant newcomers. But discourses around settlement and integration tend to ignore the realities of Canada’s status as a settler colonial state. What would it mean to take seriously the fact that these are Indigenous lands – in some cases, unceded lands – to which Canad…

Argentina is known for its history of European immigration in the 20th century. It’s also been critiqued for the accompanying violence it wrought against Indigenous and other non-white people as it tried to establish itself as a white nation. But a UBC historian has found that in the 1910’s, Argentina used additional mechanisms to keep Asian migran…

Arrest without charge, indefinite detention, traumatizing conditions: Canada has long used immigration practices akin to its more infamous neighbor to the south. But when COVID-19 drew attention to the extra vulnerability faced by incarcerated people, something began to change. UBC legal scholars Efrat Arbel and Molly Joeck found that more migrants…

What key trends can we expect to see in Canadian migration policy during the post-Covid recovery phase, and how do these compare with developments in other major migration destination countries? Moderated by Daniel Hiebert (Professor of Geography, University of British Columbia), with Catrina Tapley, Deputy Minister, Immigration, Refugees and Citiz…

She’s lost three jobs in a row and might have to leave Canada if it happens again. But after a few weeks out sick, a nanny in Kelowna gets an angry call from her employer threatening to fire her for being unreliable and worried about COVID. What she does next isn’t in the script for temporary foreign workers. This episode was created as part of a r…

After being exploited out of his job, a highly trained caregiver in Surrey seeks employment as an essential worker in the COVID economy. Yet he faces fake jobs, demands for bribes, and months of unemployment while waiting for the government to process his new work permit, and now he’s running out of options to support his wife and two teenagers. Th…

A woman in Surrey is trapped between two forces: the controlling roommate that wouldn’t let her leave their apartment for months because of COVID, and the government that will keep her unemployed if she moves out. How much can she do to make life bearable until either force lets up? This episode was created as part of a research project on Temporar…

Mohammed Alsaleh, host of Season 2, returns to welcome Gabriele Dumpys Woolever, our new host for Season 3. Listen to find out what’s in store for this season of the podcast.By UBC Migration

In the eighth and final episode of the Global Migration podcast “Geographies from the Heart: Life-writing from Newcomers to Canada,” host Mohammed Alsaleh speaks to the co-founder of the Syrian Civil Defense (also known as the White Helmets), Nedal Izdden. Nedal was a young dentist and basketball coach in the city of Homs when the Syrian revolution…

In the seventh episode of the Global Migration podcast “Geographies from the Heart: Life-writing from Newcomers to Canada,” host Mohammed Alsaleh speaks to Nuria Sefchovich from Mexico. Nuria shares her experience as a mature international student and of learning to navigate a system that determines her identity based on the social construction of …

In the sixth episode of the Global Migration podcast “Geographies from the Heart: Life-writing from Newcomers to Canada,” host Mohammed Alsaleh speaks to Camille McMillan-Rambharat, from Trinidad and Tobago, who combines her unique Afro-Caribbean heritage with the stories learnt from her grandmother and father and her marriage to an Indo-Caribbean …

In the fifth episode of the Global Migration podcast “Geographies from the Heart: Life-writing from Newcomers to Canada,” host Mohammed Alsaleh speaks to Malena Mokhovikova who shares her family’s journey leaving Russia as asylum seekers. In 2012, Malena, with her mother and younger sister, stepped off a cruise ship temporarily docked in Quebec Cit…

In the fourth episode of the Global Migration podcast “Geographies from the Heart: Life-writing from Newcomers to Canada,” host Mohammed Alsaleh speaks to journalists Diary Xalid Marif, from Iraqi Kurdistan, and Akberet Beyene, an exiled Eritrean journalist, who speak of the escape from their homes and the struggle to be heard.…

In the third episode of the Global Migration podcast “Geographies from the Heart: Life-writing from Newcomers to Canada,” host Mohammed Alsaleh speaks to Muhialdin Nyera Bakini and Albino Nyuol who share their stories of exile from South Sudan. Albino will share his journey as a child soldier to a settlement worker here in Canada. Muhialdin will sp…

In the second episode of the Global Migration podcast “Geographies from the Heart: Life-writing from Newcomers to Canada,” host Mohammed Alsaleh speaks to acclaimed Kurdish-Canadian and recently published (2020) novelist, Ava Homa and Kurdish journalist, Shanga Karim who join us to share their experiences as newcomer women writers. Shanga came to C…

In the first episode of the second season of the Global Migration podcast "Geographies from the Heart: Life-writing from Newcomers to Canada," host Mohammed Alsaleh speaks to Dr. Amea Wilbur (University of the Fraser Valley), Raymonde Tickner, and Zahida Rahemtulla. They discuss the power of migration stories and the impact of multiple narratives t…

Amea Wilbur (UFV) and Suzanne Smythe (SFU) speak with Laura Mannix, (DIVERSEcity). They discuss everything from digital inequities, gender-based violence, and racialized work to how the pandemic has also brought forth many unexpected positives in community outreach.By UBC Migration

In this episode, Dr. Dan Hiebert, Professor of Geography at UBC explores the refugee and settlement experience with Saleem Spindari, Senior Manager of Refugees and Migrant Workers Programs at MOSAIC, one of the largest settlement organizations in Canada, and with Dr. Nancy Clark, Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Vic…

In this episode, Dr. Antje Ellermann, Associate Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of UBC Migration speaks with two legal scholars, Dr. Efrat Arbel, Associate Professor in the Allard School of Law, and Dr. Ben Goold, Professor in the Allard School of Law. They discuss how the public health crisis is changing immigration procedures at th…

This episode explores how COVID-19’s impact on global supply chains and precarious labour pools poses an acute risk for Canada and other countries around the globe. During the episode, Dan Hiebert, UBC Professor Geography, speaks with Aryan Karimi, Banting Postdoctoral Fellow in UBC Sociology, Bethany Hastie, Assistant Professor in the Allard Schoo…

In this episode, two experts, Dr. Randall Martin, Executive Director of the British Columbia Council for International Education (BCCIE) and Sandra Schinnerl, PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and a UBC Migration Researcher, discuss how the closing of international borders, the rapidly evolving i…