REFUGEES FROM SYRIA CAUGHT BETWEEN WAR AND BORDERS: A JOURNEY TOWARDS PROTECTION

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 result of a failing protection regime and bordering practices against refugees from the global south. These practices are based to a large degree on government policies designed to contain refugees in their regions and deter them from reaching the states of the global north where they believe they can have better access to rights. The dissertation proposes that such practices do not deter desperate refugees from arriving in the global north, but rather increase the “human cost” (Spijkerboer, 2007) of their journeys by reducing the legal and safe pathways and forcing refugees into illegality and precarity. The dissertation examines the journeys of refugees from Syria towards Sweden. These refugees escaped the war in their homeland, only to find themselves trapped between a failing protection regime and a global system of border controls. Those who decide to journey towards other destinations are transformed from being refugees, who deserve protection, into “irregular migrants”, who are criminalized for challenging the regime of borders. Due to such precarity and illegality, refugees arrive at their intended destinations with a heavy load of pain, fear, and confusion, which influences their sense of identity and belonging and affects their ability to integrate into their new localities. Informed by the knowledge of refugees and through their stories, the dissertation develops a conceptual framework of the refugee journey. It addresses the journey as an act of survival and resistance that is messy and complex and involves high degrees of agency but also precarity, which entails a transformative impact on a refugee’s role, positionality, and identity. The dissertation centralizes refugees as the prime source of knowledge and presents them as real individuals with various backgrounds and aspirations. It focuses on people’s own experiences and stories which are often left out of policymaking, and absent from high-level discussions between government leaders, policymakers, and international organizations including the United Nations

WP3 Country reports - Canada

This report looks at multilevel governance dynamics and at the integration policies targeting migrants developed by six small and medium-sized towns and rural areas in Canada between 2016 and 2021. Primarily based on interviews conducted in each of the selected municipalities, it provides an overview of 1) national, regional, and local integration policies targeting migrants in Canada; 2) policymaking relations among the key actors involved in these policy processes in the six localities and key features of policy networks within which these actors interact; 3) how these actors perceive and define integration. The report finds that the political orientation of the federal and provincial governments in Canada greatly influenced the dynamics of multilevel governance of immigrant integration in the selected Canadian localities, whereas municipalities, which could voluntarily elect to play a role in integration, were not obligated to do so as part of their formal political mandate. In Ontario and B.C., selected municipalities had conducted multiple initiatives intended to assist newcomers. These initiatives were unintegrated into municipal integration strategies and were done in an ad hoc manner in response to specific appeals from the local communities. In Quebec, selected municipalities towns had existing integration policies and infrastructure, including municipally or regionally-sponsored integration dialogues that were intended to coordinate social service delivery for newcomers. Immigration was characterized by all interviewees as the primary solution to labour shortages and population decline in the selected localities. Yet, factors like housing availability, affordability, housing size, and transportation were key issues of concern for immigrant integration. Familiarity between actors and active community mobilization facilitated immigrant integration despite the lack of ethnic diversity and the limited resources of integration particularly in smaller localities.This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101004714

WP4 Country Reports - Canada

This report looks at migrants’ access to housing, employment, and other relevant resources in six different small and medium-sized towns and rural areas in Canada between 2016 and 2021. Primarily based on interviews conducted in each of the six selected municipalities, secondary data analysis and a policy literature review, it provides an overview of the concrete barriers that migrants face in relation to housing and employment; the local actors who are involved in, and/or seen as responsible for, facilitating their access; any concrete local measures or practices that help or hinder this access; and the specific target groups of these measures, initiatives or practices. The report finds that the concrete barriers facing migrant access to housing are affordability, availability, and size. These factors were particularly acute in Ontario and B.C. where a housing crisis has driven up the average cost of a home and decreased availability. During the study period, Canada possessed low unemployment rates, however, one of the concrete barriers regarding economic integration was foreign credential recognition and language acquisition (English or French). The local actors who were involved included immigrant settlement service organizations, provincial employment ministries, faith organizations or groups of individuals (involved in private sponsorship), provincial/regional chambers of commerce and community service organizations. The measures and practices included employment matching and preparation services, language training programs, job banks, mentoring programs, paid internships, targeted migrant hiring initiatives by municipal and community-service organizations, skills upgrading programs and municipal integration policies. The specific target groups of these measures included immigrants (both economic and resettled refugees) as well as residents.This proejct has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101004714