Guest Blog: Forced Migration in/to Canada

Covering a broad swathe of time, from colonization to the present day, Forced Migration in/to Canada by Christina Clark-Kazak examines human displacement in a variety of contexts: Indigenous dislocation and settler colonialism, Black enslavement, human trafficking, statelessness, climate migration, and newcomer settlement. Forced Migration in/to Canada is available Open Access to all readers.

Christina Clark-Kazak’s title is part of the McGill Queen’s Refugee and Forced Migration Studies Series. The series explores responses to refugees, internal displacement, and other forms of forced migration to illuminate the dynamics surrounding forced migration in global, national, and local contexts, including Canada, the perspectives of displaced individuals and communities, and the connections to broader patterns of human mobility.

In the guest blog below, Clark-Kazak introduces her new book, and voices hope for an improved understanding of the context of displacement and increased empathy for those forced into such trialing circumstances. The blog is shared on April 4th, in observance of Refugee Rights Day in Canada.

Forced Migration in/to Canada: From Colonization to Refugee Resettlement

Many people who live in what is now known as Canada have direct or indirect experience of forced migration. In the creation of the settler state, Indigenous people were displaced from their lands, languages, cultures, communities, and families. This dispossession continues today in the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in human trafficking, incarceration, and child welfare.

Some Black Canadians are descended from enslaved people who were brought to New France and British North America during the Atlantic Slave Trade. Others escaped enslavement in the United States through the Underground Railroad.

Over the past centuries, people have fled to Canada to seek safety and protection from human rights violations, violence, and armed conflict. Since the late 1970s, ordinary people across the country have volunteered to welcome strangers through the Private Sponsorship of Refugee program – until recently unique in the world.

Climate change has increased the number of people displaced due to wildfires, flooding, and environmental disasters. Indigenous communities in particular are at heightened risk of recurring environmental displacement.

Every day, people read the news of forced migration around the world. While a small percentage of refugees and refugee claimants reach Canada, the media attention is disproportionate – whether it be stories of boat arrivals off the coasts, people crossing irregularly at the US-Canada border, or asylum seekers sleeping in the streets across the country. Politicians in Canada and globally are eager to scapegoat immigrants for structural problems like access to housing and healthcare.

In this context of personal connection and (mis)information, Forced Migration in/to Canada is intended to provide a comprehensive reference point on 28 substantive topics related to forcible displacement. While covering a lot of ground, the 38 authors collectively envisaged three key objectives in contributing to this book.

First, the book links historical contexts of displacement to contemporary contexts. We maintain that we cannot understand current forced migration movements and Canadian policies without situating these within the ongoing legacies of colonization and Indigenous displacement. Contributors also intentionally centre Indigenous ways of knowing and being in all chapters, including Indigenous understandings of gender, disability, aging, and home, for example.

Second, we sought to intentionally foreground lived experiences of displacement, including Indigenous displacement, in each chapter. In the face of staggering statistics and dehumanizing labels and discourses, we wanted readers to remember that migration is a human phenomenon. Behind the numbers and categories are human beings with human rights, including the right to asylum. Centring lived experiences also meant that we explicitly acknowledge the intersectionality of forced migration with gender, race, religion, disability, social age, class, and other positionalities. By emphasizing a diversity of experiences, we problematize homogenizing stereotypes of forced displacement.

Third, we aimed to make the volume accessible to a wide range of readers. Forced Migration in/to Canada provides a reference point for researchers and students, but also for journalists, policymakers, practitioners, and the general public. While the chapters were written to speak to each other, each can be read as a stand-alone contribution. In a field too often complicated by technocratic terminology we strove to use accessible language, including a glossary of key terms and a list of acronyms.

Recognizing that Canada has two official languages, we developed a French language version, co-edited with Adèle Garnier, Sarah Dubuc, and translated by Lyse Hébert. Forthcoming in Fall 2025, this French version recognizes the distinct experiences of francophone migration, as well as the unique integration experiences in Québec and francophone minority contexts in other provinces.

Our commitment to accessibility also underlies our decision to make both English and French manuscripts open access. Thanks to funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the University of Ottawa, Forced Migration in/to Canada is free to download as an ebook. Making our research open access increases opportunities for public engagement and public education in contexts of anti-immigration misinformation in Canada, in the US, and globally.

In present circumstances, where people fear for their jobs and their livelihoods, newcomers are an easy scapegoat. We hope that Forced Migration in/to Canada provides an important resource for readers to better understand the historical and contemporary context of displacement, and to better empathize with the humanity of those who are forced to leave their homes.

Christina R. Clark-Kazak is professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa, co-editor of Documenting Displacement: Questioning Methodological Boundaries in Forced Migration Research, and author of Recounting Migration: Political Narratives of Congolese Young People in Uganda.