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Publications
Maas, W. Multilevel citizenship, free movement, and the contrasting political projects of the United States and the European Union. Comp Eur Polit 24, 45 (2026). What do the different free movement and citizenship regimes of the U.S. and the EU reveal about their political projects and the nature of their polities? Proponents of European integration see free movement as an explicit goal on a continent fragmented by separate cultures and identities, robust and diverse national institutions, modest economic integration relative to the U.S., and relatively low-mobility national cultures that make reducing barriers and encouraging free movement central to the European project. By contrast, the relationship of internal free movement to the political project of U.S. federalism is far less direct, and mobility is encouraged by a shared language, culture, and national identity, relatively homogeneous state institutions, high and longstanding economic integration, and a historical culture of mobility. Though the EU often tries to imitate aspects of the U.S.–especially hoping to emulate American geographic mobility and the economic dynamism it signifies–these are very different political projects, and their steps to foster free movement and shared citizenship occur under very different conditions.
Blessed-Sayah, S. (2026). Beyond compliance: Reframing research ethics with children in vulnerable positions through recognition and moral duty. Childhood, 33(3), 511-528. Procedural ethics often proves insufficient for research involving children in vulnerable positions, risking superficial engagement and extractivist practices, and neglecting participant dignity. The article moves beyond compliance, presenting a framework that integrates Kantian deontology and Honneth’s recognition theory to ground ethical practice in moral duty and mutual recognition.
Henke, K. (2026, August 10). Suzuki as holistic music pedagogy: Therapeutic and social justice applications in Middle Eastern refugee camps [Presentation]. Southern Ontario Suzuki Institute, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Krystyna Henke, former SOSI parent, journalist/Scholar, and PhD has presented an in-person as well as online presentation for SOSI.
Rehaag, Sean, Gender, Sexual Orientation, and the One-Year Refugee Bar: A Computational Study of Bill C-12 and Canadian Refugee Adjudication (October 21, 2026). In March 2026, Bill C-12 amended the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to make refugee claims ineligible for referral to the Refugee Protection Division where they are made more than one year after the claimant's first entry to Canada. Affected claimants are diverted to a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA), which is typically decided by an immigration officer on a paper record, with no guaranteed oral hearing, no appeal on the merits, and no automatic stay of removal pending judicial review. The government defended the bar partly on the premise that genuine refugees claim promptly. Critics countered that late claims are concentrated among vulnerable groups, particularly people fleeing persecution based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression (SOGIE). This article tests those competing premises.
Events
IASFM21: Extractions: Political Economy of Forced Migration. The upcoming biennial conference is scheduled to take place in Yerevan, Armenia, from August 23-27, 2027. The Call for Proposals is now available.
Research Commons Fall 2026 Workshop Program. York University.
Upcoming events:
- November 5: Navigating Open Access and YorkSpace
- November 11: Research Data Management Across the Research Lifecycle, Part 1: Research Ethics and Integrity
- November 17: Research Data Management Across the Research Lifecycle, Part 2: Research Security and Cybersecurity
- November 25: Research Data Management Across the Research Lifecycle, Part 3: Depositing and Sharing Research Data
CRS Seminar Series
November 5, 2026: 1-2:30pm: Book Launch: Unwelcome Shores: Black Refugees in America, Bernadette Ludwig (co-sponsored with Harriet Tubman Institute)
November 13, 2026 – 1-2:30pm: Protection/vulnerability of Ukrainian refugees in the context of displacement, Kiril Sharapov
November 17, 2026, 2:30-4pm: Border Drones: Necro-Racial Effects, AI and Futures, Ozgun Topak (co-sponsored with SLST)
November 24, 2026, 1-2:30pm: Book launch: Poor Dad, Rich Daughter Gender Regimes, Citizenship, and Women’s Entrepreneurship in Post-ISIS Kurdistan, Kaziwa Salih
Adelman Lecture 2026
On October 19th, 2026, the Centre for Refugee Studies had the honour of hosting Audrey Macklin, Professor of Law and Chair in Human Rights University of Toronto, to give this year's Howard Adelman Lecture.
Kushan Azadeh, Audrey Macklin, Deepa Nagari
The Annual CRS Howard Adelman Lectures are one of the major highlights of the Centre's academic year. This lecture series is intended not only to honour founding Director, Howard Adelman, one of the pioneers of the field of refugee and forced migration studies and one of its foremost authorities, but to provide an opportunity for outstanding and accomplished scholars/practitioners/advocates in the field to address a significant issue and concern that impacts directly on refugees and other forced migrants, affecting their human rights and human dignity.
Professor Macklin, who is a Fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, the Canadian Institute For Advanced Research (CIFAR), and recipient of the Carolyn Tuohy Award for Public Policy, spoke on the topic of Immigration Exceptionalism and the Dual State. Professor Macklin identified continuity between immigration exceptionalism, particularly but not exclusively as seen in the second Trump regime, and the theory of the Dual State, as developed by German Jewish lawyer Ernst Fraenkel. The Dual State identifies two distinct legal orders, the normative state, which is applied to "friends" of the state, and a second, prerogative state, in which ‘enemies’ of the state's legal rights are diminished or negated in the name of sovereignty. Through immigration exceptionalism, noncitizens find themselves governed by the prerogative state, with a justification of violence, cruelty and arbitrariness grounded in their construction as "enemies."
An audience of over 60 people attended Professor Macklin's talk. Discussants included Dr. Kushan Azadeh, a political scientist and migration scholar who is York graduate and is currently a researcher with the Global Migration Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University, and Ms. Deepa Nagari, a senior PhD candidate in York's Socio-Legal Studies program working on how asylum laws and policies (such as the US-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement) shape asylum pathways into Canada.
This year's lecture was made possible through the generosity of the Adelman Family; we are grateful for their support of this important and thought-provoking event.
Resources
Call for Papers: IASFM21: Extractions: Political Economy of Forced Migration. IASFM, ASUE and ENU. The International Association for the Study of Forced Migration will hold its 21st conference (IASFM21) in Yerevan, Armenia, on 25–27 August 2027, on the theme “Extractions: Political Economy of Forced Migration”, hosted by the Armenian State University of Economics in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University.
CRS Seminar Recordings: Please find recent recordings of our CRS Seminars on our Youtube channel.
Haiku Your Research!
As an experiment in radical reduction, re-imagine your research as a haiku. What is a haiku? Generally a 3 line poem with a 5-7-5 syllable structure (although not a hard and fast rule these days). Reward? Bragging rights! This isn't a contest. But CRS Connect would love to feature your haiku. Let's have some fun! Submit yours here. (Note that this link may be temporarily unavailable due to the recent PHP issues. We hope to have everything up and running soon!)