Shortly before she died last Thursday, Finnish historian and Professor Emerita Varpu Lindström was presented with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal as a tribute for her lifetime of scholarship and her pioneering work documenting the history of Finnish Canadians. She was nominated by York linguistics Professor Sheila Embleton and given the award by Halifax […]
They say two heads are better than one. Jonathan Edmondson, chair of York's Department of History, now has an extra one – a Roman bust. He received it from the National Museum of Roman Art in Spain as the 18th winner of the international prize, Protective Spirit of the Colony of Augusta Emerita (Genio Protector de la […]
Last week, York law Professor Obiora Okafor was elected to the advisory committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Nigerian-born professor brings his expertise in international law, human rights law, and immigration and refugee law, especially as it relates to Africa, to the advisory committee. “The committee is the think tank of the […]
The day the Toronto Star broke the story on a wide variation of acceptance rates by refugee board members, a Federal Court judge issued a decision chastising an adjudicator who had not granted asylum to anyone in three years, wrote The Star March 9: In an order issued Friday on an appeal by failed refugee […]
Asylum rejection rates have no bearing in the quality and consistency of decisions made by adjudicators, says Canada’s refugee board, reported the Toronto Star March 4: In fact, the board insists that each decision must be examined on a case-by-case basis. “Statistics on the acceptance and rejection rates of individual IRB members who determine refugee […]
If you were a refugee seeking protection in Canada, you wouldn’t want to cross the path of David McBean, wrote the Toronto Star March 4, in a story about a new York study that shows evidence of bias among different adjudicators on the Immigration & Refugee Board (IRB) of Canada: According to an analysis of […]
Declarations by European leaders that multiculturalism is a failure are not applicable to York Region, academics and immigration advocates said, wrote the Aurora Banner, Feb. 18: The dialogue sparked by the leaders mystifies York University City Institute director Roger Keil, himself a newcomer from his native Germany in the 1990s. “I’m puzzled (that) the national […]
Imagine the stress of uprooting your family to make a new life in a new country in a new language. For women, adapting can be a very different experience than that of their children. Depending on their resilience and their situation, some adapt better than others. Nazilla Khanlou knows. An immigrant herself, she's been studying […]
It's not enough to plant trees in exchange for carbon emissions in the fight to mitigate climate change, say York environmental studies Professor Anders Sandberg and York environmental studies master’s student Tor Sandberg in their new co-edited book Climate Change – Who’s Carrying the Burden?: The Chilly Climates of the Global Environmental Dilemma. Nor is […]
There’s a tendency to think that the problems faced by people with precarious status – temporary workers, refugee claimants, failed claimants and people without status – are not Canadian issues, but York sociology Professor Luin Goldring disagrees. To shed light on the emerging body of research in this area, the Research Alliance on Precarious Status, which […]
Researchers, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at York University have been awarded over $10 million from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The grants, part of $190.5 million in funding and awards invested across the country, will support over 220 innovative York research projects to improve Canadians’ quality of life while […]
Following the wars of the 20th century, how does cultural memory strengthen or undermine social and political cohesion in a time of global migrations? That question will be discussed at the upcoming round table, Memory Studies and the Identity Problem: A Cross Reading of European and Canadian Cultural Traditions. The round table will take place […]
Canada's first boat people were the Norse who came ashore a thousand years ago in Newfoundland. They fit the refugee pattern: farmers and simple artisans, maybe a few fierce Vikings among them known for terrorizing Europe, people driven out of their homeland by population pressures and political unrest, wrote The Globe and Mail Aug. 14: […]
After medical and security checks, anyone arriving in Canada may apply for refugee status, wrote the National Post Aug. 13, in a story that used statistics provided by Michele Millard, coordinator of the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University: The process takes anywhere from six months to 15 years. A new law passed this […]
Differences in the way Torontonians speak English may have more to do with how people express their ethnic identity than with any problems they are having learning to speak Canadian English perfectly, a study from York University suggests. Michol Hoffman and James Walker, professors of sociolinguistics in the Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics in York's […]
A report released yesterday by York University researchers offers Canadians the opportunity to learn how their living conditions will determine whether they stay healthy or become ill. Social Determinants of Health: The Canadian Facts shows why these factors are so important for health and documents the state of living conditions in Canada in an accessible […]
The rags-to-riches immigrant stories Canada has been bred on don’t work anymore, say the two professors who led the project that will be released today, wrote the Toronto Star June 18. Luin Goldring, sociology professor in York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, and Patricia Landolt of the Centre for Urban and Community […]
The phenomenon of American-born children who spend their infancy in China has been known for years to social workers, who say it is widespread and worrying, reported The New York Times July 24: About 8,000 Chinese-born women gave birth in New York last year, so the number of children at risk is substantial, according to […]