Save the Date Ottawa! May 26 Conference: Building A Sanctuary City from Below

April 30, 2018Leave a comment

An exciting event coming up in Ottawa

*Please share widely*

From the Ground Up: Building a Sanctuary City Together

Every day we witness the fallout of the global crisis of displacement. And we see how governments too often fail to act – or act to make matters worse. Federal immigration laws continue to limit access to status and force people to make life-threatening decisions to seek safety. Ottawa City Council refused to pass a sanctuary city policy, and cities that have policies on paper continue to fail people with precarious immigration status. It’s clear that the work of building inclusive and safe communities for all must begin with us.

We believe that we have the knowledge and the power to do this. In Ottawa and across Canada, organizers, community members and front line service providers have been building safer communities through creative strategies developed from the ground up. Let’s bring our collective skills and experience together to build a sanctuary city from below.

Join us for a day of discussion, learning, and strategizing about:

– Critical Casework: Protecting privacy and access to services
– Border Crossings: Supporting failed asylum seekers
– Unconditional Access: Examples from other cities
– Policing and Immigration: Limiting police discretion

Special guests include:
– Ingrid Mendez, Sanctuary Health, Vancouver
– Serge Bouchereau, Comité d’action des personnes sans statut (CAPSS), Montréal
– Overdose Prevention Ottawa

*Free and open + Snacks

*Onsite childcare

320 Jack Purcell Ln, Corner of Elgin St. 9am – 3pm
* The venue is fully wheelchair accessible.

https://www.facebook.com/events/218608018900630/

Views from the ASA conference in Montreal

August 16, 2017April 30, 2018Leave a comment

It was a delight to have the annual American Sociological Association conference in Montreal this year: one of my favourite cities.

Highlights of the ASA conference included a thought-provoking and engaging session on Intersectionality organized by a scholar whose work I greatly admire, Evelyn Nakano Glenn.

I did live-tweet the session with great enthusiasm:

Tweets from ASA

Addressing Risk & Uncertainty in Migration ~ Workshop Agenda

May 8, 2017May 10, 2017Leave a comment

Our workshop agenda has just been announced, and we’re very excited about the presentations. We have a limited number of spots available for faculty, students and/or community members who want to participate in the discussion. Contact me for details on how to register.

Salina

AGENDA
Addressing Risk and Uncertainty in Migration: Theory, Processes, and Policy Responses
Thursday, May 18, 2017 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place, Room 208N, University of Toronto

10:00 a.m. Registration & Refreshments
10:05 a.m. Opening Remarks
Can Aybek and Salina Abji

10:15 a.m. Panel 1
Governing Risk or Risky Governance? Historical, Comparative and Policy Perspectives
~ Harold Bauder & Dayana Gonzalez, Ryerson University: “Responses to ‘illegality’: Urban Sanctuary in International Comparison”
~ Geraldina Polanco, University of Waterloo: “‘Illegality’ and the ‘Benefits’ of Managed Migration Programs”
~ Jiyoung Lee-An, Carleton University: “’Fake’ or ‘Real’ Marriage? Governing Practices of Spousal Immigration in Canada”
~ Maximilian Smith, York University: “Making Room for Social Psychiatry and Sociology in Historical Studies of Migration and Mental Health”
Discussant: Can Aybek, University of Toronto

12:30 p.m. Catered Lunch with Keynote Presentation
Featuring: Dr. Anna Korteweg
The Risks of “Immigrant Integration”: The Racialized Gendered Production of Non-Belonging

Anna Korteweg is Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Professor Korteweg’s research focuses on the ways in which the problem of immigrant integration is constructed in the intersections of gender, religion, ethnicity and national origin. From this critical vantage point, she has analyzed debates surrounding the wearing of the headscarf, so-called “honour-based” violence, and Sharia law. Current research projects focus on racialization and LGBTQ/gender rights construction in refugee politics, on the criminalization of migrant status, and on the citizenship implications of refugee sponsorship.

1:45 p.m. Panel 2:
Negotiating Uncertainty: Lived Experiences of Vulnerability and Risk
~ Jolin Joseph, York University: “Right to Flight: Gendered Im/mobility in the Recruitment and Regulation of Indian Women Migrants”
~ Kathryn Dennler, York University: “‘I try to live my life’: Affective geographies of migrants with liminal immigration status”
~ Sohoon Lee, University of Sydney: “Using markets and kinship to cross spatio-temporal borders: a Case of Korean-Chinese migrants in South Korea”
~ Marie Coligado, Carleton University: “‘What you do is you do your best’: Challenges to Legal Representation of Immigration Detainees”
Discussant: Salina Abji, Carleton University

3:45 p.m. Facilitated Discussion: Journal Special Issue

4:30 p.m. Dinner for Presenters ~ By invitation only

A limited number of spaces are available ~ please contact Salina Abji and Can Aybek for more details.
salina.abji AT mail.utoronto.ca and c.aybek ATutoronto.ca

Gender, Islamophobia & Resistance ~ panel at University of Toronto

May 1, 2017May 27, 2017Leave a comment

I’m part of a panel co-hosted by the Migrant Mothers Project and CERIS, the Centre for Research on Immigration and Settlement.

Come through!

Details:

In this seminar, panelists will examine political and social contexts that have given rise to new forms of discrimination and barriers for Muslim Immigrant women’s participation and inclusion in Canadian cities. Panellists will also examine different
expressions of Islamophobia in Canada: in laws, in policies, in public discourses, and in service provision to Muslim immigrant women and their families. Our discussion will also highlight resistance strategies and counter discourses to Islamophobia, including culturally informed social work practices that resist the social monitoring of Muslim women.

PRESENTERS:

LEÏLA BENHADJOUDJA, Assistant Professor, School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies, University of Ottawa.

SALINA ABJI, Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University

SONIA BEN SOULTANE, PhD Candidate/FRSC doctoral award recipient, McGill School of Social Work; Pre-Doctoral Fellow, Migrant Mothers Project at University of Toronto, Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

DATE & TIME: May 26, 2017 – 2 to 4 pm (EST)

LOCATION:
Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto
246 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON
Room 548
(Near the St. George TTC Station)
Event Page: Click Here

Sociologists for Women in Society ~ Winter Meeting in Albuquerque

February 14, 2017April 21, 2017Leave a comment

The theme of this year’s SWS meeting was Intersectionality and Privilege. The highlights for me were presentations by Brenda J Allen on how to Praxis what we Preach, and the Sisters of Color session on Collective Healing.

SWS meetings are also a great opportunity to network with more senior scholars and to build relationships with feminist scholars across North America and (to a lesser extent) internationally.

Learn more about SWS here

It was also my first time visiting New Mexico. I’m pictured here with my lovely conference buddy, Paulina, along with snapshots of some of the many murals you can find downtown. I also enjoyed riding the local buses and chatting with folks I met along the way.

Conferencing with Paulina ~ Favourite Street Murals

Our day trip to the Sandia Mountains was also a highlight and offered some much-needed respite for my nature-loving spirit 🙂

Sandia Mountains ~ Divine