Idil Atak

• Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University

This article examines the underlying structural elements contributing to the vulnerability experienced by asylum seekers and undocumented migrants across two critical domains: refugee eligibility examination and accessibility of essential social services, particularly healthcare. By drawing insights from fieldwork conducted in Toronto between 2020...

Canada has been a strong supporter of the 2018 United Nations Global Compacts (GCs) on Migration and Refugees. This article examines Canada’s reception and implementation of the GCs in the policy domains of refugee resettlement, complementary protection pathways, gender equality, and migration governance capacity building. It draws on the analytica...

In February 2017, the city of Montreal adopted a policy entitled Access to Municipal Services Without Fear with a view to allowing non-status migrants to access some municipal programs and services without fear of being arrested and removed from Canada. This article offers a critical analysis of the city of Montreal’s policy. We discuss the main ba...

In Canada, urban centres have been especially hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and this public health crisis has generated particular risks for non-status and precarious migrants. Using official data and published research, this chapter explores how city sanctuary policies in Canada have addressed these pandemic risks and, more broadly, the future for...

The governance of security and migration is unfolding in new political spaces. Cooperation and competition among immigration officials, border guards, transnational security corporations, IT companies, local police, and international organizations has decoupled migration governance from national political structures. The chapters in the volume exam...

Although Canada enjoys a good international reputation for its refugee resettlement programmes, it has also externalised refugee protection under the pretext of preserving the integrity of its asylum system and responsibility sharing.

In February 2017, Montréal committed to allowing non-status migrants to access some municipal programs and services without fear of being arrested, detained, and removed from Canada. This chapter provides a critical analysis of the emergence and the operation of Montréal’s sanctuary city policy, formally known as “Responsible and Committed City.” A...

Cet article porte sur l’expansion du mandat de l’Agence européenne de garde-frontières et de garde-côtes (Frontex) depuis sa création en 2005. Il analyse l’impact des pouvoirs grandissants de l’Agence sur les droits humains des migrants. Comme le montre le Nouveau Pacte sur la Migration et l’Asile de 2020 , l’Agence bénéficie d’un soutien politique...

Cet article porte sur l'expansion du mandat de l'Agence européenne de garde-frontières et de garde-côtes (Frontex) depuis sa création en 2005. Il analyse l'impact des pouvoirs grandissants de l'Agence sur les droits humains des migrants. Comme le montre le Nouveau Pacte sur la Migration et l'Asile de 2020, l'Agence bénéficie d'un soutien politique...

In 2019, Canada introduced legislative changes that made asylum seekers ineligible for protection if they have made a previous refugee claim in a country that Canada shares an information-sharing agreement with. Such agreements are currently in place with the US, Australia, the UK, and New Zealand. This article offers a critical assessment of the n...

The officers of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) play pivotal roles at various stages in Canada’s refugee system, making decisions that are life-changing for asylum seekers. This article examines the evolving institutional setting and processes that define the CBSA’s enforcement policy and its consequences for asylum seekers in Canada. Draw...

The United Nations (UN) human rights treaty bodies play an important role in defining the scope and the nature of non-citizens’ rights. This article offers a critical overview of the UN human rights case law from 2008 to 2018 pertaining to non-citizens — notably undocumented migrants, refused asylum seekers, and permanent residents ordered deported...

The New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 19 September 2016, initiated a process towards two Compacts: the Global Compact for Refugees (GCR) and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). The Compacts are non-binding agreements which lay out a set of principles, objec...

This article discusses the role of Canada's Designated Country of Origin (DCO) policy in the illegalization of asylum seekers. The policy allows the government to designate countries in which it is presumed that citizens do not face risks of persecution, torture, or similar abuse. Refugee claimants from DCOs are thus subject to accelerated processi...

In 2012, Canada made regulatory changes and adopted legislations amending the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, including the Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act and the Balanced Refugee Reform Act. These pieces of legislation contain a number of measures which include: expedited refugee claim hearings, reduced procedural guarantees an...

This Working Paper examines the concept of the vulnerability of migrants which has become a key term in the UN's negotiations for a Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The authors argue that the concept must be interpreted inclusively and related to the human rights obligations of states through the UN conventions. All too often...

The safe country of origin (SCO) policy has been implemented by the European Union (EU) and Canada as a way to deal with a backlog of asylum applications, increase efficiency, reduce administrative costs and exclude fraudulent refugee claims. The concept is founded on the assumption that a democratic country with an adequate human rights record is...

The “Sanctuary City” movement is a grassroots, human rights-based response to increased numbers of non-status migrants living and working in global cities. This paper shares the results of a one-year pilot study on Sanctuary City policy in Toronto, Canada. Styled Access T.O., Toronto's Sanctuary City policy is meant to provide non-status residents...

This article maps the global governance processes on migration and assesses whether the human rights of migrants are effectively included and mainstreamed therein. It is argued that the lack of a comprehensive framework for migration governance and the insufficient focus on the human rights dimension in migration management have led to serious huma...

Countries have adopted different laws, policies, and practices that allow immigration officers to request in certain cases DNA tests to confirm biological relationships in the context of family reunification. In Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada has adopted a policy of suggesting DNA testing only as a last resort in cases where no document...

Forced Migration, Reconciliation and JusticeEdited by Megan BradleyMontreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015, pp. 448

http://ethiquepublique.revues.org/1727

This article explores the intersections of international criminal law, human rights law and refugee law as it pertains to human trafficking. It assesses the challenges faced by foreign national trafficked persons who are seeking international protection and the difficulties in prosecuting those responsible for the crime of human trafficking. The ar...

L’article explore le lien entre la politique européenne d’asile, l’impact de la lutte contre la migration irrégulière sur la criminalisation des demandeurs d’asile et les atteintes au droit d’accès à l’asile. Il étudie le processus sécuritaire de transformation du demandeur d’asile en un migrant irrégulier. L’européanisation du système d’asile est...

Résumé L'article porte sur la deuxième ronde de consultations dans le cadre de l'élaboration du Règlement sur l'immigration et la protection des réfugiés de 2002 et explore la nature de l'espace communicationnel créé entre l'autorité réglementaire et les groupes d'intérêt. Les auteures examinent dans quelle mesure les consultations atteignent leur...

Les politiques migratoires européennes sont conçues en termes de contrôle de l’entrée et du séjour des étrangers. Depuis la mise en place des conditions de libre circulation dans les années 1980, l’Union européenne est impliquée dans le traitement des non-nationaux qui, auparavant, relevait exclusivement de la discrétion étatique. La migration et l...

Sommaire La Turquie a officiellement obtenu le statut de pays candidat à l’adhésion à l’Union européenne en décembre 1999. Malgré des accords de longue date liant ce pays à l’Union, la perspective de son éventuelle adhésion continue de susciter des débats passionnés tant dans la classe politique qu’au niveau de l’opinion publique en Europe. Les opp...

Over the last two decades, the reinforcement of security-related migration policies has resulted in the perception of the foreigner, and especially the irregular migrant, as a category outside the circle of legality. The rights of foreigners in host countries have deteriorated due to the connection made between immigration and criminality. Restrict...

La lutte contre la migration irrégulière est un élément clé de la politique européenne d’immigration et d’asile. l’Union européenne joue un rôle prééminent dans le contrôle des flux de migration irrégulière à travers la mise en œuvre d’une coopération policière. Cette coopération s’est progressivement institutionnalisée par l’établissement de struc...

This chapter briefly presents the preventive and deterrent policies devised by Canada and the European Union in order to stop irregular migration. It aims to call the reader's attention to the human rights violations caused by these policies.

This chapter first introduces the complexity of international migrations by presenting the different dimensions of the phenomenon. It then briefly describes the chapters of the book, which is divided in five parts: 1. migration as an individual trajectory through social space; 2. migration as the focus of the political discourse on identity; 3. mig...

This article briefly describes the evolution of the multiculturalism policy since the year 1970. It underlines the function of law within Canadian multiculturalism. The authors also analyze the issues of Quebec specificity and of the role of the judiciary in the progressive development of norms related to multiculturalism in Canada.