Nicolas ParentMcGill University | McGill · Department of Geography
Nicolas Parent
About
24
Publications
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Introduction
Currently at the Department of Geography, McGill University, my research explores futurity and the imagining of liveable geographies as constituted by encamped Congolese refugees in Rwanda. Previously, I was a Research Associate and Lecturer in Migration and Development at the Universidad del Pacifico (Lima, Peru), focusing on regional policy responses to the Venezuelan exodus. I have also conducted extensive fieldwork with Middle East forced migrants in Turkey and the Balkans.
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
October 2021 - February 2022
May 2021 - present
September 2019 - present
Education
February 2014 - May 2016
September 2012 - May 2013
September 2007 - May 2012
Publications
Publications (24)
[T]he Venezuelan displacement crisis is a crucial test of the liberal immigration policies that have been adopted across Latin America.
When violent conflict flares up, forced migration often follows. Ethnographic data shows that forced migrants remain attached to their places of origin and often express a desire to return once conflict has abated, be it after weeks, months, or years. Conversely, peacebuilders in the homeland have not effectively integrated displaced persons within...
African migrants are taking longer and riskier journeys in the search of new destinations and improved opportunities. Elevated risks lead to feelings of stress, anxiety, and trauma, which makes the question of how migrants cope during such journeys an increasingly important area of research. Current research on migrant religious coping has focused...
This article presents data on peace agreement commitments towards forced migrants on the African continent (excluding MENA) from 1990 to 2018, resulting from the analysis of 177 peace agreements responding to the search queries 'Africa (excl. MENA)' and 'refugees and displaced persons' on the Peace Agreement Database (PA-X). This article presents p...
Anthropologists of forced migration have advanced unique perspectives exploring identity and community as they relate to space. With its critique of naturalized conceptions of rootedness, boundedness, and territorialization, anti-sedentarism stands as an important conceptual development emanating from this work. And while expressions such as 'seden...
At the dawn of the 20th Century, Elisée Reclus (1905) characterised the western world by its fervent nationalism, tightening borders and widespread mockery of humanitarianism. Current political discourse on forced migration and its physical manifestations, however, suggest that Reclus’ (1905) observations may be more relevant now than ever before....
This is the final report of the 'Critical Geographies of Race' reading group, launched during the Winter 2021 term by the racial geographies sub-committee established through the Graduate Equity Committee at the Department of Geography, McGill University. This report includes our reading group's syllabus, a postmortem based on a post-reading group...
Course summary:
Since the end of the Cold War, migration has increasingly become a contentious issue in the domains of both domestic and foreign policy. Why do some countries maintain a viewpoint that migration is a central component of development, while others do everything in their power to limit the entry of immigrants, often for the sake of n...
Presentation notes are available upon request.
As local participation has been central to some peacebuilding efforts, the voice and role of migrants within such frameworks is seldom considered. In the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country qualified not only by high levels of forced displacement, but also as having one of the world’s highest rate of voluntary repatriation, ag...
Scathing critiques of the European response to what has been widely called a 'refugee crisis' are not in short supply. However, as many activist mobilisations and solidarities emerged along the Balkan Route, this is only one facet of the European response to forced migration. Having interviewed four migration activists from four countries along thi...
This exploratory research seeks to investigate the risk perception of Turkish citizen's vis-à-vis Syrian refugees, utilising cultural cognition as a theoretical sounding board. Delimited to the city of Izmir, the aims of this research were to ascertain what perceived risks Syrian refugees pose onto Turkish society, how these perceptions relate to w...
Peru’s introduction of a new work and study permit for Venezuelans fleeing violence in their country is to be applauded – but it provides only a limited, temporary form of protection.
This paper proposes that what Aboriginal communities in Canada have faced since colonisation are a series of socio-cultural disasters, and discusses reasons for the recurrence of disasters within Aboriginal communities. Using Toft and Reynolds’ (2005) theory of active and isomorphic learning, as well as Hood’s (2002; 2011) theory of blame, this pap...
Using cellphones, social media application and application-based communication tools, forced migrants have been able to organise, coordinate their movements and communicate with family and friends. Activism, notably migrant solidarity work, has benefited from these same tools. Arguably, it’s no secret that new media has defined many elements of con...
A presentation given as part of a seminar series organized by the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University (Toronto, Canada)
Since early 2011, Syria has been undergoing a brutal civil war, displacing millions
within the country and forcing others to seek protection in adjacent countries. Turkey,
amongst other regional refugee-hosting countries, has taken in the bulk of Syrian
forced migrants. The impact of these refugees on Turkey, still developing as time
goes on, is la...
Questions
Questions (4)
What do both areas of research agree on? Are there disagreements in methodology? What scholars engage in both? Are there any recommended texts that address this question? - Thank you!
I'm planning on starting my PhD studies in Germany. There are many foundations, state agencies and organizations which provide funding. In the event where I am accepted for funding by two foundations, for example, may I accept both?
Thank you in advance for your answers!
Nik Parent
I'm in the early stages of drafting a PhD proposal, and working on making a short list of potential supervisors. I'm specifically interested in the intersection between internal displacement, resource-based conflicts, and the political ecology of rural livelihoods. Any help in identifying some faculty members interested in these themes would be great! Thank you!
I've just had the time to pare down my thesis down to around 3000 words and am looking for a suitable 'home' for it. Essentially, using both quantitative and qualitative analyses, my research evaluates the Turkish risk perception of Syrian refugee inflow, utilizing cultural cognition as a theoretical spring board. The abstract is below:
[Title]
Syrian refugee’s and risk perception in Izmir, Turkey: Understanding Turkish attitudes through the evaluation of cultural cognition
[Abstract]
Since early 2011, Syria has been undergoing a brutal civil war, displacing millions within the country and forcing others to seek protection in adjacent countries. Turkey, amongst other regional refugee-hosting countries, has taken in the bulk of Syrian forced migrants. The impact of these refugees on Turkey, still developing as time goes on, is largely undocumented amidst the development of Turkish attitudes towards this group of over two million migrants. This exploratory research sought to investigate these attitudes, utilising cultural cognition as a theoretical sounding board. Delimited to the city of Izmir, the aims of this research were to ascertain what perceived risks Syrian refugees pose onto Turkish society, how these perceptions relate to worldview adherences amongst Turkish citizens and what psychological processes may explain the development of such perceptions. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research found statistical significance between the perception of inflow and social risks posed by Syrian refugees and the hierarchist and egalitatrian worldviews. To explore the development of such perceptions of risk, the processes of identity-protective cognition and reactive devaluation were utilised to explicate the data
[Key words]
risk perception, refugees, cultural cognition, Turkey
Projects
Projects (3)
The goal of this project is to look at how Congolese refugees and IDPs - a group largely ignored in traditional peacebuilding approaches in the DR Congo - can become engaged in peacebuilding prior to return migration.
To publish empirical and theoretical articles relating to Middle Eastern and African displacement to Europe, and in some cases through Turkey.
To publish work relating to the displacement of Venezuelans, with a particular focus on how Latin American governments are responding to the mass exodus.
