York U professor awarded grant to study North Korean refugees in Canada

From Yfile January 17, 2018

For a little more than a decade (2003 to 2015), there was a small bump in the numbers of North Koreans in Canada, many of them seeking asylum. But the number of asylum seekers, which were in the hundreds, dwindled to only two by 2016.

Ann Kim, associate professor of sociology and York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) faculty associate, was awarded a Child and Youth Refugee Coalition (CYRRC) grant to study the experiences of refugees from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (aka North Korea) in Canada.

The project, “When roots/routes matter: The appearance and disappearance of asylum seeking families from the DPRK in Canada,” emerged out of Kim’s contacts with local Korean organizations, Hanvoice and KCWA Family and Social Services. Her study will examine the policy shifts that led to the decline in applications and the processes and experiences of integration of North Korean refugees. [More]