This project aimed to better understand the official and informal practices associated with the concept of sanctuary in Canada and, above all, to support the actors on the ground in the implementation of such practices. Although the term “sanctuary city” is “highly evocative, there is no unambiguous and legal definition” (Paquet, 2018, 11). In Canada, this notion refers to policies allowing access to public services without regard to immigration status (Bauder 2017, Hudson et al., 2017). without status communications with federal migration authorities (Hudson et al., 2017). In Canada, the concept of sanctuary city also seems to encompass other public interventions, such as welcoming city discourses and the distribution of information (eg Montreal 2017). The specific objectives of this project were:
- To develop an ingrained understanding of what sanctuary practices can be in the Canadian context, based on the meaning given by the actors and on the political and institutional context;
- The identification of promising practices related to the implementation of sanctuary policies in the Canadian context;
- The development of accessible tools for stakeholders (municipalities and service delivery organizations).
Based on multiple conversations among team members (including at the BMRC-IRMU Strategy meeting on June 8-9, 2017), we proposed a framework built on three interrelated and complementary analytical lenses. The proposed Transversal project 1 focused on the structures of governance and policy discourse of the three levels of government and provided the bases for the other two:
- Transversal project 1:
- High level analysis of governance structures and policy discourse (duration: 18 months, September 2017-February 2019)
- Governance: Jurisdictions/institutional arrangements at various levels and changes over time
- Policy discourse: How is resilience used by the state and framed in policy documents?
- Develop a common methodology to address these across six city networks, two provinces, and at the federal level of government
- Transversal project 2: Examination of institutional practices and experiences
- How is notion of resilience implemented/taken up by policy makers?
- What are the impacts on/strategies of policy/programme design, development, and/or implementation?
- Transversal project 3:
- Impacts on settlement sector and practitioners
- How is notion of resilience implemented/taken up by settlement sector organizations and practitioners?
- What are the impacts on/strategies of nonprofits/service providers?
- Principal Investigator
- Mireille Paquet
- Collaborators
- Meghan Joy (Concordia, Montreal)
- John Shields (Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto)
- Graham Hudson (Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto)
- Idil Atak (Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto)
- Community Partners
- BINAM
- TCRI
- Stewart Istvanffy Legal Study
- Paquet, Mireille, Adèle Garnier, Luna Vives and Élora Ladouceur-Bussière. [Forthcoming]. “Canada’s permanent residence policy for refugee claimants working in the healthcare sector during the pandemic: A crisis-led policy innovation.” Migration Policy Practice, International Organization for Immigration
- Paquet, Mireille, John Shields, Meghan Joy, Idil Atak and Graham Hudson. “Municipal “Sanctuary” Policies in Canada: A View from Immigrant Serving Associations”. in Valerie Preston and John Shields, ed. Resilience and Integrating International Migrants in Cities in Canada. Mcgill Queen’s University Press.
- Paquet, M., Benoit, N., Atak, I., Joy. M., Hudson, G., and Shields, J. 2022. “Sanctuary Cities and COVID-19: The Case of Canada.” In Triandafyllidou, A. Ed. Migration and Pandemics: Spaces of Solidarity and Spaces of Exception. Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland AG. 85-102.
- Paquet, Mireille. 2022. “Sanctuary cities.” In Anna Triandafyllidou, ed., Routledge Handbook of Immigration and Refugee Studies. New York: Routledge, 434-443.
- Paquet, M. and Joy, M. 2022. “Canadian Sanctuary Policies in Context.” Canadian Public Administration 1–18.
- Mireille Paquet, John Shields, Meghan Joy, Idil Atak and Graham Hudson, “On the Ground: Canadian Immigrant Serving Associations and Sanctuary Policies.”, 5th International Conference on Public Policy, (hybrid format), Barcelona, Spain, July 5-9, 2021.
- Mireille Paquet, John Shields, Meghan Joy, Idil Atak and Graham Hudson,“Immigrant Serving Agencies and Municipal Sanctuary Policies”, Resilience and Refuge, Webinar on Migrant Resilience in Canadian Cities: People, Institutions and Policies, York University, (A virtual event), June 23, 2021.
- Research Digest: Sanctuary Cities in Canada: practices, needs, and policies
- Research Digest: Villes sanctuaires au Canada: pratiques, besoins, et politiques
- Paquet, M. and Joy, M. “Localist Access Policies: Canadian Municipalities and Sanctuary”, Canadian Political Science Association Annual Conference, Vancouver, June 5, 2019.
- Paquet, Mireille, Adèle Garnier, Luna Vives, and Karine Côté-Boucher. «Régulariser les personnes migrantes sans statut: une action salutaire et nécessaire.» Relations 819 : 29-31.
