A talk by York University Professor Valerie Preston will examine adequate housing for newcomers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) as part of the Scholars Hub Speaker Series, a partnership between Vaughan Public Libraries and York University’s Division of Advancement.
Valerie Preston
The series, titled “Environmental Changes,” features talks and expertise from York faculty. This talk, “Housing Refugees: What Have We Learned?” is scheduled for Feb. 26 and is the second event in the series.
All events take place at the Civic Centre Resource Library located at 2191 Major Mackenzie Dr. W. from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Refreshments will be provided, and the event is free to attend.
Preston is a professor of geography at York University in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. During this talk, she will examine the GTA and its growing numbers of newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers who are living in hotels and shelters rather than permanent housing. A shortage of low-cost rental housing and rapid rent increases have exacerbated the difficulties of finding affordable, suitable and adequate housing for newcomers. Based on interviews with immigrant-serving organizations across Canada, this talk reviews the strategies that helped house Syrian refugees successfully in 2015-16 and evaluates their current relevance for asylum seekers in the GTA.
Preston’s research is focused on international migration and Canadian cities, especially the housing and employment challenges facing newcomers in suburbs such as York Region. Currently, she leads BMRC-IRMU, a partnership of researchers, practitioners and policy-makers that is investigating how to improve the social inclusion of newcomers in contemporary cities. In addition to publishing numerous articles, she is co-author of Social Infrastructure and Vulnerability in the Suburbs and co-editor of Liberating Temporariness? Migration, Work and Citizenship in an Age of Insecurity and When Care Work Goes Global: Locating the Social Relations of Domestic Work.
To register, go here.
More events in the series include:
March 26 – Sarah Flicker (assistant professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies),
“Teaching Sex Ed: A View From Ontario’s Teachers”
April 30 – Christina Hoicka (assistant professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies),
“Participation in the Low-Carbon Economy”
May 28 – Jose Etcheverry (associate professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies),
“Experimental Learning for Sustainability: Canada, Algeria and Chile”
June 25 – Sheila Colla (assistant professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies),
“What’s the Buzz? Working Towards Pollinators Conservation in Canada”