Shifting Landscapes of Asylum in North America (2016)
May 2-3, 2016
About the Conference
The politics of asylum and refugee movements occupy national and international news headlines daily. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (2015), approximately 59 million people are currently displaced from their homes, the highest since the end of World War II. The asylum regime in the European Union appears to have reached a breaking point due to the scale of displacement, the precarity of those crossing the central Mediterranean, and the lack of unity or coherence in EU members’ responses.
Due to their geographical location, Canada and the United States face a less proximate crisis, yet historically they have been significant players in the global asylum landscape. The two countries are intimately intertwined with each other and global landscapes of displacement, resettlement, and asylum-seeking. Both have, in different ways, enjoyed positions as global leaders in asylum-seeking for some decades.
In recent years, however, the political and institutional landscape has shifted dramatically, more so in Canada than in the United States. By shutting down geographical and legal paths to entry, both countries have implemented preemptive border enforcement measures offshore to keep asylum-seekers at bay, contributing to the inability to find solutions to displacement elsewhere. Numerical changes have been accompanied by shifts in the politics and language of asylum as well, with the frequent use of the phrase ‘bogus refugee’ and ‘queue cutter’ undermining public faith in the integrity of asylum-seeking.
This shifting political, policy, and legal terrain of asylum in North America will be the main focus of the workshop. The goal is to bring together leading, interdisciplinary scholars in the fields of asylum and refugee studies from both sides of the border to workshop papers on the timely topic of refuge. The small number allows for experimentation and 'workshopping' of works in progress. Participants are encouraged to share ideas that are new, provisional, or experimental in nature about asylum, and allow plenty of time for discussion.
The objective is to stage a conversation about and across research happening on asylum on both sides of the border - to confront the ironic reality that the border divides scholarship on migration and refugee studies. The workshop will provide an opportunity to share, learn, discuss, and identify themes that cut across scholarship and across the border.
Monday, May 2
Room 2, 2nd floor, Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street
9:00-9:30 Continental Breakfast
9:30-9:45 Welcome and Introductions
9:45-10:45 Keynote Address
- James Hathaway, University of Michigan
Fixing the Refugee System - Chair: Alison Mountz, Harvard University
10:45-11:15 Coffee Break
11:15-12:45 Session: Sovereignty and the Geopolitics of Asylum
- Chair: Tracy Neumann, Harvard University
- David Fitzgerald, UC, San Diego
Geopolitics, securitization, and the Definitional Question in Asylum Admissions: The Case of Central Americans Then and Now - Jenna Loyd, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee & Harvard University
Boats, Borders and the Bases of Deterrence in the United States - Cecilia Menjivar, University of Kansas
Inside the Buffer State: U.S. Policy and the Making of Mexico's "Vertical Border"
12:45-1:45 Lunch - Faculty Club, main dining room, ground floor
1:45-3:15 Session: Border Crossings arid Unintended Consequences
- Chair: Sarah Smith, Harvard University
- Idil Atak, Ryerson University
The Criminalization of Migration in North America and Europe: Unintended Policy Consequences - Ev Meade, University of San Diego
The Curse of Agency: How Mexican Asylum Cases Get Stuck between Humanitarian Reason and Human Rights Norms - Sean Anderson, Museum of Modern Art
Title: TBA
3:15-3:45 Coffee Break
3:45-4:45 Faculty Talk
- Jacqueline Bhabha, Harvard University
Unaccompanied Minors, Separated Children, Children on the Move, What Next? The Need for a New Paradigm for Distress Child Migration
5:00-6:00 Optional Campus Tour - convene in Faculty Club lobby at 5 p.m.
6:30 Dinner - Faculty Club, library, 2nd floor
Tuesday, May 3
Room 2, 2nd floor, Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street
9:00-9:15 Continental Breakfast
9:15-11:00 Session: Precarious Moves
- Chair: Sean Graham, Harvard University
- Keegan Williams, Harvard University
Statistical Trends and Policy Changes in the Canadian Asylum System: Comparative Analysis since 2000 - Delphine Nakache, University of Ottawa
Pathways into Irregularity Related to the Canadian Asylum System: Policy Gaps and Human Rights Implications - Janet Cleveland, McGill University
Challenging Immigration Detention: Vulnerability, Mental Health, and Human Rights - Jennifer Bagelman, University of Victoria
Carceral-Sanctuary City: Vancouver's Shifting Asylum Landscape
11:00-11:15 Coffee Break
11:15-12:45 Session: Blockades, Deaths, and Afterlives
- Chair: Eva 0stergaard, Autonomous University of Barcelona
- Pablo Bose, University of Vermont
Blockades, Backlash, and Circumvention: Contemporary Resettlement Politics in the US - Margaret Walton-Roberts and Rosy Hastir, Wilfrid Laurier University
The Curse of Sovereignty: The Afterlife of the Deported - Alison Mountz, Harvard University
The Death of Asylum
12:45-1:30 Lunch - Faculty Club, main dining room, ground floor
1:30-3:15 Session: Final Discussion, Future Plans, and Reflections on Main Themes
- Chair: Alison Mountz, Harvard University
- Jennifer Hyndman, York University
- Shiva Mohan, Wilfrid Laurier University