Canada is frequently portrayed as having one of the world's best immigration and refugee systems and as a model for other countries. However, this conventional narrative obscures substantial contradictions, weaknesses, policy tensions, and dilemmas that migrants and stakeholders navigate daily. The last two decades have seen major changes to Canada's immigration and refugee policies, including more restrictive measures that affect unauthorized arrivals, modified processes for asylum seekers, expanded temporary migration programs with limited protections, increased complexity in pathways to permanent residency, and enhanced removal mechanisms. 

Despite these important changes in Canada’s domestic policy, Canada's humanitarian brand remains strong internationally. This disconnect exists partly because: 1) there is limited research critically examining Canada's role in global displacement responses, and 2) the interplay between Canada's international engagement and domestic migration policies remains understudied. This research gap means Canadian practices can be exported without sufficient scrutiny, and domestic policies do not benefit from analysis of how Canada's international commitments translate into national actions. 

The Chair on Migrant Protection and International Law aims to bridge these research silos by examining the relationship between Canada's domestic and international actions regarding diverse migrant populations - including temporary workers, international students, non-status migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. The Chair will develop law and policy frameworks aimed at enhancing migrants’ rights and protections through a multidisciplinary and cross-jurisdictional comparative approach, with significant involvement of francophone researchers and bilingual knowledge dissemination.

Delphine Nakache

Delphine Nakache is a lawyer and Full Professor in the Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law. As one of the world’s leading scholars on issues of refugee and migration policy and practice, Professor Nakache has dedicated her career to amplifying the voices of vulnerable populations caught in the large legal framework of statutes, regulations, policies and other legal instruments that crowd international migration systems. By bringing migrants’ life experiences – in their own words – to public policy and practice debates, her research has made a substantial impact on the protection of their fundamental rights. The vast and varied perspectives that make up her expansive research network are crucial to Professor Nakache’s goal of moving beyond traditional assumptions about Canada’s migration and refugee system.

Visit Professor Nakache’s website.