Refugee Family Reunification in Canada Conference

DATE: Wednesday, December 14th and Thursday, December 15th

TIME: 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM EST

Join us for a two-day multilingual (Arabic, Dari, Pashto, and English) hybrid conference focused on the family reunification trajectories of refugees in Canada. The conference will be hosted by the Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Immigration and Settlement (TMCIS) in collaboration with the City of Toronto's Newcomer Office, the Private Refugee Sponsor Network (Ontario), the Syrian Canadian Foundation, Afghan Women's Organization Refugee and Immigrant Services, and Muslim Children's Aid and Support Services.

The conference will bring together refugees from past and recent cohorts, refugee sponsors, settlement workers and service providers, researchers, and students to share insights from lived experiences, settlement practices, and research activities. Refugees will be invited to share their experiences related to family reunification to ensure that a broad range of knowledge is represented.

Representatives from our collaborating community agencies and other refugee advocates will present on a panel discussing their work supporting refugees in family reunification processes. A research panel will also provide a platform for disseminating findings from several projects focused on international legal obligations and family reunification as a factor in promoting refugees' integration. An open forum focused on evaluating the capacity of the current family reunification framework to meet refugees' needs and build capacity for more expedient family reunification will follow.

Refreshments and lunch will be served during the two-day event for those joining us in person.

The conference is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).