Working Paper 30

By Zahra Moshref Javadi, Research Associate at The Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS), York University

Jennifer Hyndman, Professor at the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) and in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University 

Executive Summary

 This paper seeks to address how states use ‘vulnerability’ to select a small percentage of refugees from the millions worldwide for resettlement programs. Across asylum and resettlement contexts, vulnerability functions as a mechanism for categorization and prioritization. In asylum systems, it helps identify individuals requiring procedural accommodation or enhanced protection, whereas in resettlement, it assumes a more consequential role: distinguishing among millions of recognized refugees competing for a limited number of resettlement spaces. However, the very concept that underpins this prioritization, “vulnerability”, remains fluid, contested, and deeply shaped by institutional discretion. While vulnerability is invoked to justify procedural accommodation and enhanced protection, its changing definition and application significantly influence who ultimately gains access to one of the rarest durable solutions.

This study examines how vulnerability is defined and operationalized within UNHCR and Canada’s refugee resettlement system, and the extent to which these definitions reflect evolving policy priorities and discretionary decision-making.

Drawing on legal frameworks, policy instruments, and secondary literature, vulnerability is framed not merely as a humanitarian descriptor but as a governing tool embedded within selection processes. The aim is to clarify how vulnerability functions as both a selection criterion and a site of political interpretation in both UNHCR and Canadian resettlement practices.

The paper argues that vulnerability operates at the intersection of protection and selectivity. While it enables targeted assistance for those facing acute risk, its ambiguity and discretionary application risk producing ‘hierarchies of deservingness’ (Reynolds and Hyndman, 2026). Ensuring fairness and coherence in refugee resettlement requires greater transparency and conceptual clarity in how vulnerability is defined, interpreted, and operationalized.

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LERRN Working Paper No. 30: Analyzing Vulnerability in Canadian Refugee Resettlement

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DOI

10.22215/glrnw/2605001

Citation: Javadi, Z. M., Hyndman, J. (2026). Analyzing Vulnerability in Canadian Refugee Resettlement. Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN). https://doi.org/10.22215/glrnw/2605001

The post Analyzing Vulnerability in Canadian Refugee Resettlement appeared first on LERRN: The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network.

Dina Taha’s work has taken her from Egypt to Canada and back again on a journey of research and discovery about the lives and survival strategies of Syrian refugee women. During her doctoral work, she returned to Egypt and conducted an intensive series of interviews with Syrian refugee women who had escaped the conflict in Syria by settling in Egypt, and marrying Egyptian men.

To read about Dina’s work, visit the article from YFile, York University’s campus newsletter: .

The post Dina Taha’s doctoral work examining the diversity of refugee experiences, and involvement with LERRN appeared first on LERRN: The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network.

Working Paper 3

Dina Taha, PhD Candidate, York University

Executive Summary

This literature review highlights migration and refugee research engaged with intersectionality as a critical framework that challenges homogenizing experiences and categories in the global refugee context. Intersectionality seeks to enable the analysis of multiple experiences, recognize multiple and fluid identities that are context dependent, and demonstrate how such identities intersect to create disadvantages as well as privileges for different individuals. An intersectionality framework has the potential reveal the systematic discrimination in refugee and migration policies and systems, point to disparities in accessing durable solutions, highlight oppression as well as emancipation due to refugee-ness, and challenge rigid labels and categories. After recognizing the gender blindness in the 1951 Refugee Convention, a growing number of international and domestic policies began paying more attention to refugee women and gender-based violence. One prominent example is the UNHCR’s Age, Gender and Diversity policy, which aims to consider the implications of policies and programs for male and female refugees of different ages and from different social groups. Feminist scholarship has offered important insights into the lived experiences of refugee women. Critical literature within refugee studies has questioned the ability of the “refugee” label and other categories to capture the complex social realities of the people on the move, instead engaging with how refugees self-identify and define their own situations. Decolonial approaches explore new methodologies (such as community-based participatory research) and the power dynamics inherent in North-South research partnerships that often reproduce hierarchies. Overall, an intersectional approach highlights that “refugees” are a diverse group and refugee experiences are shaped by multiple identities such as gender, race, national origin, class, age, (dis)ability and sexual orientation. Refugee policies and programs must be flexible to take into account this diversity of experiences instead of applying a singular universal approach for all refugees.

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Intersectionality and Other Critical Approaches in Refugee Research: An Annotated Bibliography

PRINT-Intersectionality and Other Critical Approaches in Refugee Research: An Annotated Bibliography

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DOI

Recommended Citation

Taha, D. (2019). Intersectionality and Other Critical Approaches in Refugee Research: An Annotated Bibliography. Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN).

The post Intersectionality and Other Critical Approaches in Refugee Research: An Annotated Bibliography appeared first on LERRN: The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network.