The Migrant Vulnerabilities in the Canadian Protection System Workshop held at the University of Ottawa on Wednesday March 15, 2023, sought to bring together practitioners, community partners, and civil servants to discuss the various research findings of this project. In the morning session, 23 participants, consisting of both practitioners and the research team met to converse about vulnerabilities experienced by migrants with on-the-ground practitioners, in addition to recommendations that if implemented, would be helpful in addressing migrant vulnerabilities both in Canada and in cases of overseas resettlement. This session was followed by an afternoon session, consisting of 36 participants, comprised of the research team, on-the-ground practitioners, and civil servants from the federal government, which included members of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) and those working for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). There was also one member joining us from abroad, providing a necessary perspective on how vulnerability is understood and applied in overseas resettlement cases. Both sessions included a discussion about common themes that emerged throughout our discussions: these included what a trauma-informed approach for vulnerable migrants looks like, concerns with delays and communication with federal agencies, concerns around access to justice, the problems with employer-specific work permits and recommendations to provide more open-work permits for vulnerable workers, and lastly, a discussion around creating a regularization program to better address migrant vulnerabilities.

The VULNER Project is co-led by LERRN partners Delphine Nakache and Dagmar Soennecken.

To learn more, visit the VULNER Project’s ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚý.

Midori Kaga, PhD Candidate, School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa

Delphine Nakache, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa

Executive Summary

Attempts to bridge the Humanitarian-Development (HD) nexus are not new, but in recent years this idea has received renewed interest in light of the failure of traditional approaches to adequately respond to and manage complex, protracted crises. While these major policy shifts take place at the global and national levels (for example, see the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, the Grand Bargain, the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees, or the Regional Refugee and Resilience Plan (3RP)), few studies have considered the implications that an HD approach could have on one of the core mandates of humanitarian assistance: protection. This literature review therefore examines the potential protection implications of an HD approach to complex, emergency situations. It discusses current gaps and areas for future research that were identified in our review of the literature. Highlighting both the risks and benefits that this approach could have towards the protection outcomes for affected persons, we find that these outcomes largely depend on who is involved and whose interests are prioritized in decision-making processes in an HD approach. Consequently, this approach raises additional questions that lead us to an unresolved and ongoing debate within the humanitarian sector around its role in non-traditional humanitarian situations. This debate centres around whether the humanitarian sector should maintain a needs-based approach or shift towards a rights-based approach, which in turn raises important questions about when (and which of) the humanitarian principles are relevant and what protection really means, particularly when the perspectives of other stakeholders – such as affected persons – are taken into consideration. These issues remain unresolved and become complicated by the addition of multiple actors (humanitarian, development, civilian, private, affected persons etc.) with different roles, interests and mandates in an HD approach. We therefore propose that both the humanitarian and development sectors engage with the concepts, objectives and principles behind this debate head-on, in order to strengthen our understanding of what they mean practically. As HD approaches are likely to become the new way of addressing complex crises, finding clarity on how humanitarian and development actors can work together through shared principles and objectives is critical to ensure that affected persons are adequately protected.

View the full LERRN Working Paper Series here:

DOI

Citation

Kada, M., Nakache, D. (2019).Protection and the Humanitarian-Development Nexus: A Literature Review. Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN).

Read the Outcomes Refugee Participation Dialogue here.