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Advancing Education as a Right: Sanctuary in Higher Education

The year 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which established education as a right through . Canada then became a signatory to the UN鈥檚 in 1976, endorsing the right to an education for all and equal access to higher education. In nearly 50 years since that commitment, efforts to improve access have been led by the federal and provincial governments, non-profit organizations, and higher education institutions. At the same time, forced migration and displacement due to international conflicts and climate change have changed student demographics. Changes to the immigration system over the last decade have left increasing numbers of migrants with varying forms of precarious immigration status and limited options for permanent residence. Considering that immigration status frequently determines access to services and institutions, there continues to be insurmountable barriers to post-secondary education. Potential students with precarious status face prohibitive costs of international fees without access to financial aid or scholarships, student permit requirements and obligations to produce other documents, and fear of detention or deportation. 

Spurred by the newly developed Sanctuary Scholars access pathway, this event series aims to imagine and conceptualize sanctuary at 成人大片. Guiding questions for sessions include: 

  • What is the relationship between practicing education as a right and sanctuary? What does sanctuary mean? What does sanctuary mean in the context of higher education? What do we, collectively as a community, envision sanctuary to be? 
  • What are the implications on safety and security, health and wellbeing, and community development?
  • Which current institutional policies and practices are exclusionary if we are working towards sanctuary? What limitations is a post-secondary institution faced with in advancing sanctuary? What is the role of administrators, faculty, staff, and students in creating sanctuary on campus? 
  • Is sanctuary possible in a post-secondary institution?

Trainings:

Areal photo of Gould Street streetscape
Supporting Sanctuary Scholars: Information Session for Faculty and Staff

Thursday, November 23, 2023  from 6-8 p.m. EST (In-person only) - Hosted by: 

William Doo Auditorium, University of Toronto, 45 Willcocks Street
Free RSVP Link:

Speakers:

  • Yvette Munro | Assistant Vice Provost Student Success, York University
  • Lorna Schwartzentruber | Associate Director Access Programs & Community Engagement, York University
  • Melanie Panitch | Executive Director Office of Social Innovation, 成人大片
  • Chris Coupland | Executive Director, Undergraduate Admission and Recruitment at Queen's University
  • Dwayne Benjamin | Vice Provost, Strategic Enrolment Management, University of Toronto
  • Rupaleem Bhuyan | UofT working Group for Access to Higher Education for Students with Precarious Immigration Status
  • Brantella Williams | York student, S4 Collective Project Coordinator

Thursday, November 2, 2023 at 12:30 PM EST. - (Re)imagining Sanctuary through the Lens of Higher Education. Hosted by the Office of Social Innovation at 成人大片 and the  at York University. 

(Virtual only) 

Zoom: 

Speakers: Tanya Aberman and Rebecca Murray

Higher education (HE) receives increasing international recognition as a priority response to people experiencing forced displacement and the precarity imposed by exclusionary immigration regimes. The prioritisation of HE by young refugees and migrants has been well documented, as youth have successfully advocated for access in various different contexts (Murray & Gray, 2021; Abrego & N茅gron-Gonzales, 2020; Villegas & Aberman, 2019; Baker et al, 2018). This paper draws on extensive research, advocacy and grassroots campaigning across the UK and Canada in the area of HE access, in order to explore how shared similarities and noted differences can shape new ways of understanding sanctuary. Opportunities in HE, as a response to displacement, have been hard-won across both countries, yet significant gaps remain in ensuring that students have equitable access, are welcomed and protected in HE institutional settings. The sanctuary university is the site from which we have developed and offer new ways of understanding sanctuary situated in a conceptual framework that offers practical applications, and which transcend geographical and institutional boundaries. We explore the elasticity of sanctuary as a term primarily used to understand praxis, through positioning ideas on a spectrum, reflecting a continuum (as opposed to conflicting) perspectives transitioning from (re)bordering to abolition (Mitchel, 2023; Lenard & Maokoro, 2021; Paik, 2020; De Haene, 2018; Bagelman, 2013; Rotter, 2011). We draw on this spectrum and our practitioner expertise to (re)imagine sanctuary as a nexus of access, welcome and protection. This nexus is underpinned by abolitionist sanctuary principles, intersectional praxis and grounded in the lived experience of people who have experienced displacement and who feel the borders most acutely.

Oct. 20, 2023 6-8 p.m. EST (In-person) - 

Join photographer Colin Boyd Shafer for an evening of visual storytelling & great conversation w/ authors Gabriel Allahdua and Martha B谩tiz.  C锘縪lin will be sharing photographs and stories from the book as well as having a conversation with Gabriel Allahdua whose memoir  highlights his experience as a migrant farmworker in Canada.

October 25, 2023 12-1:30 p.m. EDT (In-person) - 

Hosted by: CERC Migration

October 20, 2023 7 - 8:30 p.m. EST (Virtual or in-person) 

Please join us for the second installment of the Shannon Lecture Series "Rewriting Refuge" featuring Dr. Benjamin Hoy, University of Saskatchewan. Hosted by: History Department at Carleton University, Ottawa, ON

October 25th, 2023 1:20 - 2:40 p.m.  EST - Teach In #9  (Virtual) - 

Hosted by:. With decreasing federal and provincial fundings, Canadian higher education has been increasingly privatized, particularly, through the recruitment of international students. At the same time, universities and colleges provide minimum support to care for students, who are also recently blamed for the housing crisis in Canada. This panel addresses these urgent issues by focusing on migrant students' organizing efforts in universities and colleges across Canada. Panelists link international students' struggles with broader logics of privatization and social abandonment, and discuss how we can fight it.