Published Article

This article focuses on how the concept of ‘vulnerability’ is employed in the Canadian immigration law by presenting findings from the research Dagmar and Melissa conducted as part of the VULNER project. They analyze how vulnerability is operationalized in Canada’s inland refugee (or asylum) determination procedures compared to its overseas resettlement program by first discussing some general principles, followed by an examination of the treatment of women and LGBTQI+ individuals seeking protection.

The authors show that legal-bureaucratic logics have constructed two very heterogeneous worlds of vulnerability that may reproduce and exacerbate vulnerabilities rather than create a more inclusive, equitable protection regime in law, policy, and practice.

The Special Issue Vulnerability and the Legal Protection of Migrants: A Critical Look at the Canadian Context, which is co-edited by Delphine Nakache, leader of the Canadian VULNER team, and Anna Purkey, another member the Canadian VULNER team, seeks to contribute to the debate on what ‘vulnerability’ in the context of migration means, by providing a series of papers offering a critical analysis of how ‘vulnerability’ is defined and understood in Canadian law, policy and practice. This special issue is based on the first series of results from the Canadian VULNER research project that is funded by the Canadian Research Council (SSHRC/CRSH) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec—Société et Culture (FRQSC) as part of the EU Horizon’s VULNER project.

The full article is available in open access and can be downloaded here.