A Carleton political science professor has received $3.6 million to study global refugee policy across different countries.
The study received its latest funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) last month—with $2.5 million—adding up to a total of $3,676,103 to be used over the course of seven years. SSHRC is a federal research-funding agency that supports post-secondary research and training in social sciences and humanities, according to its website.
James Milner, the professor leading the project, said he began toying with the idea for the project four years ago, when he worked alongside CARE Canada—the Canadian chapter for an international humanitarian organization working against global poverty.
“The question was how we could bring the academic research communities to increase the capacities to bear in the practice, and in the doing of refugee protection,” Milner said. “Responding to the needs of refugees is a global challenge.”
The project will be assessing four countries in the “global south,”—Jordan, Kenya, Tanzania, and Lebanon—by comparing research findings to the “global north,” a term used for countries in Europe and North America. Milner said researchers in the project will be looking at factors such as the varied experiences of people dealing with conflict, in the chosen areas.
“Ten countries host 60 per cent of the world’s refugees,” Milner explained. “The largest problem is that countries in the global south that host the most refugees are not the central decision makers.”
He added that this imbalance in power is further fuelled by the fact that most of the funding for the global south comes from the global north, and that Western powers have a monopoly on refugee policy.
While the project is being led by Carleton, scholars from McGill University, York University, and the University of Ottawa are also involved.
Rafik Goubran, Carleton’s vice-president (research and international), said the ambitious project is alive because of the funding.
“[The] SSHRC investment in Carleton research recognizes the impact and urgency of the work being conducted by our faculty and their global partners,” Goubran said in an email. “This funding will enable the research group to collaborate on work that is of global importance, and train new scholars how to make a positive impact on society.”
The study will be training 96 graduate students to become research assistants so that each country will be able to have at least eight students establish local projects and conduct field work, by partnering with local policy experts.
Local projects will host annual summer institutes in Canada and other countries, support six visiting fellows from Carleton each year, and train refugees and non-governmental organizations in citizen journalism—the practice of collecting, analyzing, and spreading information by the general public, especially by means of the internet.
Milner said the project aims to create, expand, and share new research based on local contexts from the studied countries. He said he can only hope to see his role become “irrelevant” in the future.
“Wouldn’t it be great if my skills at analyzing contemporary refugee situations were no longer needed because there were no longer any contemporary refugee situations?” Milner said.
The project co-ordinators are expected to meet in four years to determine whether the goals of the proposal are being met, and whether the project requires additional funding.
—With files from Temur Durrani
