Professor Aude-Claire Fourot wins SSHRC Connection Grant and Partnership Engage Grant

Professor Aude-Claire Fourot has won a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant and Partnership Engage Grant.

Connection Grants support short-term events and outreach activities like Fourot and partner Plan Urbanisme Construction Architecture’s (PUCA’s) June 2021 Paris conference, focused on how cities are dealing with immigration and migration patterns. Fourot and her colleagues Anouk Flamant and Aisling Healy describe the conference’s theme further:

“Securitization and criminalization of immigration policies, as well as the development of camps, squats and emergency shelters, have put cities under the microscope. This higher visibility contributed to the growing awareness that local actors—such as municipal governments, civil society and private actors—matter, even though they are still disconnected from the major sites of political decision. In this context, research on the ‘local turn’ of migration policies has flourished. This conference aims to take stock of the research by focusing on the roles of networks and multi-level governance arrangements. It will also offer an opportunity to foster a dialogue between disciplines, methods and actors involved in the governance of migration. By looking at the supranational, national and local levels of governance across the world, this conference will provide a comprehensive picture of why, how and with which results cities are dealing with challenges and opportunities created by current migration patterns.”

Fourot has also been awarded a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant. These grants offer short-term support to partnered research activities that will affect decision-making at a partner organization. Fourot’s partnership is with DIVERSEcity, a Surrey-based community resources society. Instructor Clare McGovern is also a member of the research team. Fourot describes the focus of their research activities:

“Faced with a growing number of refugees arriving to the province, Surrey has remained the top city in B.C. for refugee resettlement. In this context, many immigration service provider organizations (SPOs) like DIVERSEcity have been working towards creating support programs to facilitate refugees' adjustment and to foster their sense of belonging to Canada, notably through programming focused on language development and employment. However, gaining employment is often not a priority for a significant portion of the refugee population, such as youth, seniors and mothers of young children. This results in specific challenges for SPOs because the lack of services tailored to these groups exacerbates existing barriers to integration and prevents the development of a sense of belonging. Moreover, SPOs cannot benefit from academic research in this area, since few researchers have studied the specific needs that youth, seniors and mothers of young children have.

The overall goal of the partnership between DIVERSEcity and Simon Fraser University is to incorporate the voices of youth, seniors and mothers of young children with a refugee experience by asking about their definition of ‘sense of belonging’ and what fosters or hinders their sense of belonging to Canada. Focus groups with these three categories of refugees will be used to uncover the following: (i) definitions of belonging and what concrete experiences lead to feeling ‘secure’ and ‘at home’ in a new country; (ii) refugees' needs and barriers to belonging; (iii) types of programming which may influence their sense of belonging; (iv) and the extent to which there is a ‘duty’ to belong. We will analyze the results in examining whether the meaning of belonging varies over time and how differences among groups and individuals (age, entry status, etc.) might influence feelings of belonging.”