Migration Conversations

Meet Betsy Kane, an immigration lawyer who is a certified specialist in Canadian citizenship and immigration law. In our conversation together we talk about the challenges of practising immigration law during the pandemic, how difficult it is to keep up with the constant and ongoing changes made to immigration policy and programming, and the future problems or implications to some of the measures...

Meet Michael Molloy, former Ambassador of Canada to Jordan and a former public servant with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Immigration. Mike oversaw the resettlement of Indochinese refugees in Canada in 1979-80 and is the author of Running on Empty: Canada and the Indochinese Refugees, 1975-1980. In this episode we talk about the creation of the refugee resettlement progra...

Meet Will Tao and Lou Janssen Dangzalan, two immigration lawyers in Canada. In our conversation we talk about the Humanitarian and Compassionate (H&C) Grounds application in the immigration regime, how it has become more than a failsafe mechanism and why it can be the most important solicitor work an immigration lawyer can do today. In this episode, we talk about discretion, the labour involved in...

Meet Ebrahim, a Black, stateless person who was in a Canadian prison for six and a half years even though he has never been convicted of a crime in Canada. In this episode we talk about why Ebrahim came to Canada, how he was arrested and detained for immigration-related reasons, and how he was denied release 72 times in a row before he was freed. Ebrahim will tell you how this experience has chang...

Meet Montana Adams, a talented Indigenous playwright from Akwesasne. In this episode we talk about her play, "My Good Friend Jay", how she interrogates the colonial borders that cut through her community's territory, how borders are arbitrary yet imposing, and how these borders affect their daily lives. Along with this episode view her play here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xbZyLNme0s). You c...

Jacqueline Bonisteel is an immigration lawyer in Ottawa and an expert in the economic class in the immigration system. She gives us a primer on the various permanent resident programs currently in place and we talk about some of the opportunities but also challenges migrants face in accessing the economic class. We also discuss our hopes for the future development of this rapidly and ever changing...

Thelma is not her real name, but her experiences are. In this conversation, Thelma talks about how she came from Jamaica to work in Canada’s agriculture sector as a temporary foreign worker. She talks about the labour, conditions but also the injuries she suffered, and has a passionate plea about calling for permanent residence for migrant workers, and the ability to bring their families with them...

This is part 2 of a two-part episode where we speak with Mary Jane and Milanie, two former migrant caregivers and Aimee, an advocate with Migrante Ottawa, a cause-oriented organization that promotes the rights and welfare of Filipino migrants in Canada. We talk about the essential work Mary Jane and Milanie did to care for Canadian children and elderly, the conditions that they were subject to and...

This is part 1 of a two-part episode where we speak with Mary Jane and Milanie, two former migrant caregivers and Aimee, an advocate with Migrante Ottawa, a cause-oriented organization that promotes the rights and welfare of Filipino migrants in Canada. We talk about the essential work Mary Jane and Milanie did to care for Canadian children and elderly, the conditions that they were subject to and...

Meet Roisah, a previously stateless person, now Malaysian citizen. When I first met Roisah, she was on the precipice of becoming a legal adult in Malaysian law and was racing against clock to obtain citizenship before she became ineligible as a result of no longer being a minor. We talk about how she discovered she was stateless at a government counter when she was 12 years old, what she had to en...

Migration Conversations is a podcast that invites persons to share their migration stories. Each episode is an in-depth conversation with people who have experienced the Canadian immigration system or other migration regimes up close. We talk to migrants and immigrants, but also to lawyers, policy makers, and advocates to get their perspective and help us understand the complicated immigration leg...