State-controlled refugee protection in Canada has gone through paradoxical developments in recent decades. While refugee rights have expanded, access to these rights has tightened. Previously unrecognized groups - such as women experiencing gender-based violence and LGBT populations - are now considered legitimate refugees. Yet, the implementation of stringent administrative measures has made it harder for refugees to secure protection. Refugees Are (Not) Welcome Here draws on archival and media sources, interviews, and organizational data to examine how refugee claims are administered within a complex and contradictory regime that maintains significant legal and bureaucratic silos. Azar Masoumi explains why state-controlled refugee protection persists despite its many failures, not only in Canada but globally. This rigorous study deftly argues that the paradoxical interplay between refugee law and claim-processing bureaucracies is symptomatic of a larger illogic: reliance on the exclusivist mechanisms of the nation-state to ensure the universal application of rights. Ultimately, this book illuminates just how this paradox has turned refugee protection into an unfulfilled promise.

About the Author

Azar Masoumi is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University. She has been published in Canadian and international journals including Social and Legal Studies, Studies in Social Justice, Social Identities, Feminist Legal Studies, the Onati Socio-Legal Series, and Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict, and World Order.

Awards
Short-listed for W. Wesley Pue Book Prize, Canadian Law and Society Association/Association canadienne droit et societe. 2024 (Canada).



Book Information
ISBN 9780774868723
Author Azar Masoumi
Format Paperback
Page Count 228
Imprint University of British Columbia Press
Publisher University of British Columbia Press
Weight(grams) 340g