Idil Atak, Principal Investigator
Idil Atak is an Associate Professor of Criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University*. She is the Editor-In-Chief of International Journal of Migration and Border Studies (IJMBS). She is a member of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration’s (IASFM) Executive Committee, the past president of the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS), and a research associate at Hans & Tamar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law (McGill University). Idil served as a legal expert for the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara, then as deputy to the Permanent Representative of Turkey to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Her research interests include irregular migration, refugee protection, and international human rights law.
Claire Ellis, Researcher and Coordinator
Claire Ellis is a PhD candidate in Policy Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her doctoral research critically analyses the use of digital border and surveillance policy instruments in Canadian responses to refugee claimant onward mobility. Claire holds an MA in Immigration and Settlement Studies (Toronto Metropolitan University) and a BA in Sociology from the University of British Columbia. She currently works in research and operations coordination at Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration. Claire has over a decade of experience in project and program coordination, working across multiple settings including not-for-profit organizations, international research teams, government, and community advocacy.
Julie Kim, Researcher
Julie Kim is a Master’s student in the Immigration and Settlement Studies program at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her research interests include irregular migration, the criminalization of immigration, and Canada’s immigration detention centres, with a focus on vocalizing the narratives of detainees bound within detention centres. As a CERC graduate student, she has assisted on various research tasks which have primarily involved identifying and researching scholars in the field of immigration and settler colonial studies. Julie holds an Honours BA in Politics and Governance from Toronto Metropolitan University.
Sara Asalya, Researcher
Sara Asalya is an award-winning leader who brings more than 14 years of experience working internationally and in Canada in various sectors including not-for-profit, NGOs, think tank and higher education institutions. Sara has collaborated and worked on different research and policy development projects focused on refugee displacement, protection and resettlement, migrants experiences with the asylum system in Canada, refugees’ access and pathways to higher education, refugee students persistence & graduation, migrants labour market integration and outcomes, and racialized immigrant women economic resilience and advancement. Sara holds a Master’s in Education in Higher Education from the University of Toronto, a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature and a Postgraduate certificate in Community Engagement, Leadership and Development and in Immigration and Settlement Studies. Sare is a phD student in the department of leadership, higher and adult education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education with a specialization in international, comparative and development education. Her research focuses on the intersection of migration, education and social justice, and on governmental and institutional strategies and responses in addressing local and global social justice issues with a focus on the sustainable development goals, the global refugee crisis and forced migration, refugees’ access to human rights and racial justice, and refugees’ access to education and labour market. Sara is the Founder and former Executive Director of Newcomer Students’ Association and the Executive Director of Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto.
Claire Linley, Researcher
Claire Linley holds a Masters student in Immigration and Settlement Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her research focused on immigration detention in Canada, with a particular focus on Canada’s Alternative to Immigration Detention framework. She was the founder of the World University Service of Canada for refugees, King’s University College chapter. Claire previously worked as a policy analyst in a transformation branch within the Government of Canada, focusing on organizational culture and change prior to pursuing her masters. She is currently conducting research on the possible impacts of Canada’s Alternative to Immigration Detention program.
Zainab Abu Alrob, Researcher
Zainab Abu Alrob is a PhD student in Policy Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. She holds an MA in Global Governance from the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo. Her research focuses on borders, refugee protection, and access to human rights for refugees and asylum seekers in Canada. Zainab is currently involved in research projects examining the impact of border security measures on the rights of irregular migrants and the right to international refugee protection in Canada. She also conducts research on refugee settlement, resilience, and integration.