Carleton University’s Faculty of Public Affairs (FPA) will host the 2020 Borders and Migration Lecture Canada as Safe Haven? Two Generations of U.S. War Resisters Cross the Border into Shifting Political Landscapes presented by Prof. Alison Mountz, Canada Research Chair in Global Migration at Wilfrid Laurier University.
This event is part of the FPA Research Series and is facilitated by Prof. William Walters, FPA Research Excellence chair.
When: Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020 at 2:30 p.m.
Where: Second Floor Conference Rooms, Richcraft Hall, Carleton
Info: This event is free and open to the public. A campus map can be found online.
Media are invited to attend the event.
In this lecture, Mountz will discuss her research into two generations of United States war resister migrants who came to Canada in search of safe haven during U.S.-led wars in Vietnam and Iraq. The juxtaposition of the oral histories of both generations complicates our understanding of Canada’s role as a safe haven. There are parallels in the journeys of the two generations, places where these histories resonate and intersect, and important moments where their stories part ways.
The talk includes clips from the feature-length documentary film Safe Haven that focuses on people from both generations. Their powerful stories show the realities and myths of Canada as a welcoming country to those seeking protection. The film delves into the lives of people deciding to leave home and military service, reflecting on these decisions at different stages of their lives. People who found safe haven and those who were forced home discuss their lives on both sides of the border. As conscription and enlistment are experienced from one generation to the next, militarism emerges as a haunting form of violence that travels across generations, through families and across the border – staying with resisters throughout their lives.
About Alison Mountz
Mountz’s work explores how people cross borders, and access migration and asylum policies. Her recent scholarship addresses detention and asylum-seeking on islands and U.S. war resister migration histories in Canada. Her current research focuses on the search for political asylum in Canada, exploring what kind of safe haven Canada has been in the past, as well as what kind of safe haven Canada is today and for whom. Mountz directs Wilfrid Laurier’s International Migration Research Centre and is a member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada.
Mountz’s first monograph, Seeking Asylum: Human Smuggling and Bureaucracy at the Border, was awarded the Meridian Book Prize from the Association of American Geographers. Last year, with Jenna Loyd, she published Boats, Borders, and Bases: Race, the Cold War, and the Rise of Migration Detention in the United States on the history of the U.S. detention system – the largest in the world. Her new book, The Death of Asylum: Hidden Geographies of the Enforcement Archipelago will be published this year. Mountz edits the journal Politics & Space.
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Wednesday, January 22, 2020 in Media Advisories
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