Community-Led Projects
On this page, you will find information about my work in community-led projects. To learn more about my areas of specialization and commitment, please visit the 'About Me' page.
Current Projects
Supporting TNO’s research and legal service needs
The Neighourhood Organization
2024 -
Researcher and Legal Educator
For more on student-proposed internships at the University of Ottawa , you can consult the following webpage: ​
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If interested, feel free to contact me.​​
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The Neighbourhood Organization (TNO) is a community-based, multi-service agency providing a wide range of community services to temporary migrants across Ontario.
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In Spring 2024, I started developing Summer internship opportunities with TNO for law students in their second or third year at the University of Ottawa. The intern would work closely with a team of lawyers, law students, and non-governmental organizations who have partnered with TNO across Ontario to help migrant workers access legal remedies (under a lawyer’s supervision) and would receive 3 credits upon completion of their internship, should they obtain a “Satisfactory” result.
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In Fall 2024, I started developing, together with Jennifer Dagsvik (Assistant Professor, Bora Laskin Faculty of Law, Lakehead University & Director, Newcomer Legal Clinic), and thanks to the research assistance of J. Bianca Espinoza, educational materials/guides and training sessions for front-line staff from TNO assisting migrant workers. Those materials cover specific topics in the field of immigration and/or employment law.
Access to Housing for Refugee Claimants in Canada
Matthew House Ottawa
2023 -
Researcher
This interdisciplinary, community-based research project involves Matthew House Ottawa (MHO) and researchers from the University of Ottawa including myself, Christina Clark-Kazak and Bantayehu Shiferaw Chanie . It seeks to document successful models for housing and integrating refugee claimants and identifies policy and programming gaps.
In spring 2023, MHO completed a mapping of organizations across Canada to identify existing initiatives. After receiving ethics approval from the University of Ottawa, we surveyed all organizations identified in the mapping exercise to provide baseline data on programming, basic demographics of clients served and scope of services. Subsequently, we conducted interviews with representatives of organizations housing refugee claimants to better understand their models of support.
Funding received in July 2024 from the University of Ottawa, through the uOttawa Community Based Research Grants pilot competition, allows us to continue this research. We will conduct interviews with refugee claimants who have diverse experiences with housing, including homelessness and the shelter system, to understand the role played by different models of support and how they affect claimants' rights and protections.
Coming soon
Stay tuned!
Association for Canadian Studies, “Filling the gaps in housing for refugee claimants: The role of non-governmental organizations across Canada”, Canadian Diversity: “Migration and the Housing Crisis”. Co-authored by: Bantayehu Chanie, Christina Clark-Kazak, Azar Masoumi, Delphine Nakache and Allan Reesor-McDowell (2024). ​​
(NEW) Congratulations to researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences on receiving Community-based Research Grants, Collabzium (2024).​
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Canada needs a national strategy for homeless refugee claimants, by Christina Clark-Kazak and co-authored by Allan Reesor-McDowell, Executive Director of Matthew House in Ottawa.
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Opinion: Refugee claimants in Ottawa need not be homeless, by Allan Reesor-McDowell, Louisa Taylor (2024).
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Mapping of organizations providing housing to refugee claimants, Matthew House Ottawa (2023).
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Experience of access to legal services and support for non-status or precarious migrants in Quebec
Montreal City Mission
2023 -
Researcher
This project, initiated by the Just Solution legal clinic of the Montreal Community Mission (MCM), is supported by an interdisciplinary research team including M.-J. Blain (University of Montreal/Concordia University- team leader), M. Haydary (Just Solution), T. Sanhueza (University of Montreal), A. Lechaume (Laval University) and myself. It seeks to document access to legal services and support for non-status or precarious-status migrants in Quebec, by exploring their needs in this regard, their experiences of using services and the outcomes. This is done by considering the different spheres of legal services, such as immigration (e.g. regularization, status renewal, hearings, etc.) and family law (e.g. divorce, child custody; labour law (e.g. harassment, workplace accidents; housing; criminal law).
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In the first phase of the project, we conducted focus groups with migrant representatives across the province of Quebec. We are now finalizing the second phase of the project, which includes individual interviews with precarious status migrants.
Past Projects
Alliance for Gender Justice in Migration
Migrant Workers Centre BC
2022 - 2024
Researcher and Research Advisor
The Pan-Canadian Task Force on Women in Migration was a project funded from 2022 to 2024 by Women and Gender Equality Canada and coordinated by the Migrant Workers Centre BC. This project sought to develop an Alliance for Gender Justice in Migration with the goal of addressing the intersecting vulnerabilities that women and gender-diverse migrants experience.
I helped with recruiting and supervising research assistants, especially for the literature reviews (in English and French), and I sat on a committee in Quebec with migrant women without status. Together with these women and the Immigrant Workers Centre (Montreal), we worked on a video project to be used for the current “Status for All” regularization campaign. In the Spring of 2024, 4 of these videos were finalized and presented in public. Those videos, which will be soon available on the Immigrant Workers Website and on the Alliance Website, will be used for advocacy and research purposes.
​​Finalized videos for the "Status for All" regularization campaign. ​​​​
Coming soon
Stay tuned!
Canada's Scorecard on the Immigration Detention of Children
International Detention Coalition
2017-2020
International Advisor
Between 2017 and 2020, I sat on Canada NextGen Index Committee, created by the International Detention Coalition and tasked to determine Canada's score in relation to the detention of migrant children, with supporting evidence and references.
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The scoring framework analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of current systems in protecting and respecting the child's rights and best interests, regardless of their migration status. Scorecards are accompanied by tailored recommendations on how each country can improve their scores in the future.