Race, Ethnicity & Migration

Scholars in this area study how racial, ethnic, and national identities are salient and stratifying forces in people’s lives and across societies. Processes of immigration, migration, and colonialism shape racial and ethnic diversity, inequality, and settlement in Canada and other nations. Studies by UBC faculty focus on experiences of migration, settlement, dispossession, and discrimination as well as the ways difference and hierarchy are politically constructed and historically produced. Studies focus on histories of colonial dispossession, the experiences of undocumented and stateless peoples, the lived experiences of racialized refugees settling in Canada, and attitudes toward immigration and political trust among different racial and ethnic groups.

Prof Sinikka Elliott Interviews with FTV on Racism & Recent Police Brutality Protests

Prof Sinikka Elliott Interviews with FTV on Racism & Recent Police Brutality Protests

In response to recent Black Lives Matter protests taking place in every state in America, as well as around the world, Professor Sinikka Elliott spoke with Fairchild TV (FTV) to discuss racism, and more specifically how people hold false narratives about black criminality in their minds. In either link below Sinikka speaks in English but […]

Prof. Gillian Creese explores experiences of growing up African-Canadian in Vancouver in her new book, “Where Are You From?”

Prof. Gillian Creese explores experiences of growing up African-Canadian in Vancouver in her new book, “Where Are You From?”

Despite Vancouver’s diverse population, only one percent of its residents are racialized as Black. UBC Sociology Professor Gillian Creese published her new book, “Where Are You From?”, in December 2019. Her new research examines the hypervisibility and invisibility of second-generation African-Canadians growing up in Vancouver. We interviewed Prof. Creese about Vancouver’s unique environment, her applications of […]

Undergrad Xueqing Zhang Writes on Why East-Asian International Students Stay Quiet in Class

Sociology Grad Student Xueqing Zhang Writes on Why East-Asian International Students Stay Quiet in Class

The number of international students continues to climb at Canadian universities. In 2018, Canada recorded 435,415 international students enrolled at all postsecondary education levels, an 18-percent jump from the previous year. The University of British Columbia, where I study, has 16,000 international students, comprising 26 percent of undergraduates and 36 percent of graduate students. East-Asian students (i.e., students from China, Japan and South Korea) make up […]

Prof. Renisa Mawani’s Book Shortlisted for Award by UK Socio-Legal Studies Association

Prof. Renisa Mawani’s book wins award from Association for Asian American Studies

Congratulations to UBC Sociology Professor Renisa Mawani. Her second book, Across Oceans of Law: The Komagata Maru and Jurisdiction in the Time of Empire, was awarded the 2020 Association for Asian American Studies Book Award for Outstanding Achievement in History. Mawani has been praised for her engaging research documenting the history of British imperial power and […]

Research Fellow Amira Halperin Interviewed in Huffington Post on Refugees’ Contribution in Canada

Research Fellow Amira Halperin Interviewed in Huffington Post on Refugees’ Contribution in Canada

Amira Halperin, a University of British Columbia sociology research fellow and lecturer, focuses her research on refugees and their integration. “They really want to be Canadians. They want to integrate. They don’t want to… look back, because they know that they don’t have anywhere to go to. So they really would like to integrate to […]

Research Felllow Amira Halperin Quoted in Reuters on Race in the Upcoming Election
Prof. Rima Wilkes Speaks on Reactions to Trudeau Blackface Scandal
Research Fellow Amira Halperin Named UBC Expert on Migration for Upcoming Election
Undergrad. Student Kennedy Wong featured in the Globe and Mail on his Hong Kong identity

Undergrad. Student Kennedy Wong featured in the Globe and Mail on his Hong Kong identity

Kennedy Wong, a Hong Kong student who recently graduated from UBC’s Sociology program, embraces his Hong Kong identity, and states how Hong Kongers in Canada seek to distance themselves from China

UBC Migration Event: Integration of Migrants to Canada Through Media and Technology

UBC Migration Event: Integration of Migrants to Canada Through Media and Technology

Conducted by Postdoc. Research Fellow, Dr. Amira Halperin, the consultation event is a collaboration with UBC Migration, BC Refugee Hub, Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House and Vancouver Immigration Partnership. Dr. Amira Halperin is in the planning committee and will present in the event.