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.

PhD candidate Tori Yang receives CSA’s Sociology of Migration Cluster Best Student Paper Award

PhD candidate Tori Yang receives the Canadian Sociological Association award for her paper, “Gendering Queer Migration: Evidence from Chinese LGBTQ+ Migrants.”

UBC Sociology professors honoured with 2024 section awards from the American Sociological Association

Profs. Amanda Cheong and Seth Abrutyn both received awards from the Sociological Practice and Public Sociology and Theory sections respectively. Prof. Andrew Jorgenson also received an honourable mention from the Political Economy of the World-System Section.

Gabrielle Abando investigates spatial mechanisms of immigrant enclaves in her honours thesis

Through a case study of Vancouver’s Joyce-Collingwood neighbourhood — a hub for Filipino Vancouverites — Gabrielle examines how immigrant enclaves cultivate well-connected and integrated immigrant communities.

2024 Sociology Undergraduate Research Conference Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Sociology Undergraduate Research Conference!

Prof. Amanda Cheong named a Public Humanities Hub Faculty Fellow for 2024-25

The Public Humanities Hub Faculty Fellowships are awarded to scholars to support their development of Public Humanities research projects. Fellows receive a course-release and a research grant to work on an individual humanities-oriented research project.

PhD Candidate Tori Yang receives the Migration and Mobilities Best Graduate Student Paper Award

Tori Shucheng Yang receives the Migration & Mobilities Best Graduate Student Paper Award with her paper titled “Rethinking Queer Migration: The Case of Skilled Chinese LGBTQ+ Migrants in North America.”

Prof. Aryan Karimi’s new paper examines how refugee backgrounds impact transnationalism

Prof. Aryan Karimi’s new paper, “National Assimilation and/or Cosmopolitan Transnationalism? Impending Transnationalism among the Upwardly Mobile Children of Refugees,” examines how refugee background push transnationalism into the future for second-generation Somali-Canadians.

Honours student Yeslie Lizarraga explores the evolution of identity for Mexican youth living abroad

Lizarraga’s research situates and explores colonial hegemony in the evolution of contemporary Mexican identity as understood by Mexican youth living abroad.

Dr. Irene Bloemraad appointed as President’s Excellence Chair in Global Migration and Professor of Sociology

Dr. Irene Bloemraad will join the University of British Columbia as the President’s Excellence Chair in Global Migration and as a Professor in the Departments of Political Science and Sociology. She will also serve as the Co-Director of the Centre of Migration Studies.

Prof. Ethan Raker investigates how disaster aid programs engender racial and socioeconomic inequalities in new paper

Prof. Raker investigates how racial and socioeconomic disparities emerge through the process of applying for and receiving individual disaster assistance in a new study.