Profile
Keywords: Citizenship, Human rights; Anti-racsim, Immigration; Refugees; Multiculturalism
Yasmeen Abu-Laban is Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Citizenship and Human Rights in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. She is also a Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. She has published widely on themes relating to immigration and border control policies, antiracism and multiculturalism, as well as citizenship theory. She was elected President of the Canadian Ethnic Studies Association in 2022, and has also served as President of the Canadian Political Science Association and Vice President of the International Political Science Association. She is co-author of Containing Diversity: Canada and the Politics of Immigration in the 21st Century (University of Toronto Press, 2023). She is also co-editor of Assessing Multiculturalism in Global Comparative Perspective: A New Politics of Diversity for the Twenty-First Century? (Routledge, 2023), as well as co-editor of Resisting the Dehumanization of Refugees (Athabasca University Press, Forthcoming 2024).
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Revisioning Newcomer Settlement and Integration from the Ground Up Hosted online by AMSSA and UBC Centre for Migration Studies, this panel explored the evolving challenges facing Canada’s newcomer settlement and integration sector amidst shifting political and funding landscapes. Four sector leaders shared insights and strategic visions to help reimagine a robust and inclusive future.
Other Concordia University Activity 2025-04-24 Other Abu-Laban, Y. (2023). "We have lost a giant": Reflections on Elia Zureik. Journal of Palestine Studies, 52(2), 96-97. University of Alberta Publication 2024-04-03 Bakan, A.B. & Abu-Laban, Y. (2024). Anti-Palestinian racism, antisemitism, and solidarity: Considerations towards an analytic of praxis. Studies in Political Economy, 105(1), 107-122. University of Alberta Publication 2024-01-02 Abu-Laban, Y. (2023). Building a new citizenship regime? Immigration and multiculturalism in Canada. In J. Mann (Ed.), Citizenship in Transnational Perspective: Australia, Canada, and Aotearoa New Zealand. (pp. 279-300). Springer International Publishing. University of Alberta Publication 2023-09-20 Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring Recognizes outstanding mentorship of graduate students and junior scholars.
Other University of Alberta Award 2024-02-26 Other Faculty of Arts Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship Honors exceptional teaching and mentorship in the Faculty of Arts.
Other University of Alberta Award 2025-05-22 Other Faculty of Arts Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship Honors exceptional teaching and mentorship in the Faculty of Arts.Other University of Alberta Award 2024-02-26 Other Kick Off Roundtable: The State of Migration in Canada This public roundtable launches the series “International Migration: From Root Causes to Drivers” by exploring the current and future state of migration in Canada. The discussion highlights shifting domestic policies and evolving global migration trends, examining their impacts on Canadian society, the economy, and politics. The session is chaired by Naomi Alboim, with an expert panel comprising leading academics and senior government officials in migration policy and research.
Other University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, Toronto Metropolitan University Activity 2025-05-13 Other Migration Disrupted: How technological transformation is reshaping human mobility Migration Disrupted was an interdisciplinary, hybrid conference held at Toronto Metropolitan University from May 7-9, 2024, organized by CERC Migration and Bridging Divides. The conference focused on how advanced digital technologies (ADTs) are transforming human mobility, with an emphasis on their impact on migrant integration, citizenship, employment, health care, and urban experience in Canada and beyond. Through a series of panels, fireside chats, and breakout sessions, researchers, policymakers, and civil society leaders examined both opportunities and challenges created by technological transformation, including digital divides, the ethics of artificial intelligence, infrastructure for inclusive cities, and the future of migrant work. Video recordings of sessions are available.
Other Toronto Metropolitan University, University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, Concordia University Activity 2024-05-07 Triandafyllidou, A. , Ebrahim Bagheri,
Gruzd, A. , Georgiana Mathurin,
Abu-Laban, Y. ,
Agrawal, S. ,
Farooq, B. , Joel Dissanayake,
Banerjee, R. ,
Huot, S. ,
Mazalek, A. ,
Zhuang, Z. ,
Rockwell, G. ,
Wong, J. ,
Paquet, M. Other Afterword: Beyond Knowledge, Power, and Migration University of Alberta, Concordia University, York University Publication 2025-04-07 Introduction: Knowledge, Power, and Migration: An Overview University of Alberta, Concordia University, York University Publication 2025-04-07 Still ‘standing with’ Israel?: Canadian foreign policy and the legacy of Stephen Harper When Stephen Harper became the first Canadian prime minister to speak in the Knesset, he declared unwavering loyalty to Israel. Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau, Harper's successor, echoed this sentiment. Following the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023, Israel's responses in Gaza have been deemed by the International Court of Justice to be “plausible genocide.” How far does Canada's position of standing with Israel go, and does it include genocide? This article offers a close analysis of the Harper years (2006–2015) to demonstrate the significance of this period in cementing Canada's close relationship to Israel, and explores how the Trudeau Liberals sustained certain dimensions of that relationship. The article argues that during the Harper government, Canada's foreign policy towards Israel and Canada's domestic policy became increasingly intertwined. Based on analysis of policy, document, and media accounts, the article addresses: (i) the interface with Israel in foreign policy and in the United Nations; (ii) a pattern of what we term the “Israelization” of Canadian domestic politics; and (iii) the continuities since Justin Trudeau's election in 2015, which appeared in sharpened relief between 2023 and Trudeau's resignation in 2025. University of Alberta Publication 2025-04-27 Knowledge Production While the United Nations (UN) is commonly studied as an organization comprised of competing national states through the workings of the General Assembly or the Security Council, we start from a different premise. Specifically, we use a neo-Gramscian lens to consider the role of the UN in knowledge production through a focus on UN world conferences. These have aimed to advance shared interests regarding various specific aspects of human rights, especially since the 1990s. In this chapter, we address world conferences and related declarations pertaining to women (1995 Beijing), racial discrimination (2001 Durban), and Indigenous peoples (2014 New York). These conferences carried diverse impacts in terms of knowledge production on a world scale. Building on these ideas, we ask to what extent is intersectional analysis and consideration of the interrelatedness of human rights also evident in the declarations emerging from UN world conferences? Utilizing a discourse analysis and a close textual reading of the major UN declarations associated with each global conference, we trace hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses of these three major conferences. University of Alberta Publication 2025-02-04 Human Rights and the United Nations: Paradox and Promise University of Alberta Publication 2025-02-04 Statelessness as a Window on the Paradox of the United Nations The post-war emergence of the United Nations (UN) and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights were central to the ascendency of human rights as a frame with which to advance claims and pursue justice. However, what Hannah Arendt termed the "right to have rights" may also depend on state membership. In this paper we explore the tension between the promise of universality of human rights and state membership as a condition of according such rights. We consider three issues regarding redressing violations of human rights for stateless populations through the UN. These are: (i) the 2014 launch by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees of the #IBelong campaign to eradicate legal statelessness by 2024; (ii) the 2012 bid by Palestine for state status in the UN General Assembly to challenge political statelessness; and (iii) by way of conclusion, issues of emotive statelessness and belonging. This research upon which this chapter is based considers UN documents and debates to demonstrate that these examples provide a window to view the paradox of the UN in simultaneously privileging state representation while promising universal human rights regardless of state membership. University of Alberta Publication 2025-02-04 1. Theoretical Perspectives on Dehumanization and Resisting It University of Alberta Publication 2024-08-09 2. Dehumanizing or Humanizing Refugees? A Comparative Assessment of Canada, the United States, and Australia University of Alberta Publication 2024-08-09 Antisemitism as Anti-Jewish Racism: Reflections on an Anti-Racist Analytic Abstract Advancing a consistent anti-racist analytic to challenge antisemitism demands standing with all those who suffer from systemic racism, and specifically with Palestinians. However, antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism are rarely understood and opposed in a unified movement of solidarity. Here, we address what antisemitism is not, especially the false claim that equates antisemitism with criticism of the state of Israel – a claim that is reaching fever pitch at the current moment. Turning to context, we consider periodisations about how antisemitism has changed over time and place, suggesting we are in a new period of increasing supposed legitimacy for antisemitism in Western liberal-democratic capitalist states, associated with the rising influence of white nationalism. We then consider what antisemitism as anti-Jewish racism is, and how it is coded in certain ways, including: elite privilege; conspiracy claims; and symbolic marking for threats and violence. We conclude with notes on the potential for solidarity. University of Alberta Publication 2024-07-30 Middle class nation building through a tenacious discourse on skills: immigration and Canada This article considers the discursive emphasis in post-1960s Canadian immigration policy on 'skills' in the context of adopting a formally race-neutral immigration policy, and embracing what has been called middle class nation building. Using policy documents and statistical information, it is argued that a clear preference for newcomers with 'skills,' has been sustained despite shifts in policy over time, because 'skills' serve as a floating signifier. The preference and morphing nature of 'skills' is exemplified in three distinct policy initiatives advanced by the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau since assuming power in 2015: (1) the 2016–2017 Global Skills Strategy for temporary 'skilled' workers; (2) the Economic Mobility Pathways Project Canada undertook in partnership with UNHCR in 2018–2019 to facilitate the entry of 'skilled' refugees; and (3) COVID-19 pandemic developments which drew attention to 'essential skills' in services and care and facilitated a novel, albeit circumscribed, pathway to citizenship for some temporary workers and refugee claimants. Given Canada's decades-long preference and global leadership in pursuing 'skilled labour migration' it is important to recognize the ways in which the legitimating of 'skills' amounts to a middle-class nation building that hides, and even reinforces, inequities in the Canadian and global contexts. University of Alberta Publication 2024-02-26 Anti-Palestinian racism, antisemitism, and solidarity: considerations towards an analytic of praxis Escalating Israeli state violence against Palestinians in Gaza in the current moment of genocide should serve as a wake-up call for united action, yet the context is fraught. The state of Israel, a settler colonial and occupying power over Palestinians, is simultaneously presented as a safe haven for Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust, and Jews internationally. We ask how a united movement that counters both anti-Palestinian racism and antisemitism can be advanced. An analytic of praxis starts by naming anti-Palestinian racism and recognizing antisemitism as anti-Jewish racism. University of Alberta Publication 2024-01-02 Contested Citizenship in a Settler Colony: Lessons from Canada/Turtle Island University of Alberta Publication 2024-01-01 “Pavithra Jayawardena, Immigrants” Citizenship Perceptions: Sri Lankans in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand’ University of Alberta Publication 2023-08-31
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