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The Trudeau Government, Refugee Policy, and Echoes of the Past

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Justin Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy

Part of the book series: Canada and International Affairs ((CIAF))

Abstract

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the welcoming of 25,000 Syrian refugees a pivotal part of the Liberal platform in the 2015 federal election. The refugee policy promise was central to the Liberal victory in 2015 and has been widely judged a success. This chapter aims to describe the extensive government response required to fulfill this promise, to put it in a historical context, and to emphasize the important role of private citizens and civil service initiatives in previous and current refugee resettlement programs. As in the refugee crises of 1947 and 1979, Canada’s large refugee resettlement programs work well when the civil service is encouraged to partner actively with the public to find creative ways to direct both federal and private resources.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Department of Homeland Security (2017).

  2. 2.

    O’Neil (2015).

  3. 3.

    Liberal Party of Canada (2015, 1).

  4. 4.

    Ibid., 2.

  5. 5.

    Government of Canada (2015a, 2016, 199).

  6. 6.

    Ibid. (2015b, 160, 167, 329).

  7. 7.

    Citizenship and Immigration Canada (2015, 40).

  8. 8.

    Friesen et al. (2015).

  9. 9.

    Citizenship and Immigration Canada (2015, 40).

  10. 10.

    Ibid., 41–42.

  11. 11.

    Government of Canada (2016, 196).

  12. 12.

    Ibid., 199.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., 200.

  14. 14.

    Ibid., 199.

  15. 15.

    Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (2016a).

  16. 16.

    Compare Citizenship and Immigration Canada (2016, 21), and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (2017a, 42).

  17. 17.

    Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (2017a, 44).

  18. 18.

    Ibid. (2016a).

  19. 19.

    Library and Archives Canada (1947b, 7).

  20. 20.

    Ibid. (1947a).

  21. 21.

    Gilmour (2009a).

  22. 22.

    For the most recent work on the movement to Canada from Indochina, see Molloy et al. (2017).

  23. 23.

    Employment and Immigration Canada (1982b, 27).

  24. 24.

    Employment and Immigration Canada (1982a, 5).

  25. 25.

    Adelman (1992, 2).

  26. 26.

    Ibid., 8.

  27. 27.

    For more on the movement of Displaced Persons to Canada, see Gilmour (2009b).

  28. 28.

    Molloy et al. (2017, 10).

  29. 29.

    Ibid. (2017, 123).

  30. 30.

    Black (2015).

  31. 31.

    The New York Times has been particularly interested in sharing Canadian refugee resettlement stories (Kantor and Einhorn 2017).

  32. 32.

    Howlett (2015).

  33. 33.

    Friesen (2015).

  34. 34.

    White and Hui (2015).

  35. 35.

    Goodyear (2015).

  36. 36.

    Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (2017b)

  37. 37.

    Zerbisias (2015).

  38. 38.

    Hauser (2017).

  39. 39.

    Hoye (2017).

  40. 40.

    Ibid. Levin (2017).

  41. 41.

    Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (2016b).

  42. 42.

    Ibid. (2016a).

  43. 43.

    Ibid. (2017c).

  44. 44.

    Ibid. (2017a, 44).

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Gilmour, J.F. (2018). The Trudeau Government, Refugee Policy, and Echoes of the Past. In: Hillmer, N., Lagassé, P. (eds) Justin Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy. Canada and International Affairs. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73860-4_12

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