International Seminar Series with and for undocumented residents in cities
5 -20 November 2020
An invitation for academics, activists and policy makers to come together and set a new agenda for urban strategies for undocumented residents.
This pioneering online series features six seminars, open to the international community and based on perspectives across three cities – San Francisco USA, Toronto Canada & London UK
Sanctuary: What next? will take stock and reinvigorate urban strategies of resistance to anti-migrant policies. Speakers include leading activists, advocates, NGOs, frontline workers and municipal officials across pioneering sanctuary cities in the USA, Canada, and UK.
The seminars will ask: what strategies of resistance and solidarities have developed in cities? How can we build stronger coalitions within and between cities? How are new forms of governance posing new challenges to non-citizens and solidarity with them – from the criminalization to the enclosure of public space and widespread surveillance? And what does – or could – the future look like for cities in this rapidly shifting moment?
Race, Migration and Policing
5 November 2020
Chair: Kikélola Roach, Civil Rights Lawyer, Ryerson University, Canada
Speakers:
Prasanna Balasundaram, Downtown Legal Services, University of Toronto, Canada
Liz Fekete, Director, Institute of Race Relations, UK
Bill Ong Hing, Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic, University of San Francisco, USA
Andrea J. Ritchie, Police Misconduct Attorney, Barnard Center for Research on Women, USA
Intersectional solidarities and coalition building for undocumented migrants
6 November 2020
Chair: Vincent Wong, University of Toronto, Canada
Speakers:
Zrinka Bralo, Director, Migrants Organize UK
Rita Chadha, Localising Equality UK
Syed Hussan, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, Canada
Deborah Lee, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, USA
Annette Wong, Chinese for Affirmative Action, USA
Anti-detention and anti-deportation
12 November 2020
11:00 – 12:30 PST / 14:00 – 15:30 EST / 19:00 – 20:30 GMT
Chair: Peter Mancina, University of Oxford
Speakers:
Souheil Benslimane, Jail Accountability and Information Line, Canada
Angela Chan, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, USA
Sam Grant, Liberty, UK
Mac Scott, No One Is Illegal Toronto and Carranza Law, Canada
Decent work for Undocumented Migrants
13 November 2020
9:00 – 10:30 PST / 12:00 – 13:30 EST / 17:00 – 18:30 GMT
Chair: Kathy Coll, University of San Francisco
Speakers:
Karen Cocq, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, Canada
Don Flynn, previously Migrant Rights Network, UK
Leticia Ishibashi, Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX), UK
Liliana Keith, Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migration (PICUM)
Elene Lam, Butterfly, Canada
Dolores Modern, Latin American Women’s Rights Service, UK
Lisa Moore, Domestic Workers Alliance, USA
Access to Health
19 November 2020
9:00 – 10:30 PST / 12:00 – 13:30 EST / 17:00 – 18:30 GMT
Chair: Nico Delvino, Oxford University
Speakers:
Nadjla Banai, South Riverdale Community Health Centre and Co-chair Network for Uninsured, Canada
Michele LeVoy, Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migration (PICUM)
Laura Melgarejo, PODER, USA
Jess Potter, Docs not Cops, UK
Aliya Yule, Patients not Passports, UK
Access to Education
20 November 2020
9:00 – 10:30 PST / 12:00 – 13:30 EST / 17:00 – 18:30 GMT
Chairs: Vernetta Avril, S4 Collective and Rachel Humphris
Speakers:
Tanya Aberman and the S4 collective, Canada
James Asfa, Citizens UK
Vincent Wong, University of Toronto, Canada
Christina Wong, Special Assistant to the Superintendent San Francisco Unified School District
Aims of the Series
This event will provide a platform to draw connections between the political economy of cities, the security practices at the heart of contemporary racial and colonial capitalism and the migration apparatus. In paying close attention to the messaging, practices, and tactics enacted by these organisers, there is much to learn about both the nature of the contemporary capitalist security state as well as how it might be possible to contest it.
The event is the culmination of two years’ intense networking and collaboration funded by Rachel Humphris’ Leverhulme Trust Grant ‘Welcoming Cities? Understanding Sanctuary in Securitised States’. The research has brought together undocumented residents, activists, advocates, NGOs, frontline workers and municipal government officials across pioneering sanctuary cities in the USA, Canada and Europe. Activists and undocumented residents specifically identified the need for this event. The event has been organised with a steering group including leading advocates across cities in these three geographical areas.
The series will be accompanied by online resources to be used for teaching, training and sharing across the USA, Canada and Europe for continued network building and collaborations, which will be shared at the event.
The advisory group for the seminar series includes:
Angela Chan, Asian Law Caucus, https://www.advancingjustice-alc.org/members/angela-chan/
Kathleen Coll, University of San Francisco, https://www.usfca.edu/faculty/kathleen-coll
Graham Hudson, Ryerson University Toronto, https://www.ryerson.ca/criminology/about-us/faculty-staff/faculty/hudson-graham/
Rachel Humphris, Queen Mary, University of London https://www.qmul.ac.uk/politics/staff/profiles/humphrisrachel-.html
Syed Hussan, Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, @hussansk
Peter Mancina, University of Oxford, https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/people/peter-mancina
Mac Scott, Carranza LLP, https://www.carranza.on.ca/our-people/bio/macdonald-scott
Rachel Humphris 