About
Refugee Story Bank of Canada
The Refugee Story Bank of Canada is an online collection that invites refugees to share their stories, through blogs and various multimedia, curated and moderated by Christina Parker and George Melnyk. It is based on Finding Refuge in Canada: Narratives of Dislocation edited by George Melnyk and Christina Parker and published by Athabasca University Press.
Millions of people are displaced each year by war, persecution, and famine and the global refugee population continues to grow. Canada has often been regarded as a benevolent country, welcoming refugees from around the globe. However, refugees have encountered varying kinds of reception in Canada. Finding Refuge in Canada: Narratives of Dislocation is a collection of personal narratives about the refugee experience in Canada. It includes critical perspectives from authors from diverse backgrounds, including refugees, advocates, front-line workers, private sponsors, and civil servants.
The narratives collected here confront dominant public discourse about refugee identities and histories and provide deep insight into the social, political, and cultural challenges and opportunities that refugees experience in Canada. Contributors consider Canada’s response to various groups of refugees and how Canadian perspectives on war, conflict, and peace are constructed through the refugee support experience. These individual stories humanize the global refugee crisis and challenge readers to reflect on the transformative potential of more equitable policies and processes.
This project was supported by a research grant from the Renison University College at the University of Waterloo.
