Forced Migration of Colombians: Colombia, Ecuador, Canada

Abstract

This document presents the results of the first phase of research on forced migration of Colombians to Canada, which is part of a broader research project on forced migration of Colombians. A Comparative Study of Fear, Historical Memory and Social Representations in Colombia, Ecuador and Canada. Data collection and analysis was carried out from the end of 2004 (with a pilot project in the city of Vancouver) through the end of 2006. The results presented here take into account the explanatory contexts of the dynamicsof migration by Colombians to Canada, the socio-demographic profile of Colombian immigrants to Canada, and public policies regarding immigration and refuge that inform and directly affect the protection and resettlement of Colombian refugees. In particular the results of three case studies, carried out in London (Ontario), Sherbrooke (Quebec) and Vancouver (British Columbia), are presented. These look to settlement experiences and the use of memory and the fears experienced by refugees as they remake themselves as social and political subjects, at the forms of association and social networking that are developed and their experiences of integration or exclusion in these societies.