This report was originally published on December 7, 2021. We re-released in on December 17, 2021 after cleaning up the text from an editorial point of view. This resulted in some stylistic changes but nothing substantive.
Free access to this e-book is available to readers, scholars, and students located in the Global South whose institutions lack the resources to purchase access to these books as well as to those in other regions who are part of non-profit or community organizations concerned with displacement and who lack alternate forms of access to the book or the resources needed to purchase these publications. Please see full access conditions below.
Abstract:
Turkey now hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees in the world, more than 3.6 million of the 12.7 million displaced by the Syrian Civil War. Many of them are subject to an unpredictable temporary protection, forcing them to live under vulnerable and insecure conditions.
The Precarious Lives of Syrians examines the three dimensions of the architecture of precarity: Syrian migrants' legal status, the spaces in which they live and work, and their movements within and outside Turkey. The difficulties they face include restricted access to education and healthcare, struggles to secure employment, language barriers, identity-based discrimination, and unlawful deportations. Feyzi Baban, Suzan Ilcan, and Kim Rygiel show that Syrians confront their precarious conditions by engaging in cultural production and community-building activities, and by undertaking perilous journeys to Europe, allowing them to claim spaces and citizenship while asserting their rights to belong, to stay, and to escape. The authors draw on migration policies, legal and scholarly materials, and five years of extensive field research with local, national, and international humanitarian organizations, and with Syrians from all walks of life.
The Precarious Lives of Syrians offers a thoughtful and compelling analysis of migration precarity in our contemporary context.
Free access to this e-book is available to readers, scholars, and students located in the Global South whose institutions lack the resources to purchase access to these books as well as to those in other regions who are part of non-profit or community organizations concerned with displacement and who lack alternate forms of access to the book or the resources needed to purchase these publications. Please see full access conditions below.
Abstract:
Displacement in the twenty-first century is urbanized. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the world’s largest humanitarian organization and the main body charged with assisting displaced people globally, estimates that over 60 per cent of refugees now live in urban areas, a proportion that only increases in the case of internally displaced people and asylum seekers.
Though cities and local authorities have become essential participants in the protection of refugees, only three decades ago they were considered to sit firmly beyond UNHCR’s remit, with urban refugees typically characterized as aberrations. In The Urbanization of Forced Displacement Neil James Wilson Crawford examines the organization’s response to the growing number of refugees migrating to urban areas. Introducing a broader study of policy-making in international organizations, Crawford addresses how and why UNHCR changed its policy and practice in response to shifting trends in displacement. Citing over 400 primary UN documents, Crawford provides an in-depth study of the internal and external pressures faced by UNHCR - pressures from above, below, and within - that explain why it has radically transformed its position from the 1990s onward.
UNHCR and global refugee policies have come to play an increasingly important role in the governance of global displacement. The Urbanization of Forced Displacement sheds new light on how the organization works and how it conceives its role in global politics today.
Free access to this e-book is available to readers, scholars, and students located in the Global South whose institutions lack the resources to purchase access to these books as well as to those in other regions who are part of non-profit or community organizations concerned with displacement and who lack alternate forms of access to the book or the resources needed to purchase these publications. Please see full access conditions below.
Abstract:
The United States and Canada have historically accepted approximately three-quarters of resettled refugees, leading the world in this key aspect of global refugee protection. Between 1945 and 1980, both countries transformed their previous policies of refugee deterrence into expansive resettlement programs. Explanations for this shift have typically focused on Cold War foreign policy, but there was a domestic force that propelled the rise of resettlement: religious groups.
In Send Them Here Geoffrey Cameron explains the genesis and development of refugee resettlement policy in North America through the lens of the essential role played by faith-based organizations. Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish groups led advocacy efforts for refugees after the Second World War, and they cooperated with each other and their respective governments to implement the first formal resettlement programs. Those policy frameworks laid the foundation for diverging policy trajectories in each country, leading ultimately to private sponsorship in Canada and the voluntary agency program in the United States. Religious groups remain embedded in the world’s most successful refugee resettlement programs.
Send Them Here draws on a rich archival record and extensive comparative research to contribute new insights to the history of refugee policy, human rights, and the role of religion in modern policymaking and global humanitarian efforts.
In this article, I analyze various discourses held by governmental and health authorities, nutrition experts, and civil society organizations that advocate for the importance of consuming and having access to “healthy” food in order to prevent health-related risks associated with diet, such as the development of chronic diseases or conditions like “obesity.” While “anti-obesity” discourses and practices aiming to “help” the population in the fight against “obesity” connect the issue to social or even food justice considerations, I discuss how the discourse of “healthy” food plays a key role both in problematizing the fat body and in the solutions brought forward to “fix it” as well as the broader “obesity” epidemic. I argue that these two roles are closely linked together – because “healthy” food is positioned as a solution to “obesity”, it reinforces the idea that fatness can be “acted on” or solved, and thus that it should be.
I mobilize works emerging in critical food and fat studies to address how these discourses and practices contribute to further marginalizing those whose bodies do not match dominant ideas of health while creating harmful and discriminatory processes that have material and health-related consequences.
I contend that scholars should be attentive to the broad effectivities of ”healthy” food as arising from “anti-obesity”, or pro-health, discourses and practices as they contribute to further reproducing social injustices and can potentially materialize in damaging ways in individuals’ bodies and health.
Participatory budgeting and other participatory forms of public engagement have reached a high point of popularity as a best practice of democratic government. This gives some cause for celebration for those seeking to democratize democracy. However, recent scholarship has revealed a perplexing paradox in how new opportunities for resident involvement remain countered by pre-existing approaches to decision-making guided by abstract notions of public interest. This dissertation investigates this paradox by focusing on one of the newest cases of participatory budgeting in North America emerging from one of North America's biggest cities. As an investigation of the City of Toronto's participatory budgeting pilot project, running from 2015 to 2017, this dissertation demonstrates that this paradox is indeed taking place in Toronto. Using a Gramscian analysis of power with a particular focus on the construction of knowledge, this dissertation provides a plausible narrative of how participatory ideals are mobilized alongside prevailing forms of authority to provide new participatory opportunities for involvement without a significant transition of power.
Stone buildings are important representations of the history of the country and should be preserved for future generations. One of the major concerns with these structures is the out-of-plane strength of the walls under earthquake loads. Many of these buildings, notably churches, include buttresses which were originally included to improve the out-of-plane strength of the walls. Current Codes and Standards in Canada do not provide guidance for engineers to assess the out-of-plane strength of walls with buttresses. An Applied Element Method(AEM) software was then used to recreate existing experimental data on the out-of-plane and in plane strength of stone masonry walls, and the model was modified to analyze the behaviour of buttresses. The results from the modelling programme are related back to historic and modern analysis methods obtained from a thorough literature review.
Adopting a self-determination theory perspective, the present study sought to investigate how two forms of perfectionism at work, personal standards and self-critical perfectionism, differentially impact goal pursuit, motivation, and various work-related outcomes among employees. One hundred and eighty-one working adults participated, and two time points were used in our analyses. Results show that perfectionism does not predict goal progress for work-related goals. Personal standards perfectionism was associated with increased subjective well-being, whereas self-critical perfectionism was related to increased burnout and workaholism, and decreased subjective well-being over time. Results show that these relationships are not reciprocal in nature, thus perfectionism can be viewed as an antecedent to these work outcomes. Moreover, work motivation was shown to mediate the relationship between both forms of perfectionism and job satisfaction, and the relationship between self-critical perfectionism and subjective well-being. Implications of our findings are discussed in the context of organizations and work adjustment programs.
Automating digital pathology processing to identify ganglia in seromuscular biopsies from patients with Hirschsprung's disease may be able to provide objective measures and minimize evaluation time for expert pathologists. This adjunctive tool has the potential to improve surgical success for treatment. With thirty patient images, we proposed and evaluated an image processing pipeline that identifies colon tissue structures containing myenteric ganglia. This is an undertaking that is the first of its kind. From whole slide images of calretinin-stained colon sections, we initially segmented the muscularis propria using a convolutional neural network resulting in a mean inclusion of myenteric plexus of 95.96%. Then, colour thresholding identified myenteric plexus regions with a mean inclusion of ganglia of 99.2%. Finally, within these ideal search spaces, we segmented and classified ganglia candidates to achieve an overall mean precision and recall of 64.8% and 80.2%, respectively. Preliminary results encourage further development of these algorithms.
Noble metal nanocrystals are known for their unique optical and electronic properties which stem from their ability to support localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). In the past twenty years there has been an increase in the interest in the field of thermoplasmonics which focuses on harnessing the LSPR properties of nanoparticles for localized heating applications. The goal of this work was to investigate the selective thermoplasmonic embedment of silver nanocubes (AgNCs) and silver nanocube clusters (AgClusters) in supported monolayers. Wavelengths of 458 nm and 568 nm were chosen to selectively thermoplasmonically excite and embed individual AgNCs and AgClusters respectively. Based on the embedment patterns achieved with the respective wavelengths, it was determined that both types of selective embedment were attained. In addition to being the first reported instance of spatially resolved thermoplasmonics in supported nanoparticle monolayers, these selective embedment techniques show promise for future applications in nanopatterning.
Traditionally, the Míkmaq enjoyed an interconnected relationship with the land, harvesting what they needed from the earth and the ocean, guided by the concept of Netukulimk, the practice of sustainability. Upon the arrival of European settlers, new trade practices were introduced, and what was once plentiful was quickly depleted. Although the original inhabitants were assured that their lands would be protected by agreements and treaties, these assurances proved to be false, and the traditional relationship with the land was threatened, as the Míkmaq—presaging the fate of most Indigenous Peoples in Canada—were dispossessed of their historical lands and forced to live on reserves; many of them far away from the environments to which they had had biological and spiritual ties. Land is central to our understanding of current Indigenous health issues; centering around how the Míkmaq traditionally employed land and resources, what changes in that relationship were brought about by colonization, and how their removal to reserves influenced their relationship vis-à-vis their environment. In addressing the ways that land policies, post-first contact, were developed and implemented over time, it is possible and necessary to juxtapose that history with the story of the forced mobilization of the Míkmaq, and examine the effects that the dispossession of land had upon their livelihood and economic activity. Informed by McGibbon's paradigm of the cycles of oppression, Boyer's study of the determinants of health is used as a lens to undertake an historical analysis of the habitation patterns of the Míkmaq who formerly resided in Sikniktuk (currently concentrated in Elsipogtog, once known as Big Cove Reserve and Richibucto Reserve #15). This critical ethnography argues that while dispossession from traditional lands and the subsequent decline of the Míkmaq population constitute a profoundly negative social determinant of health, the Elsipogtog community has responded to these conditions with resilience and perseverance.
Nonignorable missingness in the outcome variable complicates the longitudinal data analysis, as it is necessary to incorporate the missing data model into the observed data likelihood function. We investigate two approximate likelihood methods, bivariate pseudo-likelihood (BPL) of Sinha et al. (2011) and independent pseudo-likelihood (IPL) of Troxel et al. (1998), along with the exact likelihood, for analyzing longitudinal data with nonignorable and nonmonotone missing responses. Our numerical study shows that the BPL is more efficient than the IPL method in terms of both smaller biases and MSEs, especially when the within-subject correlation is high. Investigating the standard errors of estimators in an application with real world data, we also get similar findings. Overall, similarly to Sinha et al. (2011), our study confirms better performance of the BPL method over the IPL method when the number of longitudinal outcomes from a given subject is small.
Financial inclusion is a relatively new phenomenon. Today, more than sixty countries around the world have a financial inclusion strategy, and still, 1.7 billion people around the world remain unbanked. Various influences impact the degree of financial inclusion in a country, i.e. education. Although financial inclusion is most commonly found in developing countries, scholars have found that a lack of education is an explanation for financial exclusion in developed countries. The paper tries to answer the question; does more educational spending lead to more financial inclusion? Although there is evidence from different countries that education remains an important issue in the whole financial inclusion debate, this paper demonstrates that there is no direct relationship between governmental expenditures on education and financial inclusion. Still, the four-country analysis investigates various issues such as the role of government and concludes that financial inclusion does not always mean financial inclusion.
This study aimed to investigate the fire behaviour of concealed connections by considering the effects of parameters such as the number of bolts, bolt pattern and load ratios. The connections used for this study were fire-protected glulam beam-to-column reinforced concealed connections loaded perpendicular-to-grain in flexure bending. Eight (8) full-scale fire tests were conducted involving four different connection configurations. The load ratios applied during fire testing were 60%, 100% and 130% of the ultimate design load capacity of the weakest unreinforced connection configuration. The test results showed that the failure times of all the tested beam-to-column concealed connections were more than 50 minutes. Specimens with bolt pattern P1 performed better than bolt pattern P2. The results showed that increasing the number of bolts improved the failure time. Increasing the load ratio decreased the failure time of the connections. The brittle failure modes encountered in unreinforced concealed connections was prevented using STS.
This paper first provides an overview of a series of experimental studies carried out at Carleton University over the past two decades on reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls strengthened or repaired with carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets. These studies have led to several unique contributions including the development of a novel tube anchor system, which improves the load transfer mechanism between the CFRP and RC supporting structural elements. The paper then presents a new finite element modelling technique to analyze CFRP strengthened RC shear walls with the newly developed tube anchor system. Two different modelling approaches are proposed to consider the effects of the tube anchor system. Additionally, a number of other important CFRP- and RC-related mechanisms including CFRP debonding effects, tension stiffening, compression softening, and strength and stiffness degradation under cyclic loads are also considered in the model. The numerical models were able to replicate accurately the measured results.
The Phase of the guided light is a fundamental and important property to control and operate a photonic integrated circuit (PIC). Silicon photonic PICs provide potential for low-cost, scalable solutions to a myriad of applications such as optical logic, optical communications and routing. This thesis presents a theoretical and experimental demonstration of controlling an on-chip optical phased array (OPA) - a photonic device for optical beamforming and beam steering. This thesis also presents a work on optical logic architectures where two different phase control schemes are applied on the same device. Finally, optical routing architectures are proposed that has ultracompact photonic switches as the building block. All these devices fall under the umbrella of programmable PICs and this thesis is focused on the design and control of programmable PICS for various applications.
This thesis examined orthographic learning in university students and asked: (a) To what extent do university students demonstrate orthographic learning of novel words encountered through text? (b) What are the sources of individual differences in university student's orthographic learning? The participants had an average accuracy of 63% and 74% for the orthographic form on day one of testing and three days later, respectively. Logistic regression revealed that students who were better spellers had higher accuracy on the orthographic learning task and suggested that phonological STM might also be related to delayed retention of orthographic forms. Taken together, these results illustrate that university students learn the orthographic form of words encountered through texts. These results also help clarify some of the skills that university students might draw on to support their orthographic learning through text, namely existing orthographic knowledge and skill with remembering the phonological form of newly heard words.
Polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters (PAPs) have been used in many commercial and industrial applications due to their grease and water repellency, and surfactant properties. However, these compounds yield transformation products such as fluorotelomer alcohols (FTOHs) and perfluorinated carboxylic acids (PFCAs) that are environmentally persistent, bioaccumulative, and potentially toxic. Given that PAPs metabolize to bioactive products, it is important to understand the sites and kinetics of this metabolism. This research compares the biotransformation of a representative PAP, the 8:2 monosubstituted polyfluoroalkyl phosphate (8:2 monoPAP) in typical host biotransformation sites, the liver and intestine, to the mammalian microbiome. The 8:2 monoPAP was incubated in human and rat (male Sprague-Dawley) liver and intestine S9 fractions, and its immediate hydrolysis products, 8:2 fluorotelomer alcohol (8:2 FTOH) was monitored by GC-MS. Human and rat fecal samples were also collected, used as a surrogate for the gastrointestinal microbiome. Enzyme hydrolysis kinetics were measured and compared. Results show that the rat and human gut phosphatases have 2-fold and 1.3-fold more affinity for 8:2 monoPAP transformation, respectively (KM(rat)= (1.2 ± 0.3) ×103nM; KM(human)= 34(1.6 ± 0.4) ×103 nM) compared to liver (KM(rat)= (4.0 ± 1.5) ×103nM; KM(human)= (4.9 ± 3.3) ×103 nM). Results also show the microbiome contributes to 8:2 monoPAP hydrolysis. While the liver and intestine are the primary sites for metabolism, the microbiome playsa role and should not be overlooked. This may impact the relative risk of PAP exposure, given that levels of bioactive products, including PFCAs, may fluctuate depending on environmental and genetic factors leading to microbial diversity across individuals.
This thesis includes three essays on macroeconomics. In the first essay, I study the impacts of the rising market power. The market power, which is measured by markups, has risen in the last 35 years of the U.S. corporate sector. Over the same time, the labour and capital shares of income and the real rate of return on capital have declined, while the wealth-output ratio has increased. I argue that in the presence of income inequality, the rise of market power can be one of the main drivers of these trends. To study the trends jointly, I combine the incomplete market model of Aiyagari (1994) with the imperfect competition model of Dixit and Stiglitz (1997). The results suggest that the increasing profit of the corporate sector and its unequal distribution among households, who have a heterogeneous marginal propensity to consume, provide a unified explanation for the above stylized facts of the U.S. economy. In the second essay, I examine the evolution of markups in the Canadian economy. The literature on firm-level markup estimation suffers from two problems: The lack of a reliable measure of variable input and the sample selection bias due to using only publicly-traded firms. To address these issues, I use the T2-Longitudinal Employment Analysis Program (T2-LEAP) database, which has the universe of Canadian firms and the record of wage bill for each firm. The wage bill is more reliable than the commonly used measures of variable inputs, i.e. the cost of goods sold and the operating expenses. The result indicates that the average gross (value-added) output markups increased mildly from 6% (24%) in 2002 to 9% (29%) in 2015. In the third essay, I introduce a new approach to estimate firm-level markups from accounting data. The new approach, which uses economic profit rates and returns to scale of firms, is less sensitive to the choice of the measure of variable inputs. The findings suggest that, in the U.S., the average markups increased by six percentage points, from 7% in 1980 to around 13% in 2018, and the production technology exhibits constant returns to scale.
Belief in free will (whatever free will may exactly be) seems to influence our attitudes and behaviors, from cognition all the way up to meta-cognition. Several researchers recognized the importance of this area a little more than a decade ago and set up camps within the boundaries of philosophy and psychology to examine belief in free will in the general public. But as could be expected, this area, like every other up-and-coming field of study, has its fair share of problems. This thesis is, first, a critique of the prominent instruments being employed in the field, and second, presents a novel approach that bypasses the many problems that exist within the current literature. Subsequently, after employing our proposed free will item along with several other measures, we were able to demonstrate that different degrees of belief in free will only sometimes influence laypeople's attitudes and behaviors.
This thesis shows how through studying Emile Zola's The Ladies Paradise (1883), we can develop a stronger understanding of late Victorian political economy. Further, some late Victorians were very hesitant to embrace unbridled sensual capitalism for fear of enticing increased women's right movements. I discuss this through exploring the reception of the novel and writings produced by late Victorian conservative thinker and anti-feminist Lynn Linton. This thesis applies the theory of fetishisation of commodities, value theory, value augmentation and accumulation, as provided by Karl Marx, along with theories of political economy provided by Walter Bagehot, to show how these theories were ultimately limited in their scope and understanding of Victorian political economy. A theoretical approach on sensual capitalism as outlined by the Bryan Nelson and David Howes, combined with twentieth-century consumption theorists, will inform my arguments throughout in order to fill the silences in Bagehot and Marx's theories.
