Ryerson professor’s paper on "sanctuary cities" listed in top 10 most impactful articles on migration studies
Harald Bauder is director of the Graduate Program in Immigration and Settlement Studies and a professor of geography and environmental studies.
A research paper by Ryerson professor Harald Bauder has been listed by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) as among the top ten most impactful recent journal articles on migration studies. The IOM included professor Bauder’s paper, “Sanctuary Cities: Policies and Practices in International Perspective”, in a roundup of prominent studies in its World Migration Report 2020.
The paper was originally published in the journal International Migration. It examines the nature of “sanctuary cities”, which accommodate illegalized migrants and refugees in their communities, and shows how the characteristics of these cities vary in different countries.
In a comparison of cities in Canada, the UK and the US, professor Bauder found that while there is no internationally agreed upon set of policies that define what a sanctuary city is, there are broad elements that these cities have in common. For example, it is common for a city’s legislative body to officially support sanctuary initiatives. In Canada and the US, some municipalities have implemented “don’t ask, don’t tell” policies that prohibit city service providers from requesting status information. Professor Bauder notes, however, that in the UK, the focus is on creating a hospitable urban environment for refugees and asylum seekers, and not on providing protection to illegalized migrants.
“The inclusion of this paper among the top ten studies reflects the increasingly prominent position Ryerson is occupying internationally in the field of migration studies,” said professor Bauder, who is director of the Graduate Program in Immigration and Settlement Studies and a professor of geography and environmental studies.
The IOM’s analysis compared 410 peer-reviewed papers that were published in 2017 and 2018 and ranked them based on their Altmetric Attention Score, a measurement of how many people have been exposed to and engaged with publications. According to the IOM report, the growing number of publications and citations of migration research papers are a sign of increasing interest in the topic.
Read professor Bauder’s paper, "Sanctuary Cities: Policies and Practices in International Perspective." (external link)