The book dissects issues facing refugees, immigrants, and other racialized minorities, both in Canada and globally, through a critical, anti-racist lens. It also investigates racist crimes, and public reaction to them, against the long-established African- Nova Scotian community. It moves beyond traditional theories by advancing an anti-racist framework toward migration and refugee studies using African refugees’ lived, and living, experiences in Canada. Based on theoretical, empirical, and qualitative accounts of resettlement challenges individuals have experienced, the book analyzes socio-racial constructs used in the post-colonial North to exclude, contain, and forcibly repatriate refugees.

This work looks at recent migration and refugee initiatives and shows how they breach international human rights and refugee law. Canadian legislation and international human-rights law prohibit discrimination in any form; yet implicit and explicit violations of key refugee protection principles continue. Ighodaro asks, “Does Canada have the political will to stand against racism and bring human-rights violators to justice?” The book strives to move Canadian society toward equality for all citizens, including immigrants and refugees, and to reject the collective denial of racism.