This episode of CRSP Talk features Dr. Nuha Dwaikat-Shaer, a social worker and researcher, discussing her qualitative study on the challenges migrants with precarious immigration status face when seeking legal aid. The discussion focuses on the lives of essential migrant workers and international students in rural Southern Ontario who are often invisible in legal and social systems, facing barriers like geographic isolation, language issues, and fear of retaliation. Dr. Dwaikat-Shaer shares stories illustrating how their precarious status and closed work permits can force them to choose between enduring abuse and risking deportation. The conversation concludes by exploring systemic solutions for practitioners, researchers, and policymakers, emphasizing dignity-centered services and the need for policy change toward open work permits and easier access to status.
Nuha Dwaikat-Shaer is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is also a Steering Committee member at the Centre for Research on Security Practices. She recently completed her PhD at the School of Social Work at McGill University. Her research focuses on space and housing rights and how that's affected by settler colonial practices. Her broad research agenda focuses on access to social services for racial minorities in settler colonial contexts, rooted in a commitment to human rights and social justice.
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