The Project

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees defines Convention refugees as people who have a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of 1) race, 2) religion, 3) nationality, 4) membership in a particular social group, or 5) political opinion, the five enumerated grounds upon which refugees worldwide have historically been entitled to seek asylum.

The project, Assessing Refugee Claims on Religious Grounds: An Integration of Law, Psychology, and Religion, has three main goals: 

1.

To learn about the experience of refugees who are persecuted because of their religion

2.

To understand the assumptions about religion that are made by adjudicators, in particular at Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board

3.

To support parties participating in claims made at the Immigration and Refugee Board

Our research is groundbreaking, as these issues have received little attention but affect the lives of thousands of asylum seekers. We hope to pave the way for better support of persecuted religious refugees around the world.