Defying Higher Education Borders with Migrant Students in Canada

Building Counterstories and Sanctuary Universities

Defying Higher Education Borders with Migrant Students in Canada cover

Defying Higher Education Borders with Migrant Students in Canada

Building Counterstories and Sanctuary Universities

Description

This book explores migrant students' struggles for equitable access to higher education in Canada, focusing on a first-of-its-kind bridging program at York University.
Through the concepts of “bordering” and “countering,” Villegas and Aberman examine how students excluded due to immigration status resisted systemic barriers by forming supportive classroom communities and challenging dominant narratives. Providing essential insights for educators, policymakers, and advocates seeking to build more inclusive and just higher education systems, this book reveals how everyday acts of resistance can transform exclusion into opportunity and reimagine universities as sanctuaries.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Journey to the Access Program
Chapter 2: “Undocumented 101”: Narrating Illegalization in the Affective Immigrant Classroom
Chapter 3: “It Was Excitement Mixed with Relief Mixed with Hope, but There Was Still Some Trepidation”: Dis/connections in HE and in the Classroom
Chapter 4: “Much has not changed from the past”: Creating Counterstories to Canadian Nation-Building and Immigration Policy
Conclusion
References
Index
About the Authors

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 11 Dec 2025
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 1
ISBN 9798216253617
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 2 tables, 1 bw figure
Series Challenging Migration Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Paloma E. Villegas

Paloma E. Villegas, Ph.D., is an associate profess…

Author

Tanya Aberman

Tanya Aberman, Ph.D., is the coordinator of the Sa…

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