2026 CMS Migration & Integration Conference

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Advanced Digital Technologies to Support Immigrant Professionals’ Integration into the Canadian Labour Market
Abstract

Anusha Kassan, Associate Professor of Educational and Counselling Psychology, UBCV
Co-presenters: Fatemeh Kazemi, Senior Researcher, Centre for Immigrant Research at The Immigrant Education Society (TIES) and Kreisa Hilaro, Manager, TIES Centre for Immigrant ResearchDr.

Dr. Anusha Kassan is an Associate Professor in Educational and Counselling Psychology and Special Education at the University of British Columbia and the Founder of the Vividhatà Research Group. The lab is dedicated to socially and culturally responsive research that prioritizes meaningful community engagement. Dr. Kassan’s research currently centers on two main areas. First, she studies migration experiences across diverse groups, including newcomer youth, women, and 2SLGBQ+ communities. Second, she investigates teaching and learning within psychology, with a focus on cultural and social justice responsiveness among graduate students and supervisors. Her scholarship has important implications for psychology training, professional practice, research, and policy.

Immigrant Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence: Preliminary Findings from British Columbia
Abstract

Annamma Joy, Associate Dean, Faculty of Management, UBCO
Co-presenter: Ying Zhu, Associate Professor, Digital Arts and Humanities, Faculty of Management, UBCO

Dr. Annamma Joy is Associate Dean, Research, and Professor of Marketing at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus. Her scholarship has examined ethnic identity and acculturation among immigrants to Canada from India, Portugal, and Italy. More recently, her research explores the use and interpretation of emerging technologies in the art world, as well as how immigrants from India and China engage with generative AI. In this work, she focuses on how individuals navigate questions of identity, belonging, and cultural meaning in rapidly evolving technological landscapes.

Dr. Ying Zhu is an Associate Professor of Digital Arts and Humanities in the Faculty of Management at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus. Her research examines how emerging technologies such as AI and the metaverse shape consumer behaviour, and how marketing strategies influence organizational outcomes. As an immigrant and marketing scholar, she is particularly interested in how AI and other advanced technologies affect businesses, nonprofits, and immigrant integration into the workforce and society.

Credentialized Aspirations and Differentiated Migrant Labour in Canada’s Digital Economy
Abstract

María Cervantes-Macías, CMS Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UBCV

Dr. María Cervantes-Macías is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Migration Studies and an Affiliate Member of the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia. Her research explores how migration and digital labour are transforming Canadian cities, focusing on the everyday experiences of immigrant workers in the platform economy. She is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the U.S.–Mexico Center at the University of California, San Diego, and a former Fox International Fellow at Yale University. Through her work, María examines how borders, technology, and inequality shape who gets to move, work, and belong across North America.

Humanizing Technologies: Translating Migrant Oral Histories into Immersive Surrealist VR Narratives for Cultural Resilience
Abstract

Annie Wan, Associate Professor and Research Assistant, UBCO
Co-presenter: Marcus Hobkirk, Media Studies, UBCO

Dr. Annie Wan is an international digital media scholar, with primary research interests in adopting extended reality technologies for well-being and for social good. Her latest research involves building a VR, OpenAI’s virtual health-assisted application which trains and prepares Alzheimer’s caregivers. While another project studied an Asian heritage in Hong Kong, Kong Ha Wai, and the relationship between diaspora identity and heritage, which is complex and multifaceted, profoundly influencing how diaspora and communities understand themselves and interact with the new home.

Invisible Struggles, Emerging Patterns: Mental Health Indicators for Migrant Youth Across Two Decades in BC
Abstract

Shams M.F. Al-Anzi, MSN, Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre (SARAVYC), School of Nursing, UBCV

Shams M.F. Al-Anzi is a Doctoral Student at the University of British Columbia School of Nursing. Their research focuses on migration, youth mental health, and digital engagement. Their doctoral work examines how migration-related stressors, structural inequities, and experiences of belonging shape mental health outcomes among migrant and racialized young people in British Columbia, with particular attention to West Asian and North African communities. Using mixed-methods and population-based data, they explore how everyday mobilities, including digital and social forms of engagement, can function as both sources of empowerment and sites of marginalization. Grounded in intersectionality and postcolonial feminist frameworks, their work aims to inform equity-oriented policy, community-based interventions, and responsive health system practices for migrant populations.

Precarious Status, Precarious Health: Family Outcomes in Immigrant Substance Use Recovery"
Abstract

Imroze Singh Goindval, PhD Student, School of Population and Public Health, UBCV

Imroze Singh Goindval is a PhD student in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia whose research bridges migration, disability, and care. His work examines caregiving for mandhbuddhi (intellectual and developmental disabilities [IDDs]) within Panjabi communities in Panjab (India) and the Panjabi diaspora in British Columbia. Drawing on transnational ethnography, medical anthropology, and feminist political economy, Imroze investigates how families navigate migration and structural inequalities to assemble care across borders and systems. He integrates arts-based and community-engaged research (ABER) and multilingual, culturally grounded mediums to collaboratively generate insights with participants and to build accessible knowledge pathways across linguistic and social worlds.

Digital Platforms, Identity, and Integration Among Chinese Canadians
Abstract

Aodi Cheng, Master’s Student & Research Assistant, Political Science, UBCV

Aodi Cheng is an MA student in Political Science at the University of British Columbia. His research interests include comparative politics, political behavior, and the political economy of migration and integration, with a focus on public opinion and quantitative methodology. He works on survey-based research and causal inference designs, and is especially interested in how institutions and information environments shape attitudes toward immigration and integration

Public Opinion on Government Use of Artificial Intelligence: Support, Out-Group Bias, and Error Tolerance
Abstract

Maxime Coloumbe, Associate Professor, Political Science, Concordia University (Bridging Divides Scholar Exchange)

Dr. Maxime Coloumbe is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at Concordia University and a Research Associate with the Bridging Divides project and the Institute for Research on Migration and Society (IRMS). His research sits at the intersection of political behaviour and social psychology, focusing on public opinion, immigration, political participation, elections, and Canadian and comparative politics. He primarily uses survey data and experimental methods. His dissertation examined how social pressure influences voting and electoral participation, with related articles published in Electoral Studies and the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties.

Self-Recognition as Political Practice: Marrón Art, Racialization, and Inclusion in Argentina
Abstract

Ana Vivaldi, Sessional Instructor, Sociology, UBCV

Dr. Ana Vivaldi is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work explores how Indigenous territorialities are constructed in and from the city through active mobilities. She examines how migrant and urban Indigenous communities confront unspoken forms of racism through various strategies, including reconnecting urban spaces to traditional territories, fostering new forms of activism that unite members of different nations and individuals with unknown ancestry, engaging in artistic and cultural production, and advocating for anti-racist policies within state institutions. Through ethnographic and visual methodologies, her research sheds light on Indigenous sovereignties and emergent forms of urban conviviality, particularly how mobility among marginalized populations shapes social and spatial assemblages that challenge subordination.

Immigrant Experiences in Cosmopolitan Social Service Organizations
Abstract

Frankie Cabahug, PhD Student, Social Work, UBCV

Frankie Cabahug is a PhD student in the UBC School of Social Work. Before pursuing social work, she spent a decade serving Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside through roles in the social service and shelter sectors, which formed her interest in exploring the complexities of place-based community building. Her research seeks to explore how migration and mobility intersect with social infrastructures in migrant and newcomer identity construction.

Stepwise, Digital, and Onward: Mapping the Mobility Pathways of Displaced Afghans and Ukrainians to/from Canada
Abstract

Sophie Liu, PhD Student, Sociology, UBCV

Sophie Xiaoyi Liu is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology, specializing in the sociology of law, race/ethnicity, and migration. She examines how knowledge of and experiences with the law shape the ways marginalized groups engage with legal practices in the North American context. Her dissertation examines pathways to justice for hate incident victims in Canada, with a particular focus on the experiences of Asian minorities. She employs diverse methodologies to explore these issues, including survey experiments, in-depth interviews, and computational text analysis.

Bridges of Belonging: Creating Bonds with Language and Place in a Forest-Based Augmented Storying Project 
Abstract

Harini Rajagopal, Assistant Professor, Professor & Department Head and Associate Professor of teaching, Language and Literacy Education, UBCV

Co-presenters: Kristiina Kumpulainen, Professor and Department Head, Language & Literacy Education, UBCV, and Melanie Wong, Associate Professor of Teaching, Program Advisor for the Online MEd in Literacy Education, Language & Literacy Education, UBCV

Dr. Harini Rajagopal is an Assistant Professor in Language and Literacy Education. Her work, grounded in antiracist and decolonizing approaches, centers collaboration with children, families, and educators to value artistic, multimodal, and multilingual ways of knowing in educational spaces. She uses reflexive, participatory, and arts-based methodologies to support justice-oriented pedagogies rooted in critical care, creativity, and hope. Her interests include early years literacies, multiliteracies, family literacies, culturally sustaining pedagogies, childhood studies, and teacher education.

• Moderator: Daljit Gill-Badesha, Chief Executive Officer of AMSSA

Daljit Gill-Badesha is the Chief Executive Officer of AMSSA. She is a scholar-practitioner with nearly 30 years of leadership experience across community health, migration, housing, and social services systems. Her research focuses on multi-stakeholder collaboration, with particular attention to how power, equity, and context shape cross-sector partnerships. She examines how equity-centered approaches can strengthen collective decision-making, improve outcomes for underserved communities, and support healthier communities overall. Grounded in practice-based doctoral work, her scholarship integrates systems thinking, policy analysis, and community-engaged methods to advance more democratic and inclusive forms of collaboration.

• Geraldine Pratt, Professor and Department Head, Geography, UBCV

Dr. Geraldine Pratt is a Professor and Department Head of Geography at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on labour precarity, global migration, and emerging geographies of care. She has long engaged in collaborative and creative scholarship, working across film, installation, and performance. Her book with Caleb Johnston, Migration in Performance (2019), traces the international travels of their testimonial play, performed in Vancouver, Berlin at HAU1, Manila with PETA and Migrante International, as well as in Whitehorse and Winnipeg. She continues collaborative research with migrant organizations on temporary foreign worker programs, alongside new projects on aging and the changing geographies of care, and on housing (in)justice in the context of climate change with Rafi Arefin.

• Elizabeth "Biz" Nijdam, Assistant Professor, Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies, UBCV

Dr. Elizabeth “Biz” Nijdam (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Teaching and settler scholar in the Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies, where she serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies for the German Program. Biz’s research and teaching are grounded in the belief that popular culture is capable of both reflecting social and political discourse and intervening in it. Biz's scholarship examines the representation of complex histories in comics and digital and tabletop games, Tarot’s capacity for innovating classroom teaching, and the role of comics and arts-based research in preserving Indigenous knowledges, sharing Indigenous storytelling traditions, and revitalizing Indigenous languages. Biz established the UBC Comics Studies Cluster in 2023, where she continues to support community partners, local nonprofits, BC’s First Nations, and UBC faculty and students in making comics about the important issues facing society today. She is also the Director of the UBC Pop Culture Cluster, which is home to the UBC Critical Play Lab, and sits on the Executive Committee of the International Comic Arts Forum.

• Kamal Al-Solaylee, Director and Professor, School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, UBCV

Vancouver-based Kamal Al-Solaylee is the author of the bestseller Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes, winner of the 2013 Toronto Book Award and a finalist for the CBC’s Canada Reads and the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. His second book, Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone) won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and was finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Awards for Nonfiction. His third book of nonfiction, Return: Why We Go Back to Where We Come From, was published in 2021 and was named a Book of the Year by the Globe and Mail and CBC Books. His nonfiction books mix geopolitics, personal narrative with field reporting. He has reported from 20 countries around the world, including Taiwan, Qatar, France, Britain, Jamaica, Malaysia, Egypt, Israel, Spain, Sri Lanka, Ghana the Philippines and the United States. He is a two-time nominee for Canada’s National Magazine Awards in the column category, winning the Gold Medal in 2029. More recently, he wrote and produced documentaries for CBC’s flagship cultural program IDEAS on subjects as diverse as the Queen of Sheba, nineteenth-century English writer Wilkie Collins, and Asian port cities.

• Peter Klein, Professor, School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, UBCV

Dr. Peter W. Klein is an Emmy Award–winning journalist and Professor in the University of British Columbia School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, and a faculty associate at the University of British Columbia School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. He founded the Global Reporting Centre and served as Director of the School of Journalism from 2011 to 2015. He leads the Global Reporting Program, a year-long international investigative journalism course that has partnered with outlets including The New York Times, Toronto Star, The Guardian, PBS Frontline, Vice News, and Al Jazeera. His students’ work has received major honours from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Radio Television Digital News Association.