Hasrat Grewal Gill is a faculty member and program developer in the Department of Community Development and Outreach (CDO) and Women and Gender Studies (WGST) at Capilano University. As a settler, she lives, learns, and works on the unceded ancestral and traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nation. Before migrating to Canada, she grew up on her ancestral lands in Punjab, in northwestern India.

Over the past decade, Hasrat has worked in a variety of community-based roles developing and delivering grassroots programs for newcomers, migrants, and adult literacy learners. She is a human rights advocate and community developer whose work centers on migrant justice, the experiences of international students in Canada. She also serves as Capilano University’s representative on the Human Rights and International Solidarity Committee (HRISC) at the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC (FPSE).

Hasrat’s research engages with migration and mobilities by examining how migration is shaped by colonialism, systems of exclusion, and community responses to displacement and belonging. Her work explores what it means to decolonize immigrant integration through community-based, equity-focused, and decolonial approaches. Drawing on grassroots practice and storytelling, her research highlights migrants’ lived experiences and the ways communities foster belonging, solidarity, and social justice across diverse contexts. In 2023, Hasrat was nominated for British Columbia’s Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Award in the Breaking Barriers category, recognizing her work addressing systemic racism and reducing barriers for marginalized communities.