Anna Purkey

BSIA Fellow

University of Waterloo

Anna Purkey

BSIA Fellow

Contact Details

Dr. Anna Purkey is an Associate Professor of Human Rights and the Director of the Human Rights Program at United College at the University of Waterloo. Her research employs an inter-disciplinary approach to examine international and domestic refugee law and policy, with a special emphasis on protracted refugee situations and themes of vulnerability, human capability, and legal empowerment. Recent and current projects focus on the concept of vulnerability in the Canadian refugee system, and the treatment of marginalized groups including refugee children and older refugees.

Dr. Purkey earned her Doctorate in Law at McGill University and is a member of the Quebec Bar Association and the executive of the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS). She has previously held the position of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice (Canada) and has worked as an external consultant for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

Select Publications

Purkey, A., Nakache, D., Yusuf, B. & Sagay, C. (Forthcoming) “Accommodating Vulnerable Claimants in the Refugee Hearing: The Canadian Example.” In Leboeuf, L. et al. eds. Between Protection and Harm: Contested Vulnerabilities in Asylum Laws and Bureaucracies. IMISCOE
Purkey, A. (2022) “Vulnerability and the Quest for Protection: A Review of Canadian Migration Case Law.” Laws: 11(2):20, 1-22.
Purkey, A. (2022) “Challenges of Canada’s Contemporary Migration Policy.” In Ervis Martani & Denise Helly, eds. Asylum and Resettlement in Canada: Historical development, successes, challenges and lessons learned. Genova: Genova University Press, (pp. 60-83).
Purkey A. (2022). “Exclusion in the Time of COVID-19: Migrant rights in Canada during the pandemic.” Vol III Canadian Yearbook of Human Rights, pp. 127-133.
Nakache, D., Purkey, A., Anderson, M., Tanotra, R., Soennecken, D., Sagay, C., Hajjar, O., Yousuf, B., Crépeau, F. (2022). “Migrant vulnerability in the Canadian protection system: The view of migrants, public servants and on-the ground practitioners.” VULNER Research Report 2.
Purkey. A. (2019) Refugee Dignity in Protracted Exile: Rights, Capabilities and Legal Empowerment. New York: Routledge.

Anna Purkey

Anna Purkey

Contact Details

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