Re-imagining Borders with Ayelet Shachar on CBC Ideas

The climate crisis may force people to leave their homes, but experts warn this migration challenge may well exceed the capacity of individual governments. 

"It's too large for any country to address single-handedly, even the strongest country in the world," Ayelet Shachar, U of T professor of law, political science and global affairs, told the audience at the Centre Mont-Royal in Montreal, as part of an annual series, Conversations.

The event titled Re-Imagining Borders was hosted by the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and recorded in front of a live audience for an episode of CBC's Ideas. 

Shachar is the R. F. Harney Director of the Ethnic, Immigration and Pluralism Studies Program at U of T's Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and is cross-appointed to the Faculty of Law and the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Arts & Science.

Shachar is renowned for her pathbreaking scholarship on citizenship, migration, cultural diversity and women's rights, and the fraught relations between human rights law and territorial conceptions of sovereignty. She has written multiple award-winning books, shares her research with law and policymakers in Canada and abroad, and provided pro bono consultation to non-governmental organizations including the European Parliament and the World Bank. 

She is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and recipient of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize – one of Europe’s most prestigious research awards – and the 2024 American Political Science Association (APSA) Migration and Citizenship Section Career Achievement Award. 

Read CBC News: Democracies must remember their own values when tackling borders, says U.S. official

Listen to Re-Imagining Borders on CBC's Ideas