U S War Resisters Quest For Refuge In Canada

When U.S. war resisters turned to Canada as refuge during the Vietnam War and the Afghanistan/Iraq Wars, they not only hoped to forestall deployment to a combat zone but also to build new lives and make a new home abroad. In her empirical study, Sarah J. Grünendahl explores and juxtaposes how well the two war resister 'generations' have been able to establish themselves after all and to what extent they partake in Canadian society. The comparison is instructive for migration and refugee studies altogether: The war resisters in the sample, unlike many other migrant populations, did not have to contend with language and cultural barriers in their destination country, given similarities between the United States and Canada. Sarah J. Grünendahl's research thus allows for an analysis of the effects of residency on migrants' adaptation and participation in the receiving society, isolated from these two common barriers. Further, the study sheds light on how refugees and non-citizens can employ civic engagement to claim a place for themselves and overcome societal exclusion. About the author Sarah J. Grünendahl is research assistant at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf and earned her doctorate in Political Science at the University of Siegen. Her research interests include migration and refugee studies, the effects of legal status on migrants' incorporation, and the nexus between societal participation, place (attachment) and identity.

When U.S. war resisters turned to Canada as refuge during the Vietnam War and the Afghanistan/Iraq Wars, they not only hoped to forestall deployment to a combat zone but also to build new lives and make a new home abroad. In her empirical study, Sarah J. Grünendahl explores and juxtaposes how well the two war resister 'generations' have been able to establish themselves after all and to what extent they partake in Canadian society. The comparison is instructive for migration and refugee studies altogether: The war resisters in the sample, unlike many other migrant populations, did not have to contend with language and cultural barriers in their destination country, given similarities between the United States and Canada. Sarah J. Grünendahl's research thus allows for an analysis of the effects of residency on migrants' adaptation and participation in the receiving society, isolated from these two common barriers. Further, the study sheds light on how refugees and non-citizens can employ civic engagement to claim a place for themselves and overcome societal exclusion.

Canada enjoys a reputation as a peaceable kingdom and a refuge from militarism.Yet Canadians during the Vietnam War era met American war resisters not with open arms but with political obstacles and public resistance, and the border remained closed to what were then called “draft dodgers” and “deserters.” Between 1965 and 1973, a small but active cadre of Canadian antiwar groups and peace activists launched campaigns to open the border. Jessica Squires tells their story, often in their own words. Interviews and government documents reveal that although these groups ultimately met with success – in the process shaping Canadian identity and Canada’s relationship with the United States – they had to overcome state surveillance and resistance from police, politicians, and bureaucrats. Building Sanctuary not only brings to light overlooked links between the anti-draft movement and Canadian immigration policy – it challenges cherished notions about Canadian identity and Canada in the 1960s.

The US has created its own military refugee problemMore Americans have fled to Canada because of the Vietnam war than have died in Vietnam. This is the story of that burgeoning exile community now estimated at from 40,000 to 100,000.An exiled war resister himself, Roger Neville Williams tells how and why the US has lost so many of its most talented, intelligent and aware young men and women to Canada. Alongside his experiences, thirteen of the draft resisters and deserters report their own highly individual experiences in a series of sometimes startling, often frightening, always candid interviews. The descriptions of how they made the agonizing decision to go, their new lives in exile, and the Canadian reaction to them are at once moving, alarming and thought-provoking. These dramatic, often emotional personal tales are perfectly complemented by Williams' systematic history of this profound social phenomenon. With the objective eye of a professional journalist and the keen insights of a fellow refugee, Williams calmly relates the story of the anti-draft and anti-war movements.Raised in the small Ohio town of Chardon, Roger Neville Williams spent six months motorcycling from Cairo to Capetown; was educated at the University of Colorado and at the University of Neu-chatel, Switzerland; has worked as a tour guide in Europe, as a seaman on the Great Lakes, and as a sailor aboard a schooner in the Bahamas.

More than 50,000 Americans migrated to Canada during the Vietnam War. Hagan, himself a member of the exodus, searched declassified government files, consulted previously unopened resistance organization archives and contemporary oral histories, and interviewed American war resisters settled in Toronto to learn how they made the momentous decision.