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Contact info
For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Sociology / Anthropology by email () or Ask a librarian.
Essay
Start Your Research Here - This page gives you an overview of the research process, or in other words how to find materials for your essay.
Selected reference works
Encyclopedias, handbooks or textbooks provide overviews, definitions and identify key authors and ideas.
- Handbook of Migration and Globalisation
- Handbook on human security, borders and migration
- Oxford handbook of migration crises
- Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies
- Research handbook on the law and politics of migration
- Routledge Handbook of Migration and Development
- Routledge International Handbook of Migration Studies
- Routledge handbook of immigration and refugee studies
- Routledge handbook of refugee narratives
- Routledge International Handbook of Migration Studies
- Sage eReference
Find journal articles
Searching the "Databases for a discipline" is a great strategy to view articles that have been written within the scholarly journals of that discipline. For help, refer to the How to find journal articles, What is a scholarly journal?, and Finding articles: Advanced search techniques [video 3:13 mins]
If full-text of article is not available from within the database, click on the "Get@SFU" to start a search. If the Library does not provide access, then use the Citation Finder/ILL tab to request a copy from another library (free) through SFU Library's Inter-Library Loans (ILL) service.
- Anthropology Plus - Key database for Anthropological journal articles.
- Eldis -- Current research and policy documents on international development issues. In addition to "keyword" searching, also see "topics" and "issues" (top bar). E.g. "migration"
- Sociological Abstracts - Sociology discipline studies migration, refugees, societal structures, immigrants
- Social Sciences Full Text
- GEOBASE "Human geography" discipline studies issues related to "refugees" and "migration"
- HeinOnline indexes many legal journals
- Women's Studies International - Key database for issues related to women or gender.
Selected journals
- Forced migration review (FMR)
- International migration review: IMR
- International migration
- Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
- Journal of refugee studies (Oxford)
- Refuge : Canada's journal on refugees (also, an alternate link to the journal)
- Refugee survey quarterly
Find books in the Library
Library Catalogue search guide
Search the SFU Library Catalogue, using either the Basic or the Advanced search
Note: In the searches below, search results can be limited to "Online Resources only" and "Resource type" of "Books" and selected "Subjects"
- "forced migrat*" OR refugee*
- (refugee* OR migrat*) AND (forced OR war*)
- refugee* AND (forced OR war* OR "climate change")
- (refugee* OR migrat* OR migrant*) AND (detention OR detain OR deport*)
- (refugee* OR migrat* OR migrant*) AND border*
- (refugee* OR migrat*) AND (forced OR war* OR climate) AND (narrati* OR stories OR ethnograph*)
Combine different concepts using AND
Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of words
Use pull-down menu and select, "Source Types" as "Books"
Note: For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")
When you find a useful book, click on its "subject" to find more books on the same topic.
Selected books
- Alpine refugees : immigration at the core of Europe
- Borders and Border Walls: In-security, Symbolism, Vulnerabilities
- Borders and Migration : The Canadian Experience in Comparative Perspective
- Climate refugees : global, local and critical approaches
- Coloniality of Asylum : Mobility, Autonomy and Solidarity in the Wake of Europe's Refugee Crisis
- Crossing: How We Label and React to People on the Move
- Deadly voyages : migrant journeys across the globe
- Death of asylum : hidden geographies of the enforcement archipelago
- Departures : an introduction to critical refugee studies
- Environmental justice for climate refugees
- G20 and Building Global Governance for “Climate Refugees”
- Global Child: Children and Families Affected by War, Displacement, and Migration
- Globalizing borderlands studies in Europe and North America
- Human smuggling
- Human smuggling and border crossings
- Interpreters of Occupation: Gender and the Politics of Belonging in an Iraqi Refugee Network
- International Law and the Protection of "Climate Refugees"
- International refugee law and the protection of stateless persons
- Lives in Transit: An Ethnographic Study of Refugees’ Subjectivity across European Borders
- No refuge for women:|b the tragic fate of Syrian refugees
- Persecution, international refugee law and refugees : a feminist approach
- Refuge : how the state shapes human potential
- Refuge in a Moving World : Tracing refugee and migrant journeys across disciplines
- Refugee solutions in the age of global crisis : human rights, integration, and sustainable development
- Refugees and asylum seekers : interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives
- Refugees, migration, and conflicts in South Asia : rethinking lives, politics, and policy
- Refugees now : rethinking borders, hospitality and citizenship
- Refugees on the move : crisis and response in Turkey and Europe
- Refugee solutions in the age of global crisis : human rights, integration, and sustainable development
- Refugee states: Critical refugee studies in Canada
- Refugees worldwide
- Religion and Forced Displacement in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia
- Right kind of suffering : gender, sexuality, and Arab asylum seekers in America
- Science of climate migration
- Send them here : religion, politics, and refugee resettlement in North America
- Serious international crimes, human rights, and forced migration
- Sorting machines : the reinvention of the border in the 21st century
- State of disaster : the failure of U.S. migration policy in an age of climate change
- Syrian forced migration and public health in the European Union
- Systems of suffering : dispersal and the denial of asylum
- Undesirable immigrants : why racism persists in international migration
- Un-Settling Middle Eastern Refugees : Regimes of Exclusion and Inclusion in the Middle East, Europe, and North America
- Walking Together : Central Americans and Transit Migration Through Mexico
- What is a refugee?
- Women and borders : refugees, migrants and communities
- Women, Migration, and Conflict Breaking a Deadly Cycle
- Women Refugee Voices from Asia and Africa: Travelling for Safety
Browse Books Using Subject Headings
Catalogue Search / Browse then change "Title" to "Subject" and enter your subject term
- Asylum -- Right of
- Border security
- Border security -- [name of country or region]
- Environmental refugees
- Forced migration
- Forced migration -- [name of country or region]
- Human Trafficking
- Human smuggling
- Noncitizens
- Noncitizens -- [name of country or region]
- Political refugees
- Refugees
- Refugees -- [name of country or region]
- Refugee children
- Refugees -- Government policy
- Refugees -- Law and legislation
- Refugees -- Social conditions
- Women refugees
Government publications
- UNHCR - United Nations - Office of the High Commission for Refugees
- International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Publications by NGOs & International Government Organizations
There are two specialized Google search engines to search for NGO
Type your search terms into these pre-built searches to limit results to specific organisation types. Use Search tips for Google and Google Scholar to create your search strings.
NGO Search
NGO Search is a Google Custom Search that searches across hundreds non-governmental organization (NGO) websites.
E.g.
Search: refugees
Search: intitle:refugees [Syria OR Iraq]
Search: "forced migration"
IGO Search
International governmental organizations (IGOs) are organizations made up of more than one national government—examples include NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and the WHO (World Heath Organization). The governments are the members. IGO Search is a Google Custom Search that searches across IGO websites.
Library guides
- Library Research Tutorials. Animated tutorials on search techniques for finding books and journal articles.
- Annotated bibliographies
- Evaluating sources
- How to find journal articles
- Library Catalogue search guide
- What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?
- What is plagiarism? Guide to common forms of plagiarism and how to avoid them
Presentation skills
- Resources on developing your participation skills
- Resources to help you improve your presentation skills
Writing help
Student Learning Commons provides assistance and numerous, helpful guides.