Associate Professor Dr. Suzanne Huot was recently appointed the Interim Co-Director of the UBC Centre for Migration Studies (CMS), an interdisciplinary centre of research that investigates human migration.
Dr. Huot’s appointment follows seven years of involvement with the Centre, which was created as a research cluster in 2018 with funding from UBC’s Grants for Catalyzing Research Clusters. The UBC Centre for Migration Studies offered many connections and opportunities for collaboration to Dr. Huot during her early career and continues to be a hub for knowledge exchange and cross-disciplinary research.
We asked her about the importance of research into migration, and how occupational science and occupational therapy intersect with this area.
Occupational therapists can advocate for systemic changes that would lessen the structural barriers that immigrants often face.
Tell us more about your new role at the Centre for Migration Studies.
I will be supporting the Co-Director and President’s Excellence Chair in Global Migration, Irene Bloemraad, while the founder and Co-Director of the CMS, Antje Ellermann is on sabbatical. This will entail, among other duties, stepping in as institutional lead of the Bridging Divides research program, co-teaching a graduate seminar in migration studies (ASTU 505), and supporting our collaborations with community partners.
What first led you to be interested in migration as a topic of study?
When completing my undergraduate degree in Geography, our department had hired a new faculty member who studied gendered migration in Southern Africa and offered a course on migration-focused theories and research. I was so interested in the content of that course that I ended up doing a Master’s degree under her supervision.
When I later worked as a research assistant for a professor in Occupational Therapy, the blending of my research background in migration studies with my newly developing perspective on human occupation paved the way for my PhD in Occupational Science centered on the experiences of French-speaking immigrants to Canada.
Why is research into migration important?
Migration is a global process whose social, economic, political and other impacts cannot be understated. It is studied across a broad range of disciplines due to its multi-scalar implications for people’s everyday lives at the micro/local scale to international compacts at the macro/global scale. Migration is in part a response to dynamic drivers (e.g., climatic, demographic, etc.) that ultimately reshapes societies in myriad ways that need to be well understood.
How does occupational science inform the study of migration, and what are its implications for occupational therapy?
Migration and the experience of moving across national borders touch on so many daily occupations that are often taken for granted, from having to learn new transit, health, educational, banking and other systems, having to cook with new and unfamiliar ingredients, having to make new friends, potentially having to learn a new language or start one’s career from scratch.
People’s roles and occupational repertoires are directly and immediately impacted by migration. Occupations are thus central to the ways that people begin to adjust to a new society. Occupational therapists can contribute their knowledge, skills and competencies to advocate for systemic changes that would lessen the structural barriers that immigrants often face to reengaging in meaningful occupations upon arrival in Canada, as well as developing programming to expand those possibilities.
How does the Centre support collaborations across disciplines, communities, and organizations?
At the time of its most recent annual report, the Centre for Migration Studies had 96 faculty and postdoctoral affiliates and 78 graduate student affiliates across 39 UBC units, as well as a Community Advisory Board and active community partners.
It currently has 6 thematic research groups: Borders, Climate Migration, Migration and Indigeneity, Mobilities, Narratives, and Political Membership. These groups organize a range of programming including journal clubs, workshops, invited lectures, among others that help build connections among scholars with shared interests.
Dr. Anne-Cécile Delaisse and Atieh Razavi Yekta, your former PhD students, recently graduated. How does it feel to have trainees finish their studies with you, and what topics are your other trainees researching?
It feels highly rewarding to now have had my first doctoral students complete their programs under my supervision. Their work was conducted in collaboration with community and has contributed novel findings to the occupation-based literature where interest in migration continues to grow. All of my trainees have been awarded multi-year scholarship funding in recognition of the socially significant work they undertake.
Those still working with me have work focused in three key areas: examining how musicking as a collective occupation shapes belonging for youth from immigrant backgrounds (Nathasha Damiano), exploring how systems of power shape occupational experiences and possibilities for 2S/LGBTQ+ Indigenous Peoples (Holly Reid), and studying what drives migration and shapes settlement experiences of immigrants from West-Central Africa living in Metro Vancouver (Astou Thiam).
I am also welcoming two more graduate students to UBC in the fall, Reeham Siddique and Ryan Feng, who will be involved with the Bridging Divides research projects I am currently carrying out.
Curious about Occupational Science?
OSOT 301: Introduction to Human Occupation
Dr. Huot is leading a recently introduced undergraduate course, OSOT 301, which will be offered in September 2025 for Winter Term 1.
“Coming out of this course, I feel like occupational therapy and its concepts should be discussed more in healthcare and education. There are so many important implications”
“I loved this class and it is by far one of the best courses I’ve taken at UBC”
Image credits: Person with a suitcase (Yaqing Wei on Unsplash), Vancouver airport (Albert Stoynov on Unsplash)