The Southeast Asian Refugee Movement to Canada: Chronology 1954-1980

January 25, 2026February 17, 2026

We have posted a revised and more complete chronology of developments leading up to and following the start of the movement of Southeast Asian refugees to Canada.

Foreign operations | Refugees | Southeast Asians | Special movements

Don’t Take the Boats
January 9, 2026January 29, 2026

Former immigration foreign service officer René Bersma offers his comprehensive recollections of the early part of his career, with particular emphasis on his experiences in south-east Asia (1978-1982).

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Refugees | Southeast Asians

Canada’s and Canadians’ humanitarian tradition
November 16, 2017February 1, 2026

CIHS President Michael Molloy , Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s Associate Assistant Deputy Minister Dawn Edlund, Naomi Alboim and Doctor Nhung Tran-Davies recently discussed Canada’s and Canadians’ humanitarian tradition. The panel was organized by the Canada School of Public Service which has made this video link accessible. The panel discussed their respective experiences with major refugee movements – Alboim…

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Foreign operations | Refugees | Southeast Asians | Special movements

A significant fiftieth anniversary
April 30, 2025January 27, 2026

CIHS offers its heartiest congratulations to the Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian communities in Canada on this important anniversary of the 1975 fall of Saigon. Since they first started to come to Canada and especially through Canada’s southeast Asian refugee program, they and their Canadian offspring have contributed to the fabric and success of this country….

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Refugees | Southeast Asians

The CBC website carries two articles stemming from ‘Running on Empty’
August 22, 2017February 1, 2026

The CBC website carries two articles stemming from ‘Running on Empty’. In the first, some of the immigration officers involved talk of their experiences. In the second, we read of one of the refugees recognizing a photo of himself taken during his interview for Canada and reflecting, along with his daughter, about that chapter in his life.

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Refugees

From the Archives: 1986 – the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award is awarded to “the people of Canada”
January 21, 2026February 3, 2026

In 1986, the people of Canada were the recipients of a prestigious award for their work on behalf of refugees. The Nansen Refugee Award, first presented in 1954, is named after Fridtjof Nansen, who was the first High Commissioner for Refugees at the League of Nations. He led the development of a travel document for…

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Foreign operations | Refugees | Southeast Asians

The Southeast Asian refugee ‘Notification of Arrival Telex’ and ‘Destination Matching Request’
September 6, 2016January 25, 2026

‘Going under’ – that was what the Indo China refugee task group found themselves facing in Ottawa. There was a ‘collision’ between the resource demands of overseas processing and maintaining the air bridge to Canada and the operational needs of matching private settlement offers in Canada. Canadian private settlement organizations were vocal about the disconnect…

Read More The Southeast Asian refugee ‘Notification of Arrival Telex’ and ‘Destination Matching Request’

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