Meet Sara Asalya

Sara is the Founder and Executive Director of The Newcomer Students’ Association, a national grassroots not for profit organization working at the intersection of migration, education, and social justice, and a platform committed to promoting inclusion and equity for post-secondary immigrant and refugee students. Sara has collaborated and worked on different research and policy development projects focused on refugee displacement and resettlement, gender-based violence, and labour market integration for immigrant and refugee women. Sara holds a Bachelor of Arts in English language and literature, a post-graduate certificate in Community Engagement, Leadership and Development; and in Immigration and Settlement Studies, and a Masters in Education in Higher Education from the University of Toronto.  Her research is focused on exploring the systemic and structural barriers faced by immigrant and refugee students with different migration statuses in accessing, transitioning to and succeeding in higher education, as well as looking at higher education institutional responses to the global refugee crisis. Sara is currently co-leading a research study on refugee students’ persistence and graduation in Ontario, and is involved in our Work Package 4 on Fieldwork in migratory hotspots, where she co-leads the fieldwork in Canada related to migrant interviews. 

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