On April 1, 2026, UFV’s Research and Graduate Studies department hosted Student Research Day: an annual showcase where students share faculty-supervised research through poster presentations and two-minute micro-lectures. This year, 130 students participated in the poster presentation competition and 24 took on the challenge of distilling months of research into a snapshot micro-lecture. The event featured brilliant presentations focused on wellness, environmental sustainability, and social justice.
Among them was Lea Jose, Research Assistant at the South Asian Studies Institute (SASI), presenting her work on “The Impact of Policy and Laws: The Canadian Government’s Response to Tamil Refugees from Sri Lanka.” She presented both a research poster and a micro-lecture, bringing a largely untold chapter of South Asian Canadian history to a broad UFV audience.
Lea’s research examines the shifts in Canadian immigration policy following the arrival of Tamil refugee ships in the late 2000s. Working with archival materials and policy documents, she traced the government’s response through legislation, media coverage and secondary research materials, revealing how quickly policy can be weaponized against vulnerable populations.
What drew Lea to this project was a realization that came from working at SASI. “When I first found out about the story behind the Komagata Maru Tragedy, I wondered how many people within the South Asian diaspora in British Columbia would be familiar with this history,” Lea reflects. “Given that Canada has around 250,000 self-identified Sri Lankan Tamils, this was an opportunity for me to learn more as someone from the community myself.”
Her research uncovered uncomfortable truths about how media narratives and policy converged to shape the treatment that Tamil refugees received by immigration officers and in refugee hearings. “Most media coverage was discriminatory, and refugees were held to strict standards – even being jailed during their wait for hearings.” She points to Bill C-12 as a particularly troubling example. The legislation, which became law on March 27, 2026, just days before Student Research Day, has drawn condemnation from over two dozen human rights organizations who warn it limits the ability to seek refugee protection, enables mass cancellation of immigration documents, and puts thousands of individuals at risk of persecution and precarity. For Lea, this is exactly why research needs to reach beyond academic circles. “I hope that my work would make it easier for the general public to engage with political discourse and understand how legislation can affect more than just one demographic, whether they are targeted or not.”
In preparation for Student Research Day, Lea reflected, “Getting to do creative work between all the research was a very welcome break.” While the experience was nerve-wracking, she noted that it helped make her research more digestible and engaging for others to interact with. Her presentation showed both the rigor of the research itself and the courage it takes to stand up and share it.
Thamilini Jothilingam, Digital Asset Archivist at SASI and Lea’s supervisor, reflects on the collaborative nature of the project: “What stood out most was Lea’s detailed analysis of how Canadian immigration policies shifted in response to the arrival of Tamil refugee ships. Her close examination of the government’s response revealed a clear concentration of new and proposed policies around the 2009–2010 ship arrivals, highlighting the strength of her analytical and comparative approach. Visualizing her findings made this especially compelling.”
Lea’s work continues SASI’s commitment to documenting overlooked histories within South Asian Canadian communities – ensuring that stories like those of Tamil refugees are preserved and centered in our understanding of Canadian immigration history.