On April 27th, 2026, Professor Yvonne Su was called upon as an Expert Witness to speak to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration on their study of Canada's Immigration System.
Impact
My research is designed to have impact beyond academia. Through partnerships with communities, NGOs, humanitarian actors, policymakers, and public institutions, I produce research that informs debates on climate adaptation, displacement, human security, refugee protection, and environmental justice.
Impact, in my work, means more than visibility or citation counts. It means generating evidence that communities can use, contributing to policy and protection frameworks, supporting public understanding of complex crises, and creating collaborative spaces in which marginalized voices shape research agendas and responses.
Policy impact: My research has informed debates and policy discussions on climate migration, disaster recovery, refugee protection, and adaptation governance. This includes contributions to international discussions on climate change and statelessness, expert evidence in refugee determination processes, and research findings used by humanitarian and policy actors such as the governments of Canada, Brazil, Colombia and Guyana.
Community impact: I work closely with community organizations, local leaders, and frontline groups to ensure research reflects lived realities and produces accessible outputs. Participatory and visual methods are central to this process because they support co-production, amplify underrepresented perspectives, and create more democratic forms of knowledge mobilization.
Training and mentorship impact: My grants and lab-based work create opportunities for students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career researchers to participate in interdisciplinary and collaborative research. I am particularly committed to supporting first-generation students, Global South scholars, and researchers from equity-deserving backgrounds.
Public and intellectual impact: Through public writing, lectures, workshops, media commentary, and collaborative outputs, I bring research on climate change, mobility, and security into wider public debate. This work helps challenge simplistic narratives and advances more grounded, justice-oriented understandings of environmental and migration crises.
Expert Witness
Since 2019, I have undertaken high-risk research into the homophobia, xenophobia, transphobia, and gender-based violence experienced by Venezuelan LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants in the unstable border cities of Pacaraima, Boa Vista, and Manaus in Brazil and Cúcuta in Colombia. I have also visited Brasilia and Bogota to speak with government officials.
My work is based on over 200 surveys and nearly 100 interviews with displaced Venezuelans, activists, humanitarian organizations, and government officials. As one of the first scholars to focus on LGBTQ+ Venezuelan displacement, my findings have directly shaped regional and international policy. My research has been cited by R4V—the main coordination platform guiding refugee and migrant responses across 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and nearly 200 organizations worldwide—as well as by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
My work has informed investigations in the Brazilian Parliament into the treatment of Venezuelan refugees during the COVID-19 pandemic, including women, children, and LGBTQ+ people. I have also briefed UN agencies, national refugee authorities, the Brazilian military, and senior political leaders, including the President of Guyana and Canada’s Ambassador to Brazil.
Through peer-reviewed publications, policy briefings, and public lectures, my research continues to shape how governments and international organizations understand and respond to the Venezuelan refugee crisis.
As a result of my expertise, I am frequently asked to write expert reports and act as an expert witness in asylum hearings. To date, I have assisted over 10 LGBTQ+ Venezuelan asylum seekers, and I am happy to report that my testimony and expertise have helped four of them obtain refugee status in the United States. But even more important than that is their ability to live authentic and dignified lives - free of persecution.
“I had the distinct pleasure and privilege of seeing Dr. Su’s effectiveness and impact across a variety of metrics. First, I asked Dr. Su, with a tight turnaround time, to help us in a case where I determined as counsel something was lacking to expressly show the court as to the daily stigma and consequence of being LGTB+ in Venezuela.
Dr. Su was the missing ingredient. Her report was excellently written, showing both the depth and breadth of her academic knowledge and field work, and she expertly analyzed my client’s case. At trial, while I typically have to qualify an expert, the court immediately asked the Department of Homeland Security if it took any issue with Dr. Su being an expert, and the US government accepted her as an expert without the need to even qualify her.
Dr. Su is a compelling witness, and frankly carried the day. Her expertise and knowledge are quite remarkable, yet it is her indomitable passion for justice in a challenging area of research that pours out in court like a river. We largely won our case due to Yvonne Su. We cannot thank her enough.”
Chad Brandt, Esquire
December 8, 2025
