The Global South Migration Lab

The Global South Migration Lab (GSML) is Canada’s first research hub dedicated to migration within the Global South. For decades, the dominant narrative has focused on people fleeing the Global South to reach the Global North—framing migration as a threat rather than a complex, multidirectional reality. But most migrants never leave the Global South. Take Venezuela: almost 8 million people have fled, but 85% remain in neighbouring countries. Movements are often circular, regional, and shaped by local conditions—yet traditional migration theories, crafted in the Global North, fail to explain this.

GSML exists to flip the script. Led by Dr. Yvonne Su, the lab supports South-led research, collaborates with Global South scholars, and centres the lived experiences of displaced communities. It challenges a system in which most migration research is produced in high-income countries, often by academics with no direct ties to the regions they study, distorting narratives and policy responses. GSML spotlights the realities and resilience of South-South migration, working to build knowledge, shift power, and shape policies rooted in lived experience rather than colonial myths.

The lab brings together students and collaborators working at the intersection of global environmental politics, climate security, and migration studies. We investigate how climate change, disasters, and border regimes are reconfiguring power, security, and governance across regions, with a particular focus on Global South perspectives and South–South mobilities. Lab projects connect ethnographic and participatory methods with debates on sovereignty, borders, protection regimes, and the political economy of adaptation, always centring the lived experiences of displaced and marginalised communities.

The lab is interdisciplinary in both topic and method. Our projects combine ethnography, participatory GPS, community mapping, remote sensing, digital storytelling, and policy analysis to examine environmental change, displacement, and resilience in ways that centre lived experience and local and indigenous knowledge.

Lab Values

The lab is built on collaboration, mentorship, and care. We aim to create a research environment in which students and early-career scholars can develop strong methodological skills, produce meaningful scholarship, and participate in research partnerships grounded in reciprocity, inclusion, and shared intellectual growth. We are especially committed to supporting first-generation students, Global South scholars, and equity-deserving researchers. This commitment shapes how we recruit, mentor, collaborate, and build research teams.

What the lab works on:

• Climate adaptation and environmental displacement

• Disaster governance and community resilience

• Border insecurity and forced migration

• Indigenous knowledge and environmental justice

• Participatory, visual, and arts-based methods

• Policy engagement and public scholarship