Deniz Ozlem Cevik

Intro

I am a Turkish Canadian PhD candidate interested in understanding and sharing the stories of immigrants in Canada. These stories do not always take a single form: sometimes they appear in numbers, sometimes in words, and sometimes in silence. My research seeks to capture this complexity through the collection and analysis of data drawn from lived experience.

I study immigration from an information perspective because, in a world of increasing global mobility, immigrants rely on information to make sense of a new society and find their place within it. This makes their experience deeply personal, shaped by the meanings they construct as they navigate unfamiliar environments. At the same time, they live in a context where information, misinformation, and disinformation circulate rapidly. Immigrants are exposed to diverse sources and must constantly interpret and evaluate what is credible, which makes their experience highly technological, shaped by continuous interaction with information flows. Their experience is also profoundly administrative. In an era of growing regulation and bureaucratic complexity, immigrants often navigate extensive paperwork, forms, visas, and permits, requiring sustained engagement with information to move through the system. As Stefan Zweig once wrote of himself, “formerly a writer, now an expert in visas,” some immigrants gradually develop their own administrative expertise over time, while others remain dependent on external support to navigate the administrative landscape of immigration.

My work seeks to understand this triangle formed by individuals, government, and technology. I draw on theories and methods from public administration and information science, bringing them into dialogue to better capture the complexity of contemporary immigration governance.

Image credit: Library and Archives Canada, Reception of Ugandan-Asian Refugees at Longue Pointe, Canadian Forces Base, 1972. Item no: IM72-162.

Research

My ongoing research projects:

Doctoral research project, ENAP

My PhD research project examines how international students in Canada find, interpret, and use information related to immigration processes, as well as how they experience navigating Canadian immigration system in practice. My project has been awarded the SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarships (Joseph-Armand Bombardier).

A Comparative Study on Recent Regional Immigration Policies in Canada and Australia, ENAP

Recently, regionalization of immigration reappeared in the agenda of policy makers in Canada and Australia, two countries that rely on immigration for population growth. Although recent policies in the two countries share a common goal which is to achieve a better geographic distribution of newcomers, the process of agenda-setting in those countries did not follow the same pattern. The need for regional immigration policies was not problematized the same way in Canada and Australia. In Canada, population decline, and economic revival of the regions were used to define the problem whereas Australia followed a different pattern where policy makers emphasized the infrastructure problems in metropolitan areas. Using Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), this study compares the policy narratives emerged in both countries.

Open the poster created for the project. This poster has been accepted to the 24th Metropolis Conference in Vancouver.

Projet Montréal-Nord: Des trajectoires de services coordonnées pour mieux accueillir et intégrer les nouveaux arrivants: Relever le défi dans un territoire urbain socio-démographiquement défavorisé, ENAP

Le projet en question vise à renforcer la capacité du territoire de Montréal Nord à offrir une gamme de services (santé, sociaux, éducation, employabilité, logement, etc.) accessibles, continus et globaux aux nouveaux arrivants, quel que soit leur statut migratoire. La réponse aux besoins complexes des nouveaux arrivants nécessite de mieux gérer les interdépendances entre acteurs concernés, sur le plan vertical et horizontal; et donc de mettre en œuvre des processus de gouvernance collaborative.

My past research projects:

Immigrec: Stories of Greek Immigration to Canada, McGill University

Immigrec explores the history and language of Greek immigrants in Canada and elucidates their connection to the social and cultural history of the country. It contributes to the study of Greek transatlantic immigration and to the understanding of ethnic diversity in Canadian society.

Processing of minority archives and curation of photo archives of Greek Canadians, Library and Archives Canada

During my internship at Library and Archives Canada, I processed archival fonds and curated a digital photo exhibit that can be visited here.

Image credit: Les Turcs, 12 avril 1988, BAnQ Québec, Fonds Raoul Hunter, (03Q,P716,S1,P88-04-12), Raoul Hunter.

About

After graduating from Boğaziçi University, I followed in my father’s footsteps, who immigrated to Canada as a young adult to pursue his studies. I hold a dual master’s degree from McGill University, where I studied history, digital humanities, information, and data science. By day, I work as a federal public servant, a career that has allowed me to gain experience in policy development, program implementation, and policy and program evaluation since 2019. By night, I am a PhD candidate at the École nationale d’administration publique under the supervision of Professor Tatiana Garakani, and a researcher with the REGARDS research team. For information on my projects, check out my research.

Professional and academic interests

• Im/migration governance and management
• Information behaviour and practices of im/migrants
• Comperative immigration policies and programs
• Citizen-state interaction in the digital age
• Policy and program evaluation
• Fragile and conflict affected states

Research and technical skills

• Qualitative (interviews, field observation, focus groups) and quantitative methods (surveys)
• Qualitative data analysis in Nvivo and Dedoose
• Data analysis in R, Python and PowerBI
• Statistical analysis (regressions) in STATA, R and Python
• Database design and development in SQL
• Web design and development: HTML, CSS, Javascript
• Geospatial analysis in QGIS and ArcGIS Pro
• Web mapping application design and development in ArcGIS Online

Contact

Contact me via e-mail or social media:

• Linkedin
• ResearchGate
• GitHub

Elements

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