Refugee Sandwich: Stories of Exile and Asylum

Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006. Soft cover. Very Good. Clean, tight, unmarked; spine straight and uncreased; very light wear to inside corners; otherwise absolute minimal wear; This collection of thirteen fictional vignettes takes you inside Canada's refugees and those who decide their fates. Refugee Sandwich is a unique combination of fictionalized stories about the participants in the determination process - lawyers, judges, interpreters, hearing officers, and, of course, claimants - and a concise analysis of the system itself. Showler uses satire to expose the prejudices, myopia, ignorance, provincialism, and lack of sensitivity that often mark the decisions of officials, attacking the patronage-based system behind their appointment and re-appointment and revealing its sometimes tragic consequences. He offers both a sympathetic picture of the problems that confront refugee claimants and a critical look at some of the more common devices and abusive strategies employed by fraudulent claimants.