Social construction of refugees: Syrian and Ukrainian refugee crises in the Canadian and US contexts

How do legislators justify the different policies toward Ukrainian and Syrian refugees in Canada and the US? What strategic framing is used to garner political support for policies in the Canadian Parliament and US Congress? Legislators pursue certain policy goals and political objectives by socially constructing refugee groups to justify support to one group while refusing to provide the same level of assistance to another. Strategic framing of refugee groups allows legislators to fulfil their political, economic, or ideological objectives. Positively constructed groups enjoy less restrictive policies, are framed to be vulnerable, facing threat from an invading force and have no control over their fate, to not be threatening because they are racially and religiously similar to the host country, and to belong to a country where democratic values are respected, practiced, and include humanitarianism. Groups that do not meet these criteria are negatively socially constructed thereby justifying more restrictive policies.