Alexandra Ricard-Guay

Research Fellow
Alexandra Ricard-Guay is a Research Fellow at MPC for the H2020 project CROSSMIGRATION. She is also a Research Fellow at the Global Governance Programme (GGP) for a study on the Italian reception system for asylum seekers and other migrants (with Professor Anna Triandafyllidou). She joined the GGP in 2014 to work as the main researcher for the study ‘Demand-side of trafficking in persons in the domestic work sector’ (2014-2017), part of the DemandAT project. She has been a consultant for various international organizations, including the ILO, IOM, UNICEF and UNODC. She holds a PhD in Social Work from McGill University, and a master degree in Political Sciences. Her research interests focus human trafficking, gender, irregular migration, access to care and reception for migrants and asylum seekers, adolescent girls and gender-based violence. Before joining the GGP, she was Associate Researcher at the Transcultural Research and Intervention Team, SHERPA (2009-2014). She has extensive experience in project coordination. Among others, she held the position of coordinator of the Quebec Coalition Against Human Trafficking (2011-2014), and of programme manager of training and research projects in the areas of human rights, gender and development, and education (Inter-American Organization for High Education, 2007-2009).


Special Issue
Ricard-Guay, A.& T. Maroukis (eds) (2017) Special Issue. ‘Human Trafficking in the domestic work sector in the EU: a special case or a learning ground for the anti-trafficking field?’, Journal of Immigration and Refugee Studies 15(2). Peer-­reviewed articles
  • Triandafyllidou, A. & A. Ricard-Guay (2019) ‘Governing Irregular and Return Migration in the 2020s: European Challenges and Asian Pacific Perspectives’, Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies.
  • Meloni, F., C. Rousseau, A. Ricard-Guay et al., (2017) ‘Invisible Students: Institutional Invisibility and Access to Education for Undocumented Children’. International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care. 13 (1): 15-25.
  • Beatson, J., J. Hanley & Ricard-Guay (2017) ‘The Intersection of Exploitation and Coercion in Cases of Canadian Labour Trafficking’, Journal of Law and Social Policy, 26 :137-158
    • Ricard-Guay, A.& M. Denov (2016) ‘Narratives of Ambivalence: The Ethics of Vulnerability and Agency in Research on Girls in the Sex Trade’, Girlhood Studies. An interdisciplinary journal. Special Issue Ethical Practice and the Study of Girlhood, 9(3): 28-45.
  • Rousseau, C., A. Ricard-Guay, Laurin-Lamothe, A. J. Gagnon & H. Rousseau (2014). ‘Perinatal health care for undocumented women in Montreal: When sub-standard care is almost the rule’, Journal of Nursing Education and Practice. 4 (3): 217­‐224.
  • Denov, M. & A. Ricard-Guay(2013). ‘Girl Soldiers: Towards a Gendered Understanding of Wartime Recruitment, Participation and Demobilisation’, Gender and Development. November 2013. 21(3).

    • Book Chapters
  • Ricard-Guay, A. & J. Hanley (2019 – forthcoming) ‘The challenge of addressing both forced labour and sexual exploitation’, InWinterdyk, J. & J. Jones (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Human Trafficking.
  • Denov, M. Ricard-Guay & A. Green (2016) ‘Girl Soldiers and the Complexities of Demobilization and Reintegration’. In S. Sharoni, J. Welland, L. Steiner & J. Pedersen (eds). Handbook on Gender and War. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 550-571.
  • Ricard-Guay (2015). ‘Trafficking in human beings: 15 years after the Palermo Protoco’l. In Triandafyllidou, A. (Ed.) Routledge Handbook of Immigration and Refugee Studies. Series: Routledge International Handbooks. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. London and New York, pp.354-361.
    • Ricard-Guay, A., J. Hanley, C. Montgomery, C. & F. Meloni (2014). ‘Être sans‐papiers et devenir mère au Québec: une problématique méconnue’. In, F. Kanoute and G. Lafortune (eds), Familles immigrante: parcours migratoires et défis. Presse de l’Université de Montréal (PUM): Montreal.
  • Paccione, L., T. Measham, R. Kronick, F. Meloni, Ricard-Guay, C. Rousseau, M. Ruiz‐Casares (2012). ‘The Mental Health of Children Facing Collective Adversity: Poverty, Homelessness, War, Displacement’. In IACAPAP e-Textbook of Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Geneva: International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions.

    • Working Papers and Research Reports
  • Ricard-Guay A. (2018) Criminalizing migrants who steer the dinghies in the Mediterranean: A collateral effect of migration management? RSCAS Working Paper, EUI Working Paper RSCAS 2018/32. Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Global Governance Programme: Fiesole, Italy.
  • Kuschminder, K. and A. Ricard-Guay (2018) Reintegration Package for Ethiopia. International Labour Organization (ILO), Country Office for Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan. For the project. Project: Support to the reintegration of returnees in Ethiopia. 16 September 2017.
  • Kuschminder, K. and A. Ricard-Guay (2018) Reintegration Background Report, Ethiopia. International Labour Organization (ILO), Country Office for Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan. For the project. Project: Support to the reintegration of returnees in Ethiopia. 16 September 2017.
  • Ricard-Guay (2016) European Policy Brief. Addressing the demand-side of trafficking in the domestic work sector: main findings at European level. DemandAT Policy Brief no. 1. Vienna: ICMPD.
  • Ricard-Guay (2016) Addressing demand in the context of trafficking in the domestic work sector: perspectives from seven European countries. Working Paper. DemandAT Working Paper. Vienna: ICMPD.
  • Ricard-Guay (2016) Labour trafficking in Canada: at the margins of the anti-trafficking efforts. RSCAS Working Paper EUI RSCAS; 2016/40; Global Governance Programme-227. Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies, European University Institute: Florence.
  • Ricard-Guay (2016) Trafficking in domestic work: Looking at the demand-side. Working Paper. DemandAT Working Paper no 8. Vienna: ICMPD.
  • Ricard-Guay, A. & J. Hanley (2015). Frontline responses to human trafficking in Canada: Coordinating services for victims. CATHII/McGill University: Montreal.

    • Blogs
  • Travail domestique: comprendre les formes plus invisibles des abus, The Conversation, 22 February 22, 2018.
  • Domestic Servitude: What Drives Trafficking Within the Family Home? DemandAT Blog, 12 December 2016.
  • Canada, a Welcoming country? The Unaddressed Issue of Labour Trafficking. OpenDemocracy Blog, Beyond Slavery and Trafficking, 27 May 2016.
  • Trafficking in Domestic Work. DemandAT Blog, 4 May 2015.