Recently the Conservative government introduced a series of amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), buried in Bill C-50, a 136-page "budget implementation bill".
This fundamentally undemocratic move sneaks in critical changes to Canada's immigration policy without proposing any of those changes before Parliament. By making it a matter of confidence, the government forces Opposition parties to either accept them or call an election.
This series of amendments places more arbitrary power in the hands of
the Immigration Minister:
- Under the existing s. 11 of the IRPA, anyone who meets the already
stringent criteria to enter Canada as a worker, student, visitor, or
permanent resident, shall be granted that status. However, under the
proposed changes, despite meeting the criteria, the Minister will have
the discretion to arbitrarily reject an application.
- Sec. 25 currently says that the Minister "shall" examine a
Humanitarian and Compassionate application - this is changed to "shall"
examine the H&C application if the applicant is in Canada, but only
"may" examine the application if the applicant is outside Canada.
Although the government claims will have no impact on family
reunification, in practice it will have a serious impact on family
reunification as H&C applications are one of the most frequent avenues
for family reunification (for example separated refugee children).
- Proposed s. 87.3 of the Act will allow the Minister to issue
"instructions" setting quotas on the "category" of person that can enter
Canada - including quotas based on country of origin. This unprecedented
modification of IRPA would risk putting in place implicit equivalents to
the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923, the Order in Council of 1911
prohibiting the landing of " any immigrant belonging to the Negro race",
that of 1923 excluding "any immigrant of any Asiatic race", or the "None
is too many" rule applied to fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe during the
Second World War.
- Ministerial power in deciding the order in which new applications are
processed, regardless of when they were filed. This means prioritizing
immigration applicants based on their ability to fulfill the needs of
the Canadian job market, "whether it's people to wash dishes and make
sandwiches, or whether it's the highly skilled engineers", as stated by
Minister Diane Finley. This is a profoundly dehumanizing and racist
conception of immigrants as disposable commodities.
- New sections 87.3 (4) and (5) of the IRPA would allow the Minister to
simply hold on to, return, or throw out a visa application and deny any
opportunity to review that decision in Court. This precedent is truly
alarming, especially in the context of a deeply flawed appeals process,
including the existing lack of implementation of a Refugee Appeal
Division, despite being provided for under IRPA.
The Conservatives argue that these changes are necessary to "modernize"
the immigration system and reduce the existing backlog. However, the
true objective is clear from Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's comments
that the government seeks a "competitive immigration system which will
quickly process skilled immigrants who can make an immediate
contribution to the economy."
The major lobby behind these changes comes from employers' organizations
and business lobbies. Indeed, Bill C-50 is being praised primarily by
business associations. Philip Hochstein, president of the Independent
Contractors and Businesses Association of British Columbia, has stated
that the government is moving in the right direction by focusing on
Canada's economic needs, "We need strong, young, willing workers to
come, much like the people who built this country."
Mr. Hochstein seems to forget the historical exploitation of immigrant
workers, the most well-known example of which is the Chinese railway
workers. The estimated 17,000 Chinese workers who came to Canada from
1881-1884 were met with dangerous working conditions and discrimination
upon their arrival. Chinese workers earned $1 a day, and it is estimated
that anywhere from 1500-2500 Chinese migrants died during the
construction of the railway. As soon as this dangerous work was
completed, the message was clear: Chinese people were no longer welcome.
These proposed legislative changes come in the context of a global
capitalist and nationalist reinforcement of labour flexibility as the
guiding principle of immigration policy, where migrants are only as
valuable as their labour. It is clear that the priorities will be
relatively wealthy people applying under the skilled worker program and
investor classes, as well as increasingly vulnerable temporary migrant
workers. Immigration policy will serve the needs of Canadian industry by
regulating migration and providing a flexible labour pool rather than
upholding the dignity of migrants.
These changes are directly in line with Canada's commitment to the
Security and Prosperity Partnership, which lays out the need for a rapid
expansion of both "low-skill" temporary guest worker programs and
"high-skill" professionals. In Canada today, the number of people
admitted each year on temporary worker visas is greater than the number
admitted as permanent residents. We must reject temporary migrant worker
programs of indentured servitude and call for the unconditional right of
migrant workers to permanent residency and labour rights equal to those
of citizens.
At the same time, such changes comes at the deliberate expense of
refugees, non-status migrants, or those seeking family reunification-
who are seen as increasingly 'undesirable' and potential security
threats in light of repressive post 9/11 controls. Decisions such as the
$101 million arming of Canadian border guards; the establishment of
Canadian Border Services Agency as an enforcement division in processing
refugee claims that sends the message that refugee claimants are a
threat to public safety; the ongoing unjust use of Security Certificates
against non-citizens; the implementation of the Safe Third Country
Agreement between the Canada and US which has drastically reduced the
number of asylum seekers able to make a claim in Canada; and increasing
rates of deportation to over 13,000 a year from Canada have all
perpetuated a racist, anti-poor, and anti-migrant agenda.
This agenda is normalized due to the heightened racialized national
identity of Canada that continuously places racialized immigrants
(although not white immigrants) as 'Outsiders' to the Canadian nation.
For example, much of the opposition to this Bill has challenged the
secretive process behind the bill, while still accepting the norm that
"Canada should be able to select its preferred immigrants", thus feeding
into the commodification of migrants and the assertion of Canada's
sovereign and racist right to select who it allows to remain, as
reminiscent through the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese-Canadian
internment, and Komagatamaru incident. Therefore although nothing new,
in the post 9/11 climate, we are witnessing an escalation of attacks
against 'immigrants'- the eternally hyphenated citizens- for example
through the reasonable accommodation' hearings, the wearing of the hijab
and turban, the phenomenon of "nippertipping" against Asian-Canadians,
and many more. The constant questioning of immigrants (although most are
long-time citizens) "ability to integrate", their "suspicious
behaviours", their "overburdening of the system", and their "Third World
traditions" reveals an incredibly shallow multiculturalism.
This mutual reinforcement of corporate and state interests - cheap
labour and national identity, respectively - evident in the
prioritization of labour market needs within the global War on Terror,
is legitimized not only by recourse to colonial and racist discourse but
also by the constant cultivation of fear in the hearts and minds of
citizens. The production of migrants as disposable commodities goes in
tandem with their construction as the dangerous "Other" or "The Enemy
Within" as the threat they pose can be tamed through a process of
commodification and the withholding of citizenship rights as a mechanism
of social control. Fear of the "dangerous Other" thus underwrites the
production of exclusivist nationalist identity (and therefore support
for the state) while fear of the "commodifiable Other" (as "stealing"
employment and eroding the social system) produces fearful and
disciplined citizens vulnerable to increasing corporate exploitation and
state repression.
Therefore, the general message to poor and working people of colour and
their families- the overwhelming majority of migrants from the Global
South- is that they need not apply as permanent residents unless they
are willing to come as temporary workers in exploitative jobs and whose
status will be legally reinforced as 'non-Canadians'. This is
particularly revolting in a context where the Canadian government and
Canadian corporations actively participate in the creation and
reinforcement of a system of global displacement of migrants and
refugees who are fleeing poverty, persecution, war and corporate
exploitation of their lands.
In light of this reality, we call for an end to deportation and
detentions and a comprehensive, transparent, inclusive and ongoing
regularization program that is equitable and accessible to all persons
living without permanent residency in Canada to ensure free migration
and full rights for all those who seek them. We also call for the
abolition of agreements such as NAFTA and the SPP, which are making
Canadian borders increasingly open to capital and those who represent
capital, while at the same time restricting the movement of those who
have been displaced by these very same neoliberal policies.
At a most basic level, we must also challenge the notion that some
migrants are more worthy than others; we believe that freedom of
movement is a fundamental human right and we struggle for a world in
which no one is forced to migrate against their will and where people
can move freely in order to live and flourish in justice and dignity.
JOINT NO ONE IS ILLEGAL-TORONTO, NO ONE IS ILLEGAL-VANCOUVER, NO ONE IS
ILLEGAL-MONTREAL, SOLIDARITY ACROSS BORDERS-MONTREAL STATEMENT
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL!
www.noooneisillegal.org
- Our demands:
http://noii-van.resist.ca/?page_id=15
http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/about
- Our 12 principles for regularization:
http://www.solidarityacrossborders.org/en/principles
We encourage allies across Canada to march in solidarity with all
migrants and refugees to demand STATUS FOR ALL!: - in Toronto, join us
on May 3 at noon at Christie Pits; in Montreal, join us on May 4 at
12:30pm at the corner of Victoria & Van Horne in Côte-des-Neiges (métro
Plamondon). Other actions across Canada to be announced.
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Part of Mayworks! A festival of working class and immigrant culture
