In “Keeping ‘em Out: Gender, Race and Class Bias in Canadian Immigration Policy,” Yasmeen Abu-Laban explores
raced and
gendered aspects of
Canadian immigration policy. She traces the
history of immigration policy in
Canada to show how it has changed over the years, and how it has stayed the same. Abu-Laban also explores the connections between immigration and the Canadian
economy.
Abu-Laban discusses the idea of ‘
substantive citizenship.’ Substantive citizenship refers to the level of
equality of opportunities,
quality of life, and
participatory involvement within a
state. For many new
citizens, this substantive citizenship has not followed from
formal citizenship. Abu-Laban writes, “In short, being a citizen is no guarantee of equality;
real equality is hampered by inequities resulting from membership in
stigmatized and minoritized groups.”
An example of the
attitudes that lead to
exclusion from
real participation in Canadian
political life can be found in the actions of
Ontario MP John MacDougall, who questioned Sunera Thobani’s ability to speak for
Canadian women and characterized her as an ‘
illegal immigrant’ (she is a legal citizen of Canada) when she became head of the
National Action Committee on the Status of Women.
The purpose of Canadian immigration policy is to exclude the
majority of the world’s
population from settling in Canada. Canadians are constantly hearing that our country is the greatest, the fairest, and
the best place to live. And it is pretty good, but underlying this discourse of
patriotism is the idea that
other places in the world are not so good, and if we allow people from such places to enter our country it will be
destroyed. Therefore, according to this line of reasoning, only immigrants who can easily be
assimilated should be allowed into Canada.
Multiculturalism is all well and good when one is looking for authentic
ethnic food, but ultimately ‘they’ ought to become like ‘us’.
This may be an explanation of some of the gendered aspects of Canadian immigration policy. Because it is women who often do the work of
sustaining culture, it is then desirable to keep
immigrant women isolated and
uneducated through a lack of language courses or to
deny entrance in the first place, so that women cannot institute true multiculturalism.
Immigration
policy has often been dictated by the needs of the economy. When the economy is booming, many workers are needed and immigration is opened to
skilled workers. When extra labour is no longer needed,
immigration is restricted. The different rules that apply to
domestic workers (we let them in to do our
dirty work, but don't give them a chance of staying) are an example of ways in which the concept of the ‘skilled worker’ is gendered.
Canada is a nation of immigrants, but it is too easily forgotten in
a sea of white faces that
the title to this land is not
the white man’s
birthright.
The first illegal immigrants in this country were the
European explorers who came to conquer a ‘
new’ land, and the
settlers who didn’t notice that
this land was already occupied.
If Canada is ever to become as multicultural as we like to think we are, then an
open and inclusive immigration policy must be enacted.
And gee.. it wouldn't hurt if we stopped discriminating against the only
legal inhabitants of the land: the
Aboriginal peoples of Canada.