Here is No One is Illegal's statement on the recent attempt by the Harper government to introduce reforms to immigration policy as part of a "budget implementation bill':
SCRAP BILL C 50! NO ONE IS ILLEGAL!
JOINT
STATEMENT FROM NO ONE IS ILLEGAL-TORONTO, NO ONE IS ILLEGAL-VANCOUVER,
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL-MONTREAL, & SOLIDARITY ACROSS BORDERS-MONTREAL
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 ver 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.
Links:
Statement from No One is Illegal, via New Socialist
The NDP's response as of April 11, 2008
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