Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2018

Department

Social Justice and Community Engagement

Department

Social Justice and Community Engagement

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of Bill C-43, “The Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act,” on permanent residents (PRs) who immigrated to Canada as a youth and have come to regard Canada as their “home” despite their precarious migration status. Through qualitative research methods, data on the experiences of PRs and their understandings of “home,” “place,” belonging and consciousness was collected through interviews. Jay and Trevor’s stories are presented through a case study research design, highlighting their complex identities and experiences while also examining how the risk of deportation under Bill C-43 can strip them from all they have ever known –their lives in Canada. This paper argues that migrants within the Canadian context face similar logics of exclusion that can be traced from colonial periods (i.e. early Indigenous and white settler relations in Canada). To fully view Bill C-43 through a social justice lens, it must be placed within the context of colonialism and viewed as a mechanism that sustains and legitimizes the colonial state. Bill C-43 is an example of a harmful policy that continues to reinforce “White Canada” rhetoric. It is illustrated that the colonial logics of exclusion are clearly implemented into immigration law, in that keeping migrants as “outsiders” in need of heightened surveillance, control, and consequences allows for the maintenance of the Canadian state. This paper argues that Bill C-43 operates as a mechanism that has the potential to displace PRs who are constructed as “dangerous,” thus illustrating the intolerance for those perceived as “outsiders.”

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