Contemporary Paradoxes and Struggles of Migration and Belonging in Canada
Project leadership:
John Carlaw (applicant), CERC Migration and Department of Criminology, Toronto Metropolitan University
Co-applicant: Ethel Tungohan (external link) , Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism, York University
Research Assistants:
Kushan Azadah (Lead Research Assistant), Ji Yon Amy Choi and Alireza Gorgani (external link)
Methodological Advisor:
Contact: john.carlaw@torontomu.ca
Focused on developments in Canada since 2016 and set within their global context, our research studies and compares existing and emerging migration discourses and policy stances from a wide spectrum of actors, while examining relationships between them through network analysis and qualitative approaches. Critically examining discourses and networks of the political right and far right, efforts to promote change “from below,” and struggles over the contested centre will shed light on currents of political and affective polarization, social exclusion, and emerging movements of inclusion concerning immigration and refugee policy. By assessing and comparing these actors’ stances, we will help uncover ways in which boundaries of societal inclusion might be widened and identify inclusive points of consensus that are perhaps not immediately apparent in less comparative forms of analysis. Our findings aim to inform policy thinking and advocacy responding to circumstances and social and political structures encountered by migrants and immigrants during a period of significant turmoil and change.
Training and employing graduate students in meaningful roles while achieving our scholarly aims is central to this project. Our activities will develop and strengthen their research, leadership and teamwork skills while building their academic and immigration sector networks. This project is funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2023-2025).
Key objectives of this study include:
1. To collect and share existing, multidisciplinary knowledge of the politics of migration and belonging in Canada in its contemporary and transnational context since 2016.
2. To produce new empirical knowledge on the politics of migration and belonging in Canada, including possible polarization driven by far-right currents emerging concurrently to migrant, immigrant and racialized communities’ assertions of their rights. This will be undertaken with a view to examine how these political currents and networks are taking shape and interact with mainstream politics and political parties.
3. To identify emerging threats to, and possibilities for, a more inclusive politics of belonging in Canada at a discursive and policy level.
4. To generate new theoretical knowledge on the boundaries of membership and points of contestation to better understand the substantive politics of migration and societal membership on offer in Canada, including from both “above” and “below.”
- What key developments, changes and new dynamics, including the transnational, can be observed in the politics of migration in Canada since 2016? What is the significance of these developments for advancing or impeding an inclusive politics of migration and belonging in Canada?
- What are influential and identifiable perspectives and projects of migration and belonging in Canada, particularly at the national level? What are the relationships between them?
- Can potentially transformative positive insights and discursive shifts witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic survive in the post-pandemic context?
The politics of migration in Canada are in significant flux and must be seen in their global context. Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic amidst global and domestic turmoil, change, and increased right-wing polarization, Canada is experiencing several related paradoxes and struggles to define its immigration future and terms of societal belonging.
Overall, while public opinion has looked upon immigration favourably in recent decades and Canadians perceive themselves to be generous towards refugees, shifts in Canada’s immigration model have meant that growing numbers of non-citizens face insecure futures while externalization policies towards displaced persons continue to expand in number and scope.
Canada’s economic recovery is occurring amidst increased misinformation and inflation, the latter having raised the cost of living on top of existing insecurities and anxieties faced by ‘old,’ ‘new,’ and prospective Canadians alike. This insecurity comes amidst growing currents of right-populism and extremism both domestically and transnationally, generating concrete realities and risks of increased affective political polarization, with negative impacts on migrants, immigrants, and racialized members of society.
Building on a pilot project examining projects of migration and belonging in Canada amidst and emerging from COVID-19, we will develop new knowledge concerning this terrain and actors from 2016¬ to 2023 with a national level focus.
News about this project:
2024 (April 4). New grant supports research into the changing landscape of migration politics.
2024 (March 28). Three Arts researchers receive SSHRC funding for projects in psychology, economics and migration.
The review phase of this study will include the creation of open-access, multidisciplinary bibliographies concerning the politics of migration in Canada as we further examine academic and grey literature from 2016 to 2023.
Using a Critical Policy Discourse Analysis (CPDA) approach, we will examine positions advanced by civil society, government, and political party actors in public statements, reports and websites in a manner attentive to both wider structures of change and individual and collective agency and public policies. Interviews with stakeholders and actors active in policy and political circles will help produce new knowledge as we gauge perceptions about the extent of change, perspectives on policies, and identify new and emerging opportunities and threats to a meaningful politics of belonging in Canada. Network analysis will help us identify promising and concerning links between organizations, discourses, and prominent individuals across the political spectrum at the Federal level.
Compiled bibliographies on the politics of migration in Canada since 2016 on several themes will be made publicly available later this year (2024). We are also collecting and organizing documents, particularly press and news releases, mandate (and suggested mandate) letters, and political party platforms from a wide variety of stakeholders and actors for analysis, with a goal of updating our collection of primary materials from March, 2020 until the end of 2023, and subsequently into 2024.Team members are participating in training on NVIVO software.
Our research ethics application has been submitted and is currently under review at Toronto Metropolitan University (Spring, 2024), and interviews will commence after its approval.
Some work related to this and our pre-cursor project (“CONTESTATIONS of Migration and Belonging”) has been presented, including at the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute, reflected in a video recording and blog post (below). Our first working paper, which includes a description of our application of a Critical Policy Discourse Analysis (CPDA) approach will be published in May, 2024.
Related news, publications and video
2024 (February 28). “Time running out for more inclusive policies? ‘Pathways’ Debates and Demands for Access to Permanent Immigration Status in Canada (external link) .” Migration Policy Centre Blog, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute.
Forthcoming publications (accepted)
2024 (May). Carlaw, John and Kushan Azadah. “Pathways to Permanence and Immigration Levels: A Critical Policy Discourse Analysis (CPDA) of Struggles and Limits to Societal Membership for Migrants Amidst and Emerging from COVID-19 (2020-2022) in Canada.” Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement (TMCIS)/Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration (CERC) Working Paper Series.
2025. Elke Winter and John Carlaw. “Mending or Patching Over Inequality? The Substance of Multiculturalism under Canada’s Liberal Government Since 2015,” for Multiculturalism on the Mend? The Return of the Political Left and the Future of the Politics of Diversity, Editors: Arjun Tremblay (University of Regina) and Paul May (UQÀM). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Presentations
2023 (October 4) John Carlaw. Pathways to permanence and immigration levels: limits to societal membership for migrants in Canada (external link) (Video, Migration Policy Centre, Robert Schuman Centre for Advances Studies, European University Institute.
Upcoming presentations (Association annual conferences unless otherwise indicated):
Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA; June 2024), International Migration Research Network (IMISCOE; July 2024), American Political Science Association (APSA; September 2024), IMISCOE Migration-Citizenship-Political Participation Standing Committee Workshop (external link) (MIGCITPOL; September 2024).
May 2025
Social Science and Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Insight Development Grant (June 2023- May 2025).
Immigration, Critical Policy Discourse Analysis (CPDA), Citizenship, Precarious Migration Status, Political Polarization, Migration, Right Populism, Political parties, Migrant justice