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Asian Conservatives in Canada's Parliament: a Study in Race

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ASIAN CONSERVATIVES IN CANADA’S PARLIAMENT: A STUDY IN RACE AND GOVERNMENTALITY by Laura Jean Kwak A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Social Justice Education of the University of Toronto © Copyright by Laura Jean Kwak 2016 ASIAN CONSERVATIVES IN CANADIAN PARLIAMENT: A STUDY IN RACE AND GOVERNMENTALITY Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Laura Jean Kwak Department of Social Justice Education University of Toronto Abstract This dissertation argues that the political integration of the figure of the Asian Conservative MP has become part of racial governmentality, a part, that is, of how racial minorities are governed. In Canada, official multiculturalism emerged and evolved as the dominant discourse to regulate political heterogeneity. My research finds that the neoliberalization of multicultural discourse as led by the Reform Party of Canada has configured the Asian Conservative member of parliament (MP) as the upwardly-mobile, bootstrap- immigrant, difference-that-integrates into the modern polity. Insofar as multiculturalism as incorporation is a project of assisting racial others into modernity, it requires the utter exclusion of those that have been cast as antithetical to the modern: Indigenous, Black, and working class or poor life. Using a Foucauldian approach to the study of governmentality, the study traces how multiculturalism discourse has given rise to the ideal multicultural subject as necessarily a narrowly imagined Asian Conservative subject. That is, the thesis explores how the Asian Conservative MPs take up the narrowly imagined space of legitimacy that has been carved out for racial others – in which they remain regarded as duplicitous - as conduits to a settler colonial, anti-Black politics. ii To suggest that the figure of the Asian Conservative parliamentarian is a paradox presupposes the incommensurability of racial identity and conservative politics. By analyzing their text and talk, particularly their contributions to parliamentary debate on national identity, multiculturalism, and immigration policies, this thesis challenges this supposed incommensurability and investigates how Asian Conservative MPs, particularly since 1997, have contributed to the reproduction of racism in the Canadian context. Paradoxically raced in the name of racelessness, my research finds that the figure of the Asian Conservative MP has become vital to the state’s narrative of progress and tolerance. At the same time, speaking in the name of race, these politicians promote a discourse of integration and lend legitimacy to the project of managing racial populations. The study finds how politicians of colour also have the capacity to uphold the racial order, leave inequities uncontested, and often augment them with renewed vigour. iii Acknowledgements Infinite gratitude goes out to my committee of advisors. It has been a privilege to work under the supervision of chère maître, Sherene Razack. I am grateful for her generous, rigorous, and enthusiastic engagement with this work, which pushes me to be a more effective writer, astute researcher and thoughtful political agent. She has taught me to expect better from myself and to be honest with the work at every stage. Her support is fierce and boundless and she has carried me through all the challenges of graduate school life. That I have completed this thesis is a testament to her mentorship. Through her example, Sherene has taught me what it means to be an ethical and exceptional scholar, colleague, and teacher and I will carry these lessons with me for the rest of my life. I want to thank my second reader, Dina Georgis, who has seen me through personal and political growing pains since I was an undergraduate student. I would not have applied for the PhD program were it not for Dina who believed that my pursuit of a doctorate was never a question. She has taught me always to think of the bigger picture, not only in my theoretical analysis but also as a student of social justice. I will always appreciate how Rinaldo Walcott, my third reader, brought much needed perspective to my journey and kept me in the PhD program when I wanted to leave. Most of all, I am grateful for how he has always pushed my work to be more theoretically rigorous and has urged me to think of the political beyond the confines of discipline. Together my committee has brought me here, kept me here and carried me through to the end. I want to express my sincere gratitude to the external members of my defense committee, including Daiva Stasiulis for her generous engagement with my theorization of race and political representation as well as Jennifer Chun for her questions about the transnational in relation to the study of racial governmentality. This thesis has been made possible by funding I received from the department of Social Justice in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. I want to specifically thank Kristine Pearson and Sezen Atacan for their friendly encouragement and administrative support. Special thanks are also extended to the New College Equity Studies Program, which gave me the opportunity to write and present a chapter of my thesis as a recipient of the Senior Doctoral Fellowship (2014-2015). I also want to acknowledge the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities for funding this dissertation for three years through the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program. iv As I approach the end of the PhD journey, I think of all the teachers that have shaped my optics of the world and my place in it. There are far too many people to list that have contributed to the development of this thesis. I want to thank Lisa Lowe for sending me articles to read and for being such an encouraging force from far away. For significant conversations that helped me write, I want to thank Eve Haque, Shirley Hune, Jodi Kim, Kent Ono, Thy Phu, Sunera Thobani, and Lisa Yoneyama. My thanks to friends, colleagues, and students that helped to pull me through PhD life. Your existence and friendship were therapeutic and inspiring to say the least. I want to thank Jessica Chandrashekar and Alisha Ticku for study dates, box cakes, and for talking it through with me when none of this made sense. Thank you to Young-Min Seo and Jung-Min Han for giving me shelter in New York and for being my best friends. Beenash Jafri has been the most generous of colleagues and friends for the better part of a decade. Her friendship and support has nourished me always in the best and worst of times. Melanie Knight taught me how to be a better researcher and she always reminded me to access my fire and passion as an academic. I must give thanks to a wonderful cohort of colleagues, specifically the “Dim Sum Crew”: Chandni Desai, Hannah Dyer, Natalie Kouri-Towe, Kate Milley, and Christopher Smith. I want to specifically acknowledge Sarah Stefana Smith who has been the better half of a two- woman writing group through which a large portion of the thesis was completed. We wrote in small offices and in large hotel lobbies and we got it done. I want to thank June Larkin for giving me opportunities to teach in the Equity Studies Program at the University of Toronto. In this space, I have begun to learn how to energetically translate all the meditations of my research and writing by reaching out to new generations of critical, social justice-oriented scholars. I am thankful to my brilliant former students in the intro course, the theory course and especially in my fourth-year seminar course. Being your professor has given so much meaning to my research and writing. Last but not least, I want to emphasize my appreciation for my family – Yong-Joo Kwak, Myung-Sup Kwak, and Joshua Kwak - for their support and patience in all senses of the words and where patience must be underlined thrice in bold and italics. My mother has always told me that words are seeds. I realize now how much these words have shaped my methodology as a researcher and as a political agent. This thesis is dedicated to my mother who has made everything I do possible. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents........................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1: “Asians make no demands on the state”: The Politics of Incorporation on the Racial Landscape ...........................................................................................................................1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................1 Research Questions......................................................................................................................2 The study of Racial Conservatives and the Limited Politics of Incorporation ............................3 The study of Asian Canadian political figures ..........................................................................18 Research Design.........................................................................................................................27 Analyzing Parliamentary Text and Talk ....................................................................................32
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