Understanding Resistance to Immigration Control in the Case of Immigration Detention in Laval, Quebec, Canada

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Understanding Resistance to Immigration Control in the Case of Immigration Detention in Laval, Quebec, Canada UNDERSTANDING RESISTANCE TO IMMIGRATION CONTROL IN THE CASE OF IMMIGRATION DETENTION IN LAVAL, QUEBEC, CANADA Maxine Both Department of Political Science McGill University, Montreal, Canada December 2020 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in Political Science Maxine Both 2020 Table of Contents LIST OF ACRONYMS ....................................................................................................... IV ABSTRACT...........................................................................................................................V RÉSUMÉ ............................................................................................................................. VI INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 Definition of Key Terms ................................................................................................... 5 Outline of the Proceeding Chapters .................................................................................. 8 PART I: LITERATURE, METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK GUIDING THE RESEARCH................................................................................................ 9 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................... 9 Theorizing the Landscape of Immigration Detention ......................................................... 9 Theorizing Resistance to Immigration Control and Detention Practices ........................... 10 The Emergence of Dynamics of Solidarity within Resistance............................................ 11 Limits to the Canadian Literature on Immigration Control and Resistance ...................... 12 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................14 Methods of Research in Migration Studies ...................................................................... 14 Justification for Qualitative Methods Used ..................................................................... 15 Case Study Selection ...................................................................................................... 15 Participant Observation ................................................................................................. 16 Semi-Structured Interviews............................................................................................. 17 Discourse Analysis ......................................................................................................... 19 Positionality, Reflexivity, and Ethical Issues ................................................................... 20 CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ..........................................................................24 Hannah Arendt on Statelessness, Political Agency, and Action ........................................ 24 Michel Foucault on Governmentality and Counter-Conducts........................................... 29 James Scott’s Everyday Acts of Resistance and Publicly Declared Resistance .................. 31 Combining Theories of Political Agency, Power and Resistance ...................................... 35 PART II: CASE STUDY AND FINDINGS ......................................................................... 37 CHAPTER 4: BACKGROUND TO THE CASE OF IMMIGRATION DETENTION IN LAVAL, QUEBEC, CANADA .............................................................................................................................38 Immigration Control in Canada...................................................................................... 38 Immigration Detention in Canada .................................................................................. 39 Resistance to the Laval Immigration Detention Centre .................................................... 42 CHAPTER 5: HOW ARE PROJECTS OF IMMIGRATION CONTROL RESISTED?.........................43 Strategies of Resistance: The “Inside”, the “Outside”, and the “In-Between” ................. 44 Resistance Inside Detention Centres.............................................................................44 ii Resistance “In Between” the Inside and Outside ...........................................................47 Resistance Outside of Detention Centres ......................................................................51 Understanding Resistance as a Continuum, not a Binary ................................................. 58 Barriers to Resistance .................................................................................................... 63 Government Control and CBSA Lack of Transparency as Barrier and Source of Frustration ..................................................................................................................63 Immigration Status as a Barrier ....................................................................................69 Fundraising as a Barrier...............................................................................................72 Responding to Barriers: Reformist and Radical Resistance.............................................. 73 CHAPTER 6: WHAT DYNAMICS OF POLITICAL AGENCY DO ACTS OF RESISTANCE SHOW? ..79 Motives for Resistance as Symbolic of Political Agency and Action.................................. 79 Rethinking Political Agency and Action through Solidarity.............................................. 86 PART III: CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 93 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................93 Reflections on the Findings of the Case Study ................................................................. 93 Part I: Strategies of Resistance .....................................................................................94 Part II: Dynamics of Political Agency and Action.........................................................96 Limits to the Research .................................................................................................... 97 Implications for Future Research and Policy .................................................................. 99 APPENDIX A .................................................................................................................... 101 APPENDIX B .................................................................................................................... 105 BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................................. 106 PRIMARY SOURCES .......................................................................................................... 106 SECONDARY SOURCES ...................................................................................................... 117 iii List of Acronyms ARM Action Réfugiés Montréal CBSA Canada Border Services Agency CCR Canadian Council for Refugees CPJ Citizens For Public Justice CRC Canadian Red Cross DCO Designated Country Of Origin DFN Designated Foreign National EU European Union IHC Immigration Holding Centre IOM International Organization for Migration IRB Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada IRPA Immigration and Refugee Protection Act IWC Immigrant Workers Centre NGO Non-Governmental Organization NIDF National Immigration Detention Framework NOII No One is Illegal non-IHC Non-Immigration Holding Centre UN United Nations UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees iv Abstract In a growing context of increasing immigration control and practices of immigration detention in countries such as the US, Australia, the UK, and the region of Europe, migrant detainees are often portrayed as passive victims who are helpless to create change. This begs the following questions: how are projects of immigration control resisted? What dynamics of political agency can these acts of resistance show? And which theoretical frameworks can best help to understand these dynamics of resistance? This paper aims to rethink migrants as having agency to affect change by expanding analyses to the under-examined Canadian context through the case of resistance surrounding the Laval Immigration Detention Centre in Quebec, Canada. Specifically, it theorizes strategies of resistance in solidarity with migrants as a form of agency, by combining theoretical frameworks from Michel Foucault on governmentality and counter-conducts, Hannah Arendt on rightlessness and political agency and action, and James Scott on “everyday acts of resistance” as well as publicly declared resistance. Using a multi-method qualitative approach involving participant observation and semi-structured interviews with members of organizations working in solidarity with migrants, as well as discourse analysis of public documents produced by these organizations—this thesis demonstrates how these acts of resistance can challenge social movement literature on the forms of resistance employed, the apparent “rightlessness” of migrants, and thereby reconsider conventional meanings of resistance, agency, borders, and citizenship. The findings first indicate that migrant solidarity resistance needs to be seen on a continuum, as strategies combined both small and large acts as well as displayed variation in terms of intensity (reformist to radical forms). Specifically,
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