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The Conservative Party of Canada and the Politics of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism (2006-2015)

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The Conservative Party of Canada and the Politics of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism (2006-2015) THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF CANADA AND THE POLITICS OF CITIZENSHIP, IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURALISM (2006-2015) JOHN CARLAW A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN POLITICAL SCIENCE YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO SEPTEMBER 2019 © JOHN CARLAW, 2019 Abstract This dissertation assesses the modern Conservative Party of Canada and government’s (2006- 2015) discourses, political approach and policy record in the fields of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism. This is done in the context of the party’s evolution from its Reform Party and Canadian Alliance predecessors on the terrain of a Canadian settler colonial state with significant racialized and ethnicized (im)migrant and refugee populations from whom some electoral support is required to achieve and exercise power. The main argument of this dissertation is that the Canadian Alliance Party’s absorption of the former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada saw the birth of a new Conservative Party that at its core remained an exclusionary political force whose authoritarian populist approach to politics and policy reinforced and further intensified existing social hierarchies between settler colonial and (im)migrant Canadians, particularly with their treatment of Muslims, refugees, migrant workers and prospective citizens. Their policies and policy-making approach also greatly accelerated the further decline of permanent in favour of temporary or “two-step” immigration, family class immigration, and the public and parliament’s role in making immigration policy. To achieve and maintain power, however, the Conservative Party project had to be connected to an attempted hegemonic political project that could obtain enough support to win elections and govern. This dissertation develops and employs the descriptor and concept of Kenneyism and neoconservative multiculturalism respectively to explain and explore the disciplinary yet creative neoconservative political project the Conservatives undertook in these fields and to win office. Support for the arguments advanced comes from an anti-racist critical political economy analysis of Conservative and predecessor party platforms, speeches and policies and the consideration of a wide variety of primary and secondary sources. The analysis incorporates prior research on political parties and considers and employs critical literatures on citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism in Canada. These are considered and synthesized into an approach to help further our understanding of neoconservative ideologies and discourses in these fields. Several cases are explored to contrast and illustrate the rhetoric and governing realities of the Conservatives’ authoritarian populist approach and their effects on (im)migrants, refugees and many “ethnic” Canadians. ii Dedication While at times experienced as solitary endeavor, no piece of writing is completed without forms of solidarity and support. This dissertation is dedicated to my first collectivity -- my family -- particularly my deceased parents Nora and Wally Carlaw whose support, struggles and sacrifices in many ways led to me eventually having the chance to do a PhD. Thank you to my siblings Libby and Tom and to many extended family members and family friends who are too many to name. I will particularly thank my Uncle Davey and Aunty Anne Marston and my surviving Aunts Shirley Marston and Orvilla Amstrong for your love and support from near and far through many family ups and downs. Thank you to Sallie Smyth and Linda and Ian Rankine for your support and birthday outings every year and to Irene Watt, my mother’s “oldest, dearest friend.” I know that my parents would be grateful to all of you for the support you have shown our family, for keeping in touch and for choosing to treat us as family in your own ways. I also dedicate this dissertation to the many migrants, immigrants and refugees who have made this country a better place, often in the face of exclusion. Two of these, my dear friends Loly and Francisco Rico have supported me both personally and professionally and stand out as particular inspirations. So do the inspiring youth, students, colleagues and civil society members I worked with on York University’s Syria Response and Refugee Initiative (2015-2019) at its Centre for Refugee Studies. iii Acknowledgements I offer my deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Dennis Pilon, and committee members Alan Simmons and Sedef Arat-Koç for their feedback, patience and support over this journey. My committee members were always generous with their time and available to help me to move forward with my dissertation. Their tremendous scholarship and important feedback greatly helped me on this path. Your faith and kindness were more important than you likely realize. Thank you to my Internal/External Examiner Luin Goldring for your own inspiring work and approach to community engagement, as well as Dean’s Representative Esteve Morera and External Examiner John Shields for your engagement with my dissertation and a rewarding defence experience. Thank you Marlene Quesenberry, the Graduate Program Administrator and patron saint of York Political Science for your advice and support from start to finish in this process. Thank you former Graduate Program Directors Sandra Whitworth and Sabah Alnasseri for your support during difficult periods. Though I eventually shifted the topic of research for my dissertation to a Canadian one, I am very grateful to Stephen Gill and Judy Hellman for their support in securing funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for my doctorate and to the council itself for this financial assistance. Thank you to the graduate student, staff and faculty communities at the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC), Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS) and Department of Political Science at York University. The “8th floor” Kaneff Tower collective from CRS, CERLAC, YCAR and CERIS – including Centre Coordinators Camila Bonifaz, Michelle Millard and Alicia Filipowich -- was a particularly important community of support. Thank you to former CRS Directors Jennifer Hyndman and Christina Clark-Kazak and Osgoode Hall Law School Dean Lorne Sossin for entrusting me with an important refugee sponsorship and iv education project that I worked on alongside my studies, for supporting me in completing my dissertation and for being inspirational examples in both scholarship and community engagement. Thank you to my frequent writing team members Marshia Akbar, Robert Batarseh, and Nausheen Quayyum for your friendship and support. Thank you Tanya Aberman, Jan Anderson, Melina Castro Caroprezo, Bikrum Gill, Jennifer Kaplan, Baris Karagaac, Zahir Kolia, Johanna Reynolds, Edward Schall and the rest of the “Cordie” family as well as Donna Schatz, Serdar Sozubek and the Velasquez family for your advice, kindness and solidarity. I am very grateful to the CRS Graduate Student caucus, CERLAC, the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS), Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA), Canadian Ethnic Studies Association and Ryerson Centre for Immigration and Settlement (RCIS) for intellectual spaces and opportunities to present and receive feedback on my work. Thank you to the FCJ Refugee Centre, Canadian Council for Refugees and Amnesty International Canada for the chance to learn what was going on “on the ground” and how to be a more engaged citizen in these issues during the period I wrote this dissertation and for the chance to be part of such important conversations outside of academic conferences and the classroom. Thank you to the Journal of Canadian Studies, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Ethnic Aisle for opportunities to publish work in this field. While there are many inspiring scholars I have not met, thank you Stuart Hall (1932- 2014) and in particular critical scholars of settler colonialism, citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism in Canada. Many racialized scholars who have experienced what Himani Bannerji refers to as the “dark side of the nation” (2000, 104) have developed theoretical and conceptual tools, examples and analyses that helped me complete this project and better grasp this country, its social relations and these policy fields. Any shortcomings in this dissertation are of course my own. v Table of Contents Abstract (ii) .................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication (iii) .............................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements (iv) ................................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents (v) ..................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables (vi) ............................................................................................................................ x Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction to Chapter 1 ....................................................................................................................... 1 Popular Interpretations of the Conservative
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