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UNIVERSITY of CALGARY Deportability and Kombinowanie In UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Deportability and Kombinowanie in Canada: A Critical Ethnographic Study of ‘Irregular’ Migrant Subjectivities by Basia Daria Ellis A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN PSYCHOLOGY CALGARY, ALBERTA AUGUST, 2015 © Basia Daria Ellis 2015 Abstract This project critically analyzes how the daily lives of ‘irregular’ migrants in Canada are socially produced and navigated. Building on the recent work of critical migration scholars, I study ‘illegalization’ as an exploitative sociopolitical process produced not only by laws but also state and non-state agents who draw upon legal and illegal practices to achieve their aims. Deportability is defined as the palpable sociopolitical condition generated by ‘illegalization,’ and a chief disciplinary tactic that renders migrants vulnerable and exploitable as cheap laborers for capital. While deportation studies are growing around the world, so far little is known about the daily experiences of ‘illegalized’ migrants and the subjective life produced under deportable conditions; this is especially the case in Canada, where research on ‘illegalization’ is in its early stages. This study takes a cultural psychological perspective and employs critical ethnographic methods to study the subjectivities of Polish ‘illegal’ migrants living in Toronto and Mississauga, Canada. Specifically, I examine the mixed and contradictory contexts faced by these migrants as well as how migrants interpret and navigate their unequal conditions to build their lives as non-status residents. Analyses of both interview and participant observations reveal how ‘illegal’ migrants experience systematic fears, threats, and concerns, which motivate them to develop kombinowanie and other psychological and social tactics conducive for surviving their unequal conditions. I adopt a trajectory approach to map these developments in lived time and show how various sociopolitical imperatives coalesce to generate vulnerable subjects who suffer from an adverse psychosocial condition; namely, chronic deportability. I differentiate chronic deportability from acute moments of deportability to expose the psychosocial dynamics of deportable life and trace how migrant ‘illegalization’ functions via various gradations of fear produced in recurring, cyclical forms. While the major findings confirm that deportability operates to exploit migrants who choose to work in unequal conditions, I show how migrants are not unilaterally determined by the demands of deportation regimes. Specifically, the final chapter draws upon critical psychological research to examine how migrants express more subtle, psychological forms of resistance that undermine the impositions of deportability and may lead to broader sociopolitical transformations. ii Acknowledgments First I would like to thank my advisor and mentor, Dr. Hank Stam, for inspiring this study and for carefully guiding its development and execution. His amazing knowledge, generous support, and sincere commitment to my success deeply influenced and motivated my intellectual development over the years; and I am forever indebted to him for a model of personal and scholarly integrity, grace, and excellence. I am also very grateful to Dr. Lorrie Radtke for her uninterrupted support and care throughout my graduate studies, her thoughtful reflections on my work, and her continuous interest in my ideas and aspirations. I could not have imagined completing my graduate studies with a more remarkable pair of scholars. I also thank the other members of my thesis committee, Dr. Alan Smart, Dr. Thomas Teo, and Dr. Lloyd Wong for their insightful comments and careful readings of my research in its various versions. My ideas have also been influenced and inspired by colleagues and friends whom I have met during various meetings of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology, the Western Canadian Theoretical Psychology group, the Canadian Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Association. I am especially grateful to my colleague and friend Dr. Cor Baerveldt for readily sharing with me his brilliance, helping me deepen my ideas, and for persistently motivating and encouraging my intellectual growth. I gratefully acknowledge the funding sources that allowed me to pursue my graduate school studies: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Award, the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship, as well as other scholarships and grants awarded by the Government of Alberta and the University of Calgary. I am especially thankful to the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary for providing me with guaranteed financial support and opportunities for working within the department over the years. I could not have made it through my doctoral years without my dearest friends from graduate school. Thank you for your amazing friendships, love and wisdom, ease and humor, and your unremitting support and inspiration over the course of our studies together. I am also deeply indebted to my remarkable family and friends in Toronto, all of whom I thank wholeheartedly for remaining close to me throughout my various iii adventures across the country, for welcoming me with open arms upon every return, and for providing me with an indispensible and secure home base. Mamuś and Papa Wayne: I am forever grateful for your unconditional love and support, your devotion to my personal growth and well-being, your confidence in (and patience with!) my intellectual aspirations, and your genuine belief in my success. I love you so much. Most importantly, I would like to thank all the persons who participated in the interviews and participatory observation phases in this study, as well as those who made special efforts to introduce me to these courageous men and women. Bardzo serdecznie dziękuję wszystkim uczestnikom moich badań. Dziękuję Wam za Wasz czas i za szczerość naszych rozmów. Dziękuję za to, że podzieliliście się ze mną Waszymi nadzwyczajnymi historiami, refleksjami i doświadczeniami z życia jako mieszkańcy Kanady. Mam nadzieje, że Wasz wkład w nasz wspólny projekt przyczyni się do poprawy życia innych, którzy zmieniają kraj zamieszkania bez uregulowanego statusu imigracyjnego. iv DEDICATION Remembering Lesiu v Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................. iii Dedication ............................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... x CHAPTER ONE: THE PRODUCTION OF ‘IRREGULAR’ MIGRATION ........................ 1 1.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Irregular Migration: A Growing Global Issue ............................................................. 3 1.3 Irregular Migration: General Scholarship .................................................................... 6 1.4 Critical Migration Studies and the Canadian Case ...................................................... 9 1.4.1 Basic Assumptions ............................................................................................... 9 1.4.2 ‘Irregular’ Migration in Canada: A Critical Perspective .................................... 11 1.4.3 Deportability ....................................................................................................... 16 1.5 Toward a Psychology of Deportability ...................................................................... 19 1.6 Overview of the Thesis .............................................................................................. 22 CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................. 25 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 25 2.2 ‘Irregular’ Migrants: Juridical Definition .................................................................. 25 2.3 Polish ‘Irregular’ Migrants ......................................................................................... 26 2.4 From Cultural Psychology to Critical Ethnography ................................................... 29 2.4.1 Cultural Psychology ........................................................................................... 29 2.4.2 Ethnography ....................................................................................................... 30 2.4.3 Critical Ethnography .......................................................................................... 32 2.4.4 Reflexivity .......................................................................................................... 34 2.5 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 37 CHAPTER THREE: DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS ......................................... 38 3.1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................
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