Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Citizenship, Multiculturalism, and Immigration: Mapping the Complexities of Inclusion and Exclusion Through Intersectionality

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Gender, Sexuality, and Canadian Politics

Abstract

This chapter introduces the topics and policies of immigration, multiculturalism, and citizenship with an eye towards Canada’s foundation and evolution as a settler-colony. It utilises an intersectional approach attuned to settler-colonialism, heteropatriarchy, race/ethnicity. Attention is paid to recent debates that underscore how these policy fields are shaped by the international environment. This includes themes relating to anti-terrorism, Islamophobia, and the refugee crisis. The chapter argues that these areas of public policy in Canada are distinct in that they interface domestic and global forces, but like other elements of Canadian public policy carry gendered implications.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abu-Laban, Yasmeen. 1998. Keeping ’Em Out: Gender, Race and Class Biases in Canadian Immigration Policy. In Painting the Maple: Essays on Race, Gender and the Construction of Canada, ed. Joan Anderson, Avigail Eisenberg, Sherrill Grace, and Veronica Strong-Boag, 69–82. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2000. Reconstructing an Inclusive Citizenship for a New Millennium: Globalization, Migration and Difference. International Politics 37 (4): 509–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2014. Citizenship and Foreignness in Canada. In The Routledge Handbook of Global Citizenship Studies, ed. Engin F. Isin and Peter Nyers, 274–283. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2017. Building a New Citizenship Regime? Immigration and Multiculturalism in Canada. In Citizenship in Transnational Perspective: Australia, Canada and New Zealand, ed. Jatinder Mann, 263–283. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • ———. Forthcoming. Diversity in Canadian Politics. In Canadian Politics, ed. James Bickerton and Alain–G. Gagnon, 7th ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Laban, Yasmeen, and Christina Gabriel. 2002. Selling Diversity: Immigration, Multiculturalism, Employment Equity, and Globalization. Peterborough: Broadview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Laban, Yasmeen, and Nisha Nath. 2007. From Deportation to Apology: The Case of Maher Arar and the Canadian State. Canadian Ethnic Studies 39 (3): 71–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arat-Koc, Sedef. 2005. The Disciplinary Boundaries of Canadian Identity After September 11. Social Justice 32 (4): 32–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Authier, Philip. 2019. Premier François Legault Rules Out Anti-Islamophobia Day in Québec. The Montreal Gazette, January 31. https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/premier-francois-legault-rules-out-anti-islamophobia-day-in-quebec. Accessed 1 Sept 2019.

  • Bakali, Naved. 2015. Contextualising the Québec Charter of Values: How the Muslim “Other” Is Conceptualized in Québec. Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal 16 (4): 412–429.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bilge, Sirma. 2012. Mapping Québécois Nationalism in Times of “Crisis of Reasonable Accommodations”. Journal of Intercultural Studies 33 (3): 303–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Black, Debra. 2014. Immigration Experts Say Bill C-24 Discriminatory and Weakens Citizenship. TheStar.com, June 27. http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2014/06/27/immigration_experts_say_bill_c24_discriminatory_and_weakens_citizenship.html. Accessed 11 Feb 2019.

  • Bouchard, Gérard, and Taylor Charles. 2008. Building the future: A time for reconciliation. Report of the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences. Montreal: Government of Québec.

    Google Scholar 

  • Canada. 2012. Citizenship and Immigration Canada. In Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship. Ottawa: Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2015. Backgrounder—Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act: An Overview, November 5 (Archived). https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2014/11/zero-tolerance-barbaric-cultural-practices-act-overview.html. Accessed 1 Sept 2019.

  • ———. 2018. Department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Government of Canada Implements New Legislative Changes to the Citizenship Act, Press Release, October 4. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2017/10/government_of_canadaimplementsnewlegislativechangestothecitizens.html. Accessed 16 Dec 2018.

  • Cardinal, Linda. 2004. Citizenship Politics in Canada and the Legacy of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. In From Subjects to Citizenship: A Hundred Years of Citizenship in Australia and in Canada, ed. Pierre Boyer, Linda Cardinal, and David Headon, 163–178. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1989. Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989 (8): 139–167.

    Google Scholar 

  • Das Gupta, Tania. 1995. Families of Native Peoples, Immigrants and People of Colour. In Canadian Families: Diversity, Conflict and Change, ed. Nancy Mandell and Amy Duffy, 141–174. Toronto: Harcourt Brace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dhamoon, Rita. 2010. Security Warning: Multiculturalism Alert! In Ashgate Research Companion to Multiculturalism, ed. Duncan Ivison, 255–276. Surrey: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dhoot, Sonny. 2015. Pink Games on Stolen Land: Pride House and (Un)Queer Reterritorializations. In Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalism and the Politics of Belonging, ed. OmiSoore H. Dryden and Suzanne Lenon, 49–65. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobrowolsky, Alexandra. 2017. Bad Versus Big Canada: State Imaginaries of Immigration and Citizenship. Studies in Political Economy 98 (2): 197–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, Jason A., and Lindsay R. Calhoun. 2011. Redress for Old Wounds: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Apology for the Chinese Head Tax. Chinese Journal of Communication 4 (1): 73–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaucher, Megan. 2016. Monogamous Canadian Citizenship, Constructing Foreignness and the Limits of Harm Discourse. Canadian Journal of Political Science 49 (3): 519–538.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gessen, Masha. 2018. Fleeing Anti-Gay Persecution in Chechnya, Three Young Women Are Now Stuck in Place. The New Yorker, October 1. https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/fleeing-anti-gay-persecution-in-chechnya-three-young-women-are-now-stuck-in-place. Accessed 31 Aug 2019.

  • Green, Joyce. 2017. The Impossibility of Citizenship Liberation for Indigenous People. In Citizenship in Transnational Perspective: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, ed. Jatinder Mann, 175–188. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hubbard, Phil. 2013. Kissing Is Not a Universal Right: Sexuality, Law and the Scales of Citizenship. Geoforum 49: 224–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ibbitson, John. 2018. LGBTQ Chechens Struggle to Find Their Footing After Fleeing to Canada. The Globe and Mail, December 14. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-lgbtq-chechens-struggle-to-find-their-footing-after-fleeing-to-canada/. Accessed 11 Feb 2019.

  • Isin, Engin F., and Peter Nyers, eds. 2014. The Routledge Handbook of Global Citizenship Studies. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, Matt. 2004. Recognition, Redistribution and Redress: The Case of the “Chinese Head Tax”. Canadian Journal of Political Science 37 (4): 883–902.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karimi, Aryan. 2018. Sexuality, Asylum and Integration: Iranian Gay Refugees’ Experiences of Integration After Resettlement in Canada. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Edmonton: University of Alberta.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kenney, Jason. 2011. Jason Kenney on Banning Niqabs, Burkas During Citizenship Oath. The National Post, December 12. https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/jason-kenney-on-banning-niqabs-burkas-during-citizenship-oath. Accessed 1 Sept 2019.

  • Kinsman, Gary, and Patrizia Gentile. 2010. The Canadian War on Queers. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kymlicka, Will, and Wayne Norman. 1994. Return of the Citizen: A Survey of Recent Work on Citizenship Theory. Ethics 104 (2): 352–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Labelle, Micheline, François Rocher, and Ann-Marie Field. 2004. Contestation transnationale, diversité et citoyenneté dans l’espace québécois. Saint-Foy: Presses de l’Université du Québec.

    Google Scholar 

  • LaSelva, Samuel V. 1996. The Moral Foundations of Canadian Federalism: Paradoxes, Achievements, and Tragedies of Nationhood. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lum, Zi-Ann. 2018. Maxime Bernier Accuses Prime Minister of Pushing “Radical Multiculturalism.” Huffpost, August 14. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/08/13/maxime-bernier-canada-diversity_a_23501440/. Accessed 31 Aug 2019.

  • MacCharles, Tonda, and Ben Spurr. 2015. Harper Pitting Country Against Muslims, Some Niqab Wearers Say. The Toronto Star, October 7. https://www.thestar.com/news/federal-election/2015/10/07/harper-pitting-country-against-muslims-some-niqab-wearers-say.html. Accessed 1 Sept 2019.

  • Macklin, Audrey. 2006. Exile on Main Street: Popular Discourse and Legal Manoeuvres Around Citizenship. In Law and Citizenship, ed. Law Commission of Canada, 22–54. Vancouver/Toronto: University of British Columbia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, Thomas H. 1965. Class, Citizenship and Social Development. Garden City: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mendos, Lucas Ramón. 2019. State-Sponsored Homophobia 2019. Geneva: International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mookerjea, Sourayan. 2009. Hérouxville’s Afghanistan, or, Accumulated Violence. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 31 (2): 177–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nath, Nisha. 2016. Far from Belonging: Race, Security, Dissent and the Canadian Citizenship Story After 9/11. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Edmonton: University of Alberta.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2017. Canadian Multicultural Citizenship and the Crisis Over the Veil: Cultivating Internal Exclusions. In Unsettling Colonial Modernity: Islamicate Contexts in Focus, ed. Siavash Saffari, Roxana Akhbari, Kara Abdolmaleki, and Evelyn Hamdon, 259–287. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orsini, Michael. 2012. Autism, Neurodiversity and the Welfare State: The Challenges of Accommodating Neurological Difference. Canadian Journal of Political Science 45 (4): 805–827.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paquet, Mireille. 2012. Beyond Appearances: Citizenship Tests in Canada and the UK. Journal of International Migration and Integration 13 (2): 243–260.

    Google Scholar 

  • Presse Canadienne. 2019. Newly Minted Minister for Status of Women Calls Hijab Oppressive. Montreal Gazette, February 5. https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/newly-minted-minister-for-status-of-women-calls-hijab-oppressive. Accessed 1 Sept 2019.

  • Puar, Jasbir K. 2007. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. Durham/London: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rajkumar, Deepa, Laurel Berkowitize, Leah F. Vosko, Valerie Preston, and Robert Latham. 2012. At the Temporary-Permanent Divide: How Canada Produces Temporariness and Makes Citizens Through Its Security, Work and Settlement Policies. Citizenship Studies 16 (3–4): 483–510.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Razack, Sherene. 2008. Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims from Western Law and Politics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2018. A Site/Sight We Cannot Bear: the Racial/Spatial Politics of Banning the Muslim Woman’s Niqab. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 30 (1): 169–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richardson, Diane. 2018. Sexuality and Citizenship. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabsay, Leticia. 2012. The Emergence of the Other Sexual Citizen: Orientalism and the Modernisation of Sexuality. Citizenship Studies 16 (5–6): 605–623.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Said, Edward. 1979. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Miriam. 2007. Queering Public Policy: A Canadian Perspective. In Critical Public Policy Studies, ed. Michael Orsini and Miriam Smith, 91–109. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stasiulis, Daiva K., and Abigail B. Bakan. 2005. Negotiating Citizenship: Migrant Women in Canada and the Global System. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stasiulis, Daiva, and Nira Yuval-Davis. 1995. Introduction: Beyond Dichotomies—Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Class in Settler Societies. In Unsettling Settler Societies: Articulations of Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Class, ed. Daiva Stasiulis and Nira Yuval-Davis, 1–38. London: Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, Jacqueline. 1999. Reproducing the State. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Strong-Boag, Veronica. 2002. Who Counts: Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Struggles About Gender, Race and Class in Canada. In Citizenship Transformation in Canada, ed. Yvonne M. Hébert, 37–56. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thobani, Sunera. 2007. Exalted Subjects: Studies in the Making of Race and Nation in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trudeau, Justin. 2015. Diversity Is Canada’s Strength. Speech Given at Canada House, London, November 26. https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/speeches/2015/11/26/diversity-canadas-strength. Accessed 1 Sept 2019.

  • Tulchinsky, Gerald. 2008. Canada’s Jews: A Peoples Journey. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Walby, Sylvia. 1997. Gender Transformations. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yuval-Davis, Nira. 1991. The Citizenship Debate: Women, Ethnic Processes and the State. Feminist Review 39 (1): 58–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, The University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Yasmeen Abu-Laban

  2. Athabasca University, Athabasca, AB, Canada

    Nisha Nath

Authors
  1. Yasmeen Abu-Laban
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nisha Nath
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yasmeen Abu-Laban .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Manon Tremblay

  2. Department of History & Politics, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, NB, Canada

    Joanna Everitt

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Abu-Laban, Y., Nath, N. (2020). Citizenship, Multiculturalism, and Immigration: Mapping the Complexities of Inclusion and Exclusion Through Intersectionality. In: Tremblay, M., Everitt, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Gender, Sexuality, and Canadian Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49240-3_25

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation