An Archaeological Analysis of Canadian Immigration Legislation: From Welfare State Liability to Neo-Liberal Subject

Abstract

This study analyzes the three most recent pieces of Canadian immigration legislation: the Immigration Act of 1952, the Immigration Act of 1976, and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act of 2001 (herein referred to collectively as the documents). The intent is to contribute to the archaeology of immigration in Canadian Federal legislation, and more specifically, to the ways that the immigration applicant, immigrant, and the immigration process in Canada, have been constituted over time. This project uses a modified version of Jean Carabine’s (2001) method of Foucauldian discourse analysis to articulate the various meanings and potential effects that are produced in the documents. The work of Michel Foucault and the governmentality approach is then applied to make sense of these findings. Two main conclusions are generated. The first details how elements of state racism and bio-nationalism are apparent in all three acts, and must be regarded as complimentary to one another, as they co-exist and operate together on different planes. The second discusses a shift in the documents from a focus on welfare rationalities, to neo-liberal rationalities, using the example of the shifting portrayal of the immigrant (and immigration applicant) from someone with the potential to become a liability to the welfare state, to a neo-liberal subject.