Analyzing the Multiscalar Production of Borders Through the Various Degrees of State Membership in Canada

Abstract

There has been great scholarly interest in examining the management, proliferation, and dynamic articulations of borders through an actor-network lens in recent years. In tracing the networks of Mohamed Harkat, the irregular arrival of a particular group of Tamil migrants, and Deepan Budlakoti, I demonstrate how the border is a fluid entity composed of socio-technical actors dispersed across time and space capable of producing varying degrees of membership statuses. In exploring the cases of these non-citizens, this thesis aims to understand what each of these multi-level networks tells us about the notion of borders and bordering practices alike. This study contributes to the expanding literature that situates the border as a fluid and malleable entity that is made up of interwoven socio-technical practices, discourses, symbols, institutions, and networks through which power is dispersed and the binary distinctions between membership and non-membership increasingly become layered concepts.