Skip to main content
Comparative Migration Studies
Download PDF

Shifting Up and Back

The European Turn in Canadian Refugee Policy

Comparative Migration Studies volume 2, pages 101–122 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

During the last decade, Canada’s immigration and citizenship policies have been radically transformed. Hardly any aspect has been left untouched. That humanitarian migration has also been restricted and transformed has generally been linked to the worldwide “securitization” of migration. This paper argues that the timing and character of a number of key changes also represent a European turn of Canada’s refugee policy, which has seen Canada change from a policy innovator and humanitarian leader to a student, follower and adaptor of a key set of restrictionist asylum policies practiced in Europe.

References

  • Abell, N. A. (1997). Safe Country Provisions in Canada and in the European Union: A Critical Assessment. International Migration Review, 31(3): 569–590.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Laban, Y. (1998). Welcome/STAY OUT: The Contradiction of Canadian Integration and Immigration Policies at the Millennium. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 20(3): 190–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alboim, N., & Cohl, K. (October 2012). Shaping the Future: Canada’s Rapidly Changing Immigration Policies. Toronto: Maytree Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, C. G. (2010). Restricting Rights, Losing Control: The Politics of Control over Asylum Seekers in Liberal-Democratic States — Lessons from the Canadian Case, 1951–1989. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 43(4): 937–959.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arbel, E. (2013). Shifting Borders and the Boundaries of Rights: Examining the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States. International Journal of Refugee Law, 25 (1): forthcoming.

  • Brunet-Jailly, E. (2006). Security and Border Security Policies: Perimeter or Smart Border? A Comparison of the European Union and Canadian-American Border Security Regimes. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 21(1): 3–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Canada, C. a. I. (2006). Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement Review: A Partnership for Protection, Year One Review.

  • Carrera, S., De Somer, M., & Petkova, B. (2012). The Court of Justice of the European Union as a Fundamental Rights Tribunal: Challenges for the Effective Delivery of Fundamental Rights in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice. CEPS Paper in Liberty and Security in Europe, No. 49 (August).

  • Clarkson, S. (2008). Does North America Exist? Governing the Continent After NAFTA and 9/11. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costello, C. (2005). The Asylum Procedures Directive and the Proliferation of Safe Country Practices: Deterrence, Deflection and the Dismantling of International Protection? European journal of Migration and Law, 7: 35–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dauvergne, C. (2005). Humanitarianism, Identity and Nation: Migration Laws of Canada and Australia. Vancouver: UBC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dauvergne, C. (2008). Making People Illegal: What Globalization Means for Migration and Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dirks, G. E. (1995). Controversy and Complexity: Canadian Immigration Policy During the 1980s. Montreal, Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobrowolsky, A. (2011). The Intended and Unintended Effects of a New Immigration Strategy: Insights from Nova Scotia’s Provincial Nominee Program. Studies in Political Economy, 87 (Spring): 109–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forest, J. J. F. (Ed.) (2006). Homeland Security: Protecting America’s Targets (Vol. 1), Westport, CT: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garnier, A. (2010). Are States in Control of their Borders? Testing the Venue-Shopping Approach in the Australian Context, Working Paper Series: Graduate Centre Humanities and Social Science of the Research Academy Leipzig.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graziano, P., & Vink, M. (Eds.). (2007). Europeanization: New Research Agendas Basingstoke: Palgrave

    Google Scholar 

  • Guild, E. (2006). The Europeanisation of Europe’s Asylum Policy. International Journal of Refugee Law, 18: 630–651.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guiraudon, V. (2000). European Integration and Migration Policy: Vertical Policy-making as Venue Shopping. Journal of Common Market Studies, 38(2): 251–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guiraudon, V. (2001). Weak Weapons of the Weak? Transnational Mobilization around Migration in the European Union. In D. Imig & S. Tarrow (Eds.), Contentious Europeans: Protest and Politics in an Emerging Polity. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gurzu, A. (2012). Safe Country of Origin List at the EU Level: the Bargaining Process and the Implications. Journal of European and Russian Affairs, 7(1): 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Irvine, J. A. S. (2011). Canadian Refugee Policy: Understanding the Role of International Bureaucratic Networks in Domestic Paradigm Change. In G. Skogstad (Ed.), Policy Paradigms, Transnationalism and Domestic Politics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jimenez, E., & Crépeau, F. (2002). The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Horizons: Policy Research Initiative, 5(2): 18–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaunert, C., & Léonard, S. (2012). The Development of the EU Asylum Policy: Venue-Shopping in Perspective. Journal of European Public Policy, 19(9): 1396–1413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelley, N., & Trebilcock, M. (1998). The Making of the Mosaic: a History of Canada’s Immigration Policy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kernerman, G. (2008). Refugee Interdiction at Heaven’s Gate. Government and Opposition, 43(2): 230–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krikorian, J. D. (2012). International Trade Law and Domestic Policy: Canada, the United States and the WTO. Vancouver: UBC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavenex, S. (1999). Safe Third Countries: Extending the EU Asylum and Immigration Policies to East and Central Europe. Budapest: Central European University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lavenex, S. (2001). The Europeanization of Refugee Policies: Normative Challenges and Institutional Legacies. Journal of Common Market Studies, 39(5): 851–874.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macklin, A. (2005). Disappearing Refugees: Reflections of the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement. Columbia Human Rights Law Review, 36: 365–426.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moravcsik, A. (1998). The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, J. P. (2002). The Many Faces of Europeanization. Journal of Common Market Studies, 49 (5).

  • Peers, S. (2011). EU Justice and Home Affairs Law (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierson, P. (2000). Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics. American Political Science Review, 94(2): 251–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Review, I. L. (1997). Not Just Numbers: A Canadian Framework for Future Immigration. Ottawa: Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salter, M. B. (2007). Canadian Post 9/11 Border Security and Spillover Securitization: Smart, Safe, Sovereign? In M. Orsini & M. Smith (Eds.), Critical Policy Studies. Vancouver: UBC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shachar, A. (2006). Race for Talent: Highly Skilled Migrants and Competitive Immigration Regimes. New York University Law Review, 81: 148–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soennecken, D. (2013a). Extending Hospitality: History, Courts and the Executive. Studies in Law, Politics and Society, 60: 85–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soennecken, D. (2013b). The Managerialization of Refugee Determinations in Canada. Droit et Societé, 84(2): 291–311.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoffman, D. (2002). Who Gets In: What’s Wrong with Canada’s Immigration Program — and How to Fix It. Toronto: Macfarlane Walter and Ross.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thouez, C., & Channac, F. (2006). Shaping International Migration Policy: The Role of Regional Consultative Processes. West European Politics, 29(2): 370–387.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Varsanyi, M. W. (2008). Rescaling the “Alien,” Rescaled Personhood: Neoliberalism, Immigration and the State. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 98(4): 877–896.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, S. (2009). The Securitisation of Humanitiarian Migration: Digging Moats and Sinking Boats. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Policy & Administration, York University, Toronto, Canada

    Dagmar Soennecken (Assistant Professor)

Authors
  1. Dagmar Soennecken
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dagmar Soennecken.

Rights and permissions

Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Soennecken, D. Shifting Up and Back. CMS 2, 101–122 (2014). https://doi.org/10.5117/CMS2014.1.SOEN

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.5117/CMS2014.1.SOEN

Keywords