Book Review: Containing Diversity: Canada and the Politics of Immigration in the 21st Century
| Published date | 01 March 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00207020231180110 |
| Author | Deniz Cevik |
| Date | 01 March 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Ethel Tungohan, and Christina Gabriel.
Containing Diversity: Canada and the Politics of Immigration in the 21st Century.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022. 346 pp. $68.95 (paper)
ISBN: 978-1-4426-0904-4
Reviewed by: Deniz Cevik, (deniz.cevik@enap.ca), École nationale d’administration publique,
Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
DOI: 10.1177/00207020231180110
As a country that has historically used immigration as part of its nation-building and
demographic growth strategies, Canada has never been immune to shifting trends in
the international migration landscape. In recent years, a global pandemic, wars, eco-
nomic crises, climate change, a growing number of asylum seekers, and a global
“race for talent”have proven that defining immigration according to “national”policy
parameters is notrealistic. In the context of these complexphenomena, immigration pol-
icies in Canadaare marked by two major trends:humanitarian and economic.The former
requires as much openness and inclusion as countries can offer, whereas the latter
focuses on selection and filtering of immigrants based on talent. Following these two
trends, the shifts in Canada’s policies that determine who is a member of Canada and
how this membership is defined reflect the interplay between inclusion and exclusion
in a liberal democratic context. Is it possible to be an inclusive nation with policies
that promoteliberal values, such as pluralismand human rights, while alsoimplementing
mechanisms to control mobility and membership?
Containing Diversity: Canada and the Politics of Immigration in the Twenty-First
Century is about this struggle between “embracing”and “containing”diversity in
Canada. It is “a tale of two Canadas,”where an emphasis on liberal democratic
values co-exists with market-oriented neo-liberalism. It focuses on the challenge
Canada faces in trying to balance two clashing tendencies within neo-liberalism: the
logic of open global markets that encourages free movement of both goods and
humans, and the logic of control that promotes security measures and the criminaliza-
tion of movement. The authors, Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Ethel Tungohan, and Christina
Gabriel, three prominent migration scholars, contrast the internationally renowned and
positive image of Canada as a country that facilitates immigration and values diversity
with an alternative portrait of Canada with deliberate policies and mechanisms in place
to select “desired citizens”and leave out the “less-desired”ones. In this portrait, the
former includes those who are educated, highly skilled, and economically independent,
and the latter consists of others with a high potential of becoming a “burden”for the
welfare state. The changes in Canadian policies and politics reflect the efforts to limit
inclusion to those who, Canada claims, deserve to be included. This limited inclusion
that creates a hierarchy of immigrants is what the authors call “containing diversity.”
In eight chapters, the authors explore how this novel concept works in the Canadian
immigration context. In Part I, consisting of two chapters, the authors offer a rich
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