Constructing undesirables: A critical discourse analysis of ‘othering’ within the Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act
| Published date | 01 April 2016 |
| Author | Suzanne Huot,Andrea Bobadilla,Debbie Laliberte Rudman,Antoine Bailliard |
| Date | 01 April 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12210 |
Constructing undesirables: A critical discourse
analysis of ‘othering’within the Protecting
Canada’s Immigration System Act
Suzanne Huot*, Andrea Bobadilla*, Antoine Bailliard** and Debbie Laliberte Rudman*
ABSTRACT
Immigration policy in Canada has recently shifted, reflecting changes in other Western coun-
tries. We studied the discursive constructions of forced migrants within Bill C-31 “Protecting
Canada’s Immigration System Act”and its associated Backgrounder documents published by
the Canadian Government. The documents were analysed using an approach to critical dis-
course analysis adapted from Bacchi’s (2009) methodology and informed by a theoretical
framework of “othering”. Particular groups of migrants were represented as posing threats to
the economy, the integrity of the refugee system, and national security. The documents offered
three solutions: the creation of specific categories of migrants, an emphasis upon efficiency of
the system, and expanded powers to the government. The problematization of asylum seekers
as posing multiple threats to Canadian society obfuscates governmental responsibilities to this
population and reflects common strategies of neoliberal governance.
INTRODUCTION
The number of refugees and asylum seekers rose this century (Castles and Miller, 2009) with the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR, 2014) documenting a record number
of displaced people worldwide, including nearly 1.2 million asylum seekers in 2013. Refugees and
asylum seekers are often categorized within the literature on migration as “forced”migrants
because their movement is not voluntary; however, individual forced migrants are accorded varying
degrees of protection depending on the legal status they obtain following migration (Grove and
Zwi, 2006). Research is beginning to address the impacts of governmental policy changes upon
forced migrants (Cleveland and Rousseau, 2012), yet the potential impact of discourses embedded
within those policies has not been adequately studied.
Failure to examine taken-for-granted assumptions embedded within discourses that inform policy
risks perpetuating systems of domination and oppression that may favour powerful groups and
increase the disadvantage of minority groups. In particular, discourse is a key mechanism contribut-
ing to the social construction of groups within systems of power in ways that shape and sustain
inequities. For example, in their analysis of the mechanisms that position forced migrants as “the
other”, Grove and Zwi (2006) identify a range of discursively constructed subjectivities including
queue jumpers, uninvited guests, threats to public security, and drains on public resources. More-
over, studying dominant discourses is vital because they influence what are understood as problems
* University of Western Ontario
** University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
doi: 10.1111/imig.12210
©2015 The Authors
International Migration ©2015 IOM
International Migration Vol. 54 (2) 2016
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
To continue reading
Request your trial