Points of Entry: How Canada’s Immigration Officers Decide Who Gets In, by Vic Satzewich
| Author | Sonia D’Angelo |
| Date | 01 December 2016 |
| Published date | 01 December 2016 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020702016688405 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
discussion that is often dominated by Latin American worries about US interven-
tion, with little attention paid to ways for Latin America to exercise influence in the
United States. Other recent books, such as Matias Spektor’s Kissinger e o Brasil
(2009), have questioned the traditional framework used to understand US–Latin
American relations, weakening the claim that Latin American countries have been
powerless victims in the face of US policies throughout history. Long’s book thus
provides an important analysis for Latin American scholars, but also for those
studying regional dynamics elsewhere, for example in Asia, where China’s growing
influence is an ever more important topic.
While its focus is clearly historical, the book provides some interesting insights
for policymakers from smaller countries that seek to enhance their autonomy vis-a
`-
vis a greater neighbour – be it in Europe, Asia, Africa, or the Western hemisphere.
Describing what he considers to be the best strategy to influence Washington, Long
writes, ‘‘A slavishly pro-U.S. country might receive little attention and few
resources. One that strays too far could attract the wrong kind of attention.
These boundaries fluctuate and are not always easily discernable’’ (223). Equally
important, he argues, is ‘‘collective foreign policy power’’: ‘‘In situations where the
U.S. government rebuffs or ignores an initial weaker-state demand, international
allies will play a more significant role’’ (224).
Successfully engaging and influencing the United States will be crucial for Latin
America in the coming years – be it vis-a
`-vis designing policies to combat drug
trafficking and organized crime, fighting corruption, or articulating a regional
response to deal with China’s growing influence. Latin America Confronts the
United States offers a very interesting look back at how Latin America has been
able to influence its dominant neighbour in the North.
Vic Satzewich
Points of Entry: How Canada’s Immigration Officers Decide Who Gets In
Vancouver: UBC Press, 2016; 306 pp., CAD$32.95 (cloth)
ISBN: 978–0–7748–3025–6
Reviewed by: Sonia D’Angelo, York University
‘‘Citizenship and Immigration could have written the manual on how to design a
truly nameless and faceless bureaucracy’’ (8). In Points of Entry, a timely and
revealing study of the discretionary powers of Canadian visa officers, Vic
Satzewich demystifies overseas visa offices and investigates an otherwise distant
and understudied site. Satzewich’s study is only the second – the first published
in 1972 by Freda Hawkins – to systematically explore the connections between
immigration policy formation and its implementation inside visa offices. His
agenda is to query the very foreignness of overseas visa offices. The study contrib-
utes to a more comprehensive understanding of the immigration system by illus-
trating in what ways decisions are part of a larger practice of policy
implementation, how institutional culture structures decisions, and the role of
Book Reviews 667
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