Revisiting The New Politics of Immigration
| Published date | 01 December 2020 |
| Author | Catherine Dauvergne |
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12739 |
Revisiting The New Politics of Immigration
Catherine Dauvergne*
ABSTRACT
This article follows from the workshop that Professor Mireille Paquet organized in Montreal in
June 2018, to discuss my book, The New Politics of Immigration and the End of Settler Soci-
eties (Cambridge, 2016; Dauvergne 2016). In relation to this event and the articles of this spe-
cial issue, this paper embarks on revisiting The New Politics of Immigration, now more than
three after it first appeared in print. In this paper, I reflect on whether my arguments stand up
to the test presented by the events of the past three years. Recent events lead me to nuance
some of my original arguments, but on the whole even the most recent surprises fit well into
the New Politics framework that points to increasing salience, legalization and urgency in
politicizing immigration.
It is a rare and wonderful treat for someone who primarily wrestles alone with ideas to have
vibrant, deep and deeply informed conversation about those ideas. The workshop that Professor
Mireille Paquet organized in Montreal in June 2018, to discuss The New Politics of Immigration,
was, for me, both flattering and intensely stimulating. The ensuing conversation provided me with
many insights into how the book had travelled since its publication two years earlier and, of course,
lots of reflections about where I had “gotten it right”and where I had either failed, or failed to
communicate clearly. With this rich food for thought, I embark on revisiting The New Politics of
Immigration, now three and a half years after it first appeared in print.
I sent the manuscript for The New Politics of Immigration to press in June 2015. The timing
might be considered unlucky: it was just a few weeks before the flow of refugees from Syria across
the Mediterranean and into Europe reached truly crisis proportions, and mere months prior to the
campaigns that would set the trajectory for Brexit in the United Kingdom and bring Donald Trump
to power in the United States. On the other hand, the events that have followed so closely on the
heels of the book do reinforce the central idea that the politics of immigration have shifted, and
that these changes are significant, irreversible and dangerous. Moreover, there has been such an
onslaught of high-profile immigration events that undertaking to revisit the central arguments now
that some time has passed is a worthwhile challenge.
In this paper, I reflect on whether my arguments stand up to the test presented by the events of
the past three years. While some immigration events were foreseeable when I was writing (like a
sharp rise in asylum seeking), others were not (like the emergence of the Trump regime or Brexit).
Recent events lead me to nuance some of my original arguments, but on the whole even the most
recent surprises fit well into the New Politics framework that points to increasing salience, legaliza-
tion and urgency in politicizing immigration. This is probably even true of the global pandemic
which has overtaken the politics of migration in the slip of time between finalizing this reflection
* University of British Columbia
The peer review history for this article is available at https://publons.com/publon/10.1111/imig.12739
doi: 10.1111/imig.12739
©2020 The Authors. International Migration
published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf
of International Organization for Migration
International Migration Vol. 58 (6) 2020
ISSN 0020-7985
This is an open access article under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
License, which permits use and distribution in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-
commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
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