The Impermanence of Permanence: The Rise of Probationary Immigration in Canada
| Published date | 01 December 2020 |
| Author | Antje Ellermann,Yana Gorokhovskaia |
| Date | 01 December 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12645 |
The Impermanence of Permanence: The Rise
of Probationary Immigration in Canada
Antje Ellermann* and Yana Gorokhovskaia**
ABSTRACT
This article engages with arguments that contemporary immigration politics is defined by a
“loss of settlement”by examining recent developments in Canadian immigration and refugee
policy that have made permanent residence less permanent. We suggest that the rise of proba-
tionary immigration has been facilitated by horizontal status stratification within groups that
were historically marked by relative status equality. In order to examine this claim empirically
in the Canadian context, we analyze the rise of temporary foreign worker recruitment, the
move from “one-step”to “two-step”immigration, and changes to refugee policy that, for the
first time, linked loss of refugee status to the loss of permanent resident status.
INTRODUCTION
This article examines recent developments in Canadian immigration and refugee policy which chal-
lenge conventional understandings of permanent residence. These developments include the rise of
temporary foreign worker recruitment, the shift from “one-step”to “two-step”immigration, and the
linkage of cessation (loss) of refugee status with the loss of permanent residence. These policies
deserve our attention because they have far-reaching implications for immigrants and their families.
Strikingly, cessation has so far been virtually ignored by migration scholars, despite its enormous
impact on those caught up under its enforcement. Theoretically, we build on arguments made in
one of the most provocative texts published by a migration scholar in recent years: Catherine Dau-
vergne’sThe New Politics of Immigration and the End of Settler Societies (2016). Through the
analysis of Canadian immigration and refugee policy, we add conceptual nuance and empirical evi-
dence to two of Dauvergne’s claims. First, that settlement and nation-building have ceased to serve
as core immigration values even in settler colonial states such as Canada. Second, Dauvergne
argues that through the rise of “trial migration”the link between immigration and permanent resi-
dence has been weakened. This article therefore examines the depth and scope of the rise of trial
migration and “loss of settlement”in Canada. We argue that, at the same time as the rise of trial
migration has opened up access to permanent residence to some temporary migrants, permanent
residence itself has become more precarious. We use the term “probationary immigration”rather
than “trial migration”to emphasize the precarity surrounding both access to and maintenance of
permanent residence. Drawing on the literature on superdiversity (Vertovec, 2007), we then proceed
to argue that the rise of probationary immigration has been facilitated by the diversification of
immigration status. In other words, recent developments in immigration and refugee policy have
* The University of British Columbia, Vancouver,
** Columbia University, New York,
doi: 10.1111/imig.12645
©2019 The Authors
International Migration ©2019 IOM
International Migration Vol. 58 (6) 2020
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
introduced new legal distinctions among temporary residents as well as permanent residents. In
doing so, probationary immigration has heightened horizontal status stratification. As a result, the
rise of probationary immigration has created first- and second-class members within groups that
historically have been marked by relative status equality.
The article begins with an elaboration of our theoretical arguments: first, that the rise of proba-
tionary immigration has altered the nature of immigrant settlement by rendering permanent resi-
dence less permanent. Second, that this process has created new legal hierarchies within groups
that historically have been marked by relative status equality. This section is followed by an empir-
ical overview of the scope of probationary immigration in Canada by analysing the proliferation of
temporary foreign worker recruitment and two-step immigration programmes. The article then pro-
ceeds by exposing the depth of probationary immigration by examining the impact of Canadian
cessation policy. Drawing on original interview data with lawyers, refugee advocates, politicians,
and immigrants in Vancouver, we examine the ramifications of these changes for our understanding
of permanent residence and the lived experiences of permanent residents. Whilst not as expansive
in its quantitative impact as temporary foreign worker or two-step immigration programmes, cessa-
tion policy stands out for the depth of its impact on those caught up under its enforcement.
PROBATIONARY CITIZENSHIP AND THE IMPERMANENCE OF PERMANENCE
Historically, immigration law has privileged permanence. As states have held out the “guarantee”
of citizenship to those with permanent residence, permanent residents were rendered “permanently
permanent”(Rajkumar etal., 2012). The contemporary move away from permanence was suc-
cinctly captured by the British government when it coined the term “probationary citizenship”in a
2008 proposal to create a new probationary stage through which temporary residents would have to
pass before gaining access to permanent residence and, ultimately, citizenship. While the govern-
ment eventually abandoned the legislation on logistical grounds, the idea continues to live on in
the discourse and policies associated with “earned citizenship”(VanHoudt et al.,2011;Puzzo,
2016; Monforte et al., 2018). Conceptions of “earned”and “probationary”citizenship break the link
between length of residence and the right to settlement: permanent residence and citizenship are no
longer understood as rights that accrue to non-citizens with the passage of time in recognition of
the human need to put down roots. Instead, when settlement and citizenship are seen as privileges
to be earned through desirable behaviour, settlement can be “unearned”. Once the right to settle-
ment becomes behaviourally contingent, immigrants live in a state of indefinite probation that ren-
ders permanence potentially temporary and precarious.
The production of precariousness within ostensibly “permanent”status categories such as perma-
nent resident or citizen is a relatively recent development, challenging us to adopt more fluid con-
ceptions of precarity. Thus, the emerging literature on “precarity of place”(Banki, 2013) within
migration studies has moved beyond the binaries of illegal-legal (Kubal, 2013) and citizen-nonciti-
zen (Bosniak, 2000; Menj
ıvar, 2006) in favour of an understanding of precarity (or precariousness)
as being in constant flux. Goldring et al. emphasize the many pathways that can result in precari-
ousness as a “less-than-full immigration status”(Goldring et al., 2009, 239) that “conveys a combi-
nation of ongoing risk and uncertainty”(2009, 245). Precariousness thus is not limited to formally
illegal or temporary immigration status. On the contrary, “[c]itizenship and rights associated with
legal immigration status are becoming increasingly precarious and conditional on requirements that
are often difficult to meet or maintain. ... The concept of precarious status reflects insecurities
associated with policies designed to ... curb the overall number of permanent immigrants on the
part of states of immigration (Goldring et al., 2009, 245).
46 Ellermann and Gorokhovskaia
©2019 The Authors. International Migration ©2019 IOM
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