Borders & Human Rights

Borders of Virtue: “Good migrant” and “Bad migrant”

Borders, and the practice of bordering, are not limited to the geopolitical borders that exist between states. The discourse of the worthy versus the unworthy migrant is ever-present in the contemporary west. This is largely seen in the division between refugee (political) and immigrant (economic) with host states creating a false distinction between politics and economics and based on the needs, priorities, and loyalties of the state, labelling various migrant groups as worthy or unworthy, and skilled or unskilled, respectively. The migrants that will economically benefit the host state are established as “good” while “bad” migrants are regarded as burdens and often given precarious or temporary status.¹⁰ The refugee may be seen as worthy of humanitarian assistance, while the immigrant is overlooked and their experience of crossing borders – both state borders and borders within the immigration system – is complicated. However, this is not always true as some refugees can be regarded as a “bad” migrants, particularly if they exercise their right to enter a country irregularly.

Borders and Race

Race has been a determining factor in Canada’s immigration policies and programs since Confederation. Defining who counts as a ‘good’ migrant or a ‘bad’ migrant, certain racial and ethnocultural groups were granted entry to Canada as settlers while “others” faced legislation limiting their entry.¹¹ Upon migrating to Canada, people of color are often racialized and are expected to assimilate into Canadian society by losing their ethnocultural markers, as seen in hijab bans across the world, including Quebec’s Bill 21. Along with gender, race has historically played a fundamental role in defining access to resources and services, with racial hierarchies being systemically ingrained within today’s institutions and structures. Both settler and extractive colonial projects utilized race as a way to segment populations through various legislative mechanisms including citizenship. Today, race is apparent in Canada’s immigration policies and programs, where racialized individuals are more likely to be granted precarious citizenship status as temporary workers and international students. Race also plays a role in the homogenization and racialization of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Borders, Economies, and Goods

People are not the only thing that moves across borders. The global supply chain explains the movement of goods – or the failure – within and between countries, often along lines created by imperialism and globalization. The notion of the global supply chain and the movement of goods across borders demonstrates the relationship between goods and people: when people do not have what they need to survive, they will move to find it. This is clearly seen in the increasing effects that climate change is having in terms of agricultural, pastoral and fishing societies. Since the prolific increase in globalization (and homogenization of goods) more people are moving to urban centres or abroad because their traditional livelihoods are no longer viable. This increase of movement of people into highly centralized areas and away from one’s land often because they are no longer able to be self-sustaining is a result of, and at times leads to, human rights violations.¹²

In addition, one can see that the right to health, food, water and shelter is not distributed equally – a clear violation of international human rights law. This has been demonstrated recently by the consistent but changing ruptures in the supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic; including because of travel restrictions, restrictions in shipping, political blockades of borders, and health restrictions and mandates. In addition, the unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines (because of its treatment as a commodity that must be regulated through borders rather than a universal necessity) has had significant effects on people worldwide. This could be most clearly seen when India, a worldwide distributor of COVID-19 vaccines, was unable to ensure its own population could be widely vaccinated because it had made commitments to the global market.

Within economies around the globe, migrant workers have played a fundamental role in filling labour demand in countries such as Canada. Canada continues to depend on temporary migrant work in its service, care, and agricultural sectors today, similar to how it depended on Chinese workers in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway.¹³ However, these workers, who are often racialized and gendered, face barriers to permanent residence, access to public services such as healthcare, and other economic opportunities. Migrant workers thus face the duality of being essential to the Canadian economy, but are deemed disposable through the lack of supports and protections available to Canadian citizen-workers.¹⁴

Struggles Against Borders

Borders are not simply a method of self-determination; they rarely create autonomy or freedom, and they do not tend to enhance human rights. Borders are mainly carceral; they can be used to punish, to regulate, and to restrict land, and bodies, and people’s mobility all around the world.

Borders and colonialism are mutually constitutive¹⁵ and as such, so are the struggles against them. In the context of CHRR’s work in support of Indigenous sovereignty, to struggle against borders is also to struggle against colonialism in the work for a more just future.

---

¹Razack, Race, Space, and the Law.

²Walia, “There Is No ‘Migrant Crisis’”; Walia, Border and Rule.

³Walia and Wilson, “The Centre for Human Rights Research Critical Conversations: Talking Borders, Colonialism, Resistance, and Human Rights.”

⁴Craft and Olivares, “Trump drives surge in Ice detentions,” The Guardian.

⁵Cole, “Carney’s border bill is a gift to Trump,” The Breach

⁶Yuval-Davis, Wemyss, and Cassidy, “Everyday Bordering, Belonging and the Reorientation of British Immigration Legislation.”

⁷Aliverti, “Introduction.”

⁸Maracle, “May Day Assembly”; Maracle, My Conversations with Canadians.

⁹Simpson, “Not Murdered and Not Missing.”

¹⁰Stasiulis, “Elimi(Nation).”

¹¹Abu-Laban, Tungohan, and Gabriel, Containing Diversity: Canada and the Politics of Immigration in the 21st Century.

¹²Tacoli, McGranahan, and Satterthwaite, “World Migration Report 2015: Urbanization, Rural–Urban Migration and Urban Poverty,” 3.

¹³Tungohan, “Contextualizing Care Activism”; Fernandez, Read, and Zell, “Migrant Voices: Stories of Agricultural Migrant Workers in Manitoba.”

¹⁴Henaway, Essential Work, Disposable Workers: Migration, Capitalism, and Class.

¹⁵Walia and Wilson, “The Centre for Human Rights Research Critical Conversations: Talking Borders, Colonialism, Resistance, and Human Rights.”