University of Victoria

Gender, Migration, and Citizenship I

Using a gender lens, this session will examine what citizenship means to immigrants in Canada and to trans-border migrants, including those migrants whose status is either precarious or non-existent. In Canada, nearly all forms of caring rely on migrant and immigrant labor. Within the context of mobility of people across transnational borders in a globalized neo-liberal economy, the session will focus on unfolding how some migrants negotiate citizenship, exert their agencies, while others get marginalized due to class, race, sexual orientation, nationality, and so on.

Session Chair: Habiba Zaman, Simon Fraser University

Session Organizer: Habiba Zaman, Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, Simon Fraser University, hzaman@sfu.ca

"Moving beyond the Citizen's Shadow: South Asian Canadian Women's Agency"

Rishma Johal, Simon Fraser University, rja12@sfu.ca

Canadian citizenship and immigration policies have held many discrepancies, opening doors to certain groups of people, while restricting the entry of others. Citizenship is more than a set of legal rights and includes social and cultural components that are actively negotiated. I will explore how the meaning of citizenship has changed for South Asian women over the past century and examine the challenges that they have faced in Canada. This paper will argue that various legal, social, and cultural factors have constrained South Asian Canadian women’s citizenship experience but they have utilized their autonomy to overcome the secondary status that these barriers have imposed on them. Thus far, these women’s existence in historical accounts is only perceptible within the shadows of their husbands, so it is necessary to recognize their struggle. South Asian women have worked hard to achieve a higher education, attain employment, surpass cultural barriers, and build a support network. While, their political activities have remained community oriented, they have also gained a political voice and consistently extended the bounds of their citizenship.

Friday June 7, 2013 05:00 PM - 06:30 PM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-062

Canada’s Exclusionary Immigration Act and its Effects on Women and LGBTTI Refugees

Nathalie Lozano Neira, M.A. Candidate in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies Program at Simon Fraser University., nla27@sfu.ca

Canadian refugee policy changes from 2010-2012 have further marginalized certain groups of refugees such as women and those seeking protection from persecution based on their gender and/or sexual orientation. Though the changes have shifted international perceptions negatively of the Canadian refugee system, this essay will argue that exclusionary practices have existed in policy throughout the years. Moreover, since Canada’s 1969 ratification of the United Nations Convention relating to the status of Refugees Canada’s refugee policy has often followed international protocol when amending immigration law. Therefore, this paper will examine the repercussions that implementation of omnibus bills Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act and The Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act will have on women refugees fleeing gender based violence and people seeking refuge form persecution based on their sexual orientation. Additionally, this essay will propose recommendations to improve Canadian refugee policy in order to provide protection to refugees who are fleeing persecution and cannot seek protection in their countries of origin.

Friday June 7, 2013 05:00 PM - 06:30 PM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-062

The Burden of Proof: Gay and Lesbian Asylum Seekers in Canada

Nadine Boulay, Simon Fraser University, nboulay@sfu.ca

This paper examines the barriers that gay and lesbian asylum seekers face during the process of claiming refugee status in Canada on the basis of sexual orientation. It looks at the Immigration and Refugee Board as a ‘gatekeeper’ which regulates how claims based on sexual orientation are made intelligible. This paper argues that the forms of intelligibility that the IRB requires gay and lesbian asylum seekers to perform are rooted in Western conceptions of sexual normalcy, and heteronormativity. Additionally, this paper will also explore the embeddedness of (hetero)sexuality and its relationship to citizenship. This paper will argue that through this regulatory process, the IRB fails to address transnational understandings of sexuality and gender as they are produced through both countries of origin and destination.

Keywords: gay and lesbian; asylum; heteronormativity; citizenship

Friday June 7, 2013 05:00 PM - 06:30 PM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-062