Immigration and Settler‐Colonies Post‐UNDRIP: Research and Policy Implications

Abstract

It is now common to identify a policy convergence around migration which is eroding the longstanding distinction made in the migration literature between "traditional" countries of immigration (like Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States) and other Western states. Taking the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as instructive, this article focusses on the case of Canada, arguing that its settler-colonial foundation has impacted and continues to impact three areas relevant to the comparative study of migration: 1) national discourse; 2) land and forms of social power; and 3) politics and forms of solidarity. The implications of settler-colonialism for the study of international migration are broader than the case of Canada and suggest the need to link considerations of Indigeneity systematically in migration studies, and to address the particularities of settler-colonial states in relation to other Northern states by being attuned to "divergence within convergence."

Westphalian Vs. Indigenous Sovereignty: Challenging Colonial Territorial Governance

“…Alternatively, can Westphalian and Indigenous conceptions of sovereignty be reconciled with each other? These questions connect ongoing debates in the field of geopolitics of sovereignty (Eudaily and Smith 2008;Longo 2017) and decolonialization (Abu-Laban 2020;Nicol 2017;Sharma and Wright 2008;Villegas et al 2019).…”

The Competing Influence of Policy Content and Political Cues: Cross-Border Evidence from the United States and Canada

“…Throughout Trump’s campaign and presidency, he described immigration with inflammatory language (Jones et al 2021) and vowed to cut legal immigration, to build a wall on the southern border, and to enforce “extreme vetting” of applicants for refugee admission (Pierce and Selee 2017). Trudeau, on the other hand, came to power “symbolizing a more open Canada as concerned immigrants and citizenship” and campaigned on a promise to admit more refugees, particularly from Syria (Abu-Laban 2020, 18). Trudeau openly defended Canada’s relatively more generous response to refugees as compared with Donald Trump (Abu-Laban 2017), and some argue that Trudeau’s domestic approval benefitted from playing the foil to the Trump administration on the global stage (Hillmer and Lagassé 2018).…”

A New Politics? Symposium on Dauvergne’s The New Politics and the End of Settler Societies

“…A first article, by Yasmeen Abu‐Laban, digs deeper into the complexities of declaring the end of settler societies in the continued presence of settler colonialism. Arguing for an approach that is sensitive to “divergence within convergence” (Abu‐Laban, 2019: 3), the article explores how the foundations and enduring legacy of colonialism still shapes the politics of immigration in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. After reviewing core concepts associated with settler colonialism and describing the political moment associated with the UNDRIP, Abu‐Laban documents how settler colonialism still matters immensely for immigration politics in Canada: it supports different discourses about immigration, but it also unfolds while ownership and legitimacy of control of the land is contested.…”

“…After reviewing core concepts associated with settler colonialism and describing the political moment associated with the UNDRIP, Abu‐Laban documents how settler colonialism still matters immensely for immigration politics in Canada: it supports different discourses about immigration, but it also unfolds while ownership and legitimacy of control of the land is contested. Still, Abu‐Laban recommends to not so quickly reject the concept of settler states since it offers some clues on “creative possibilities for resistance to colonial borders and racism, precisely because ‘de‐ colonization’ has remained elusive” (Abu‐Laban, 2019: 3). Doing so, she proposes that migration studies should explore further the relationship between indigeneity and migration, which already gives rise to new global comparative research in areas such as: the relationship between immigrants and Indigenous peoples, the relationship between racialized minorities and Indigenous peoples and a politics of solidarity, and the relationship between reconciliation and other forms of recognition such as multiculturalism in a bilingual framework (Abu‐Laban, 2019: 11).…”