Towards a Sanctuary Province: Policies, Programs, and Services for Illegalized Immigrants’ Equitable Employment, Social Participation, and Economic Development

Abstract

Given contemporary federal migration policies, Canada can expect increasing numbers of immigrants who do not possess legal status. The exploitation of these “illegalized” immigrants in the labour market affects wages and labour standards for all Canadians. To mitigate the negative effects of federal immigration policies, Toronto and Hamilton have declared themselves sanctuary cities. In this working paper, we explore initiatives that could be applied at the provincial and territorial scale to enhance access to employment for illegalized immigrants. After conducting a scoping analysis of the literature, we conclude that provinces and territories could implement a range of programs, policies, and service deliveries.

Sanctuary Movements in Mid-sized Cities in Canada: An Exploration of the Strengths and Limitations of Local Sanctuary Policies and Practices

“…The ability to provide services is largely impeded by the type of services cities can provide. For example, provinces fund health care, community housing, and subsidized childcare, among many others that require immigration status (City of London, 2021; Hannan & Bauder, 2015). These are services that could positively impact the physical and mental health of non-status migrants if they could be made available via sanctuary policies.…”

“…The federal government is progressively reliant on temporary migration programs to respond to labour needs, but the increase in these migrants, longer processing times, and convoluted pathways to permanent residence leave many migrants in a situation where they have either no or precarious status (Hannan & Bauder, 2015;Landolt et al, 2021).…”

Seeing like a Zone: Privately deputized sovereignty within Toronto’s Sanctuary City

“…Notions of emancipatory forms of urban governance, scale and empowered subnational bodies appear in geographical theories of the rebel/insurgent cities (Cordes, 2017), ‘right to the city’, local self-government (Magnusson, 2015), and urban citizenship (Smith and McQuarrie, 2012); all perpetuating a homogenized conception of the city. Sanctuary City scholarship theorizing in terms of migrant irregularity (Ellis, 2015), precarity (McDonald, 2014), and illegalization (Hannan and Bauder, 2015) imports the antagonism of state power as the cause and potential solution to harmful citizenship practices. Potentially reproducing state power troubles Sanctuary City scholars.…”