Decolonizing Immigration
Entry:
This link is to a paper entitled Decolonizing Immigration: Addressing Missing Indigenous Perspectives in Canadian Immigration Policies, written by Anne Dmytriw who submitted this work in 2016 while in the MA program at Ryerson University in the Program of Immigration and Settlement Studies. She explores how Canada’s Immigration policy was based on, is preserving and continuing a white Eurocentric narrative that perpetuates settler colonization in its neglect to represent or incorporate recognition of Canada’s Indigenous peoples. Shedding light on this matter and being critical of it is the sort of analysis needed to take a step towards the critical thought necessary for a movement towards decolonization.
Rationale:
I chose this paper due to its contemporary critical discourse analysis related to Canada’s immigration policies of both the present and the past. The myth that Canada is a nation of multiculturalism is particularly erroneous in regard to its relationship with the Indigenous people of this land.
Many Canadians consider colonization as a series of events that occurred with the first wave of European “settlers” that arrived hundreds of years ago and believe that it is now over and therefore, irrelevant. They neglect to see their own role and the role of the government in creating frameworks that welcome and condition current citizens and newcomers to sustain colonial practices, Indigenous marginalization and acts of imperialism.
Settler propaganda such as the “discovery myth” and “terra nullis” have succeeded in brainwashing the masses while present-day rhetoric that refers to “Her Majesty,” our two official languages being English and French, even our policies on family sponsorship all serve the white, Eurocentric, individualistic, capitalist goals of our Nation-State. This needs to be criticized if we are to build a coalition that reconnects people to each other, to nature, and to the land in a non-capitalist manner in a way that honors and respects Indigenous values.
Keywords: Indigenous, immigration, decolonization
Author: LM
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