Country Profile
GAPs Country Profile: Canada / Blog Posts
Canadian Return Policy and the Migration-Terrorism Nexus
by: Younes Ahouga, Toronto Metropolitan University
The creation of the current Canadian return policy is linked to the establishment of a common North American security perimeter with the United States following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. To deflect accusations that Canada represented a potential haven for terrorists and safeguard the free flow of capital, goods, and people with the US, the Canadian immigration and asylum policies were closely aligned with those of the US and integrated in a broader antiterrorist strategy.
Datafication and Return Migration: The Case of the International Organization for Migration
by: Younes Ahouga, Toronto Metropolitan University
Datafication has become a mainstay of migration governance. This is epitomized by the very first of the 23 objectives of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) which encouraged states to ‘Collect and utilize accurate and disaggregated data as a basis for evidence-based policies’. To this end, states had to build digital systems of data collection, analysis, and dissemination; enhance national data capacities through financial and technical assistance; and explore new data sources.
GAPs Country Profile: Canada / Publications
This report examines the legal and institutional frameworks, operational infrastructure, and international cooperation involved in the removal of inadmissible foreign nationals and rejected refugee protection claimants from Canada. The analysis highlights that the Canadian return policy pursues two objectives: (1) facilitate the arrest, detention, and removal of foreign nationals, notably those who would pose a security risk; (2) safeguard the human rights of foreign nationals and refugee protection claimants. The first objective stems from the post9/11 political context dominated by security concerns in which the contemporary Canadian return policy has been constructed. The second objective is epitomized by the need for the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to be applied in a manner consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the international human rights instruments to which Canada is signatory…
The overall aim of the GAPs project is to decentre the dominant, one-sided understanding of 'return policymaking' by bringing multiple perspectives into play and studying the complex interaction of diverse actors involved in the return processes; scrutinizing gaps and shortcomings in the governance of returns, with both its internal and external dimensions; and devoting specific attention to the study of practices. Developing a clear conceptual framework that describes how different actors identify migrant returns and how various disciplines are used to study return is a crucial step for decentring the dominant policy understanding and the focus of this paper. The paper underlines the context-specific use of the term which varies both among countries and regions. Specifically, this paper provides a conceptual framework for the clarification of whose return we are addressing – that is, whether of legal settled migrants, migrants without status, asylum seekers who have been refused, people…
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