Assembling noncitizenship through the work of conditionality

Abstract

We develop a framework for understanding noncitizenship that combines attention to systemic processes with interest in contingency and indeterminacy in the production and substantive practices associated with noncitizen legal status categories and trajectories. We argue that noncitizenship is a dynamic, multi-scalar assemblage that brings together disparate elements in patterned and changing ways. Individuals and institutions generate the formal and substantive systems that confer or deny noncitizens the formal and substantive right to be present in a country and/or to access entitlements. Noncitizens exercise agency in choosing to make claims (or choosing to not make claims) to substantive rights, and the individuals and institutions with which they interact may facilitate or hinder such claims-making. In this process, social actors are enacting conditionality; they are working to meet the conditions required to maintain presence and access. Discretion, migrant agency, unequal social interactions, and social learning unfold over time and can generate a range of experiences of noncitizenship and legal status trajectories. These do not necessarily conform to expected pathways and timelines, and may combine access to various resources and public goods in variable and contingent ways. We illustrate the framework with data from research conducted in Toronto.

Keywords:

• Noncitizenship
• assemblage
• conditionality
• contingency
• theory
• Canada

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This is not meant to minimize the scarring and traumatic impacts of illegalization, raids, and surveillance. Literature eloquently addresses the fear and stigma that illegalized noncitizens in particular must deal with, and the impacts of fear on emotion and subjectivity (Chavez 1998; Abrego 2011; Saad 2013).

2. Because this work takes time and resources, migrants who are eventually successful in gaining secure legal status may feel they have to ‘start all over’ in an effort to gain occupational recognition and mobility. In turn, service providers in a setting that does not support inclusionary practices may experience burnout, attempt to change organizational practice, organize through movements with shared affinities and goals, and/or continue to practice inclusion on their own. At a systemic level, this is consistent with selective inclusion.

3. The research was funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. For details and materials see: http://www.yorku.ca/ine/.

4. The H&C process is the one of the only options for a direct transition from being non-status (illegalized) to permanent residence. It involves establishing a rationale for permanent status based on humanitarian or compassionate grounds, both of which are subject to discretion and frames of deservingness, and demonstrating good conduct (more deservingness) and community participation (substantive membership).

5. Canada’s refugee determination system, including the formal package of entitlements granted to refugee claimants has undergone cutbacks over the last decade. In some provinces, services were partially restored after significant mobilizations.