SOCI 230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Convention Relating To The Status Of Refugees, Canadian Academy, Economic Migrant
3 May 2018
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Lecture 14: White Privilege + Immigration
February 20th, 2018
! Examples of whiteness studies:
•!Rethinking the Great White North, talks about how Canadian geography and history is
inheritably constructed for white advantages.
•!The Great White North? Concerned with the lived experiences of Whiteness in the Canadian
society.
•!Both of the authors are white Canadian men, they said it is a responsibility to acknowledge
how whiteness oppresses other populations.
•!1st book
o!Canadian geography is infused with inherently white perspectives
o!The design of public parks…
•!2nd nook
o!Education system
o!Curriculum in secondary and post secondary
o!Lived experience of whiteness in Canadian society
o!Being white includes responsibility to understand whiteness
•!Some reactions to this book:
o!Blames how other cultures decimate the white one, and how their culture and religion
is being protected
o!"More white guilt nonsense”
o!“If any race is being discriminated it’s whites”
o!“I’m not going to feel guilty, chuck non western attitudes out the door”
o!These answers were posted in an article that analyzed the responses they got.
! New study of whiteness, race, indignity in the Canadian Academy
•!Try to showcase the experience of Indigenous individuals and critique the institutions against
discrimination saying they don't go far enough even though they appear, "The Equity Myth".
•!Showcase lived experience of indigenous and minority faculty members
•!Institution, ethnographical approach, racial privileges on campus
! Immigration and race/ethnicity
•!What has been the relationship between immigration and race/ethnicity in Canada
historically?
•!What role does immigration play in contemporary Canadian race/ethnic relations?
! Some basic terminology
•!International migration vs. internal migration
•!International migration: movement of people across an
internationally recognized State border.
o!There are 3 different classes of migrants
"!1) Permanent resident: migrate to stay
permanently (economic, family, refugee)
"!2) Asylum seekers: no protection from home countries, they seek asylum,
approved asylum they can become refugees
"!3) Temporary Workers: migrate for work, can’t be permanent
o!Permanent residents (economic, family, refugee)/asylum seekers/temporary workers
o!International migrant: a person who lives outside of his/her country of birth
o!Economic migrant: someone who chooses to move in order to improve future
prospects for herself and her family.
•!Refugee: (1951 Refugee Convention) someone who "owing to a well-founded
o!Fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality,
o!Membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of
his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of
the protection of that country” (UNHCR)
! Some basic facts
•!244 million international migrants (2015)
o!3.3% world population
"!Media leads us to think it’s more than that
"!Very selective nature of international migration
"!Poor people can’t move
"!Selective population
o!Temporary labor workers are 3% world’s labor force
"!Increasing segment of international migration, they are cheaper
o!Women are 49% of temporary labor migrants
"!Used to be the case where it was male dominated
•!In terms of refugees, 65.3 million are forcibly displaced worldwide (2015)
o!21.3 million refugees (1/2 of them are less than 18 years-old)
o!10 million stateless people
o!107,100 resettled refugees
•!Top sending countries:
o!Somalia (1.1 million)
o!Afghanistan (2.7 million)
o!Syria (4.9 million)
•!Top host countries: Turkey (2.5 million) and Pakistan (1.6 million)
! International migrant stock, 2015
•!US has most international migrants, then Germany
•!Share of foreign born living in these countries is really high in some
places UAE
! Countries with largest international migrant stock, 2015
•!1) US
•!2) Germany
•!3) Russian Federation
•!4) Saudi Arabia
•!5) UK
