Interdiction and the post 9/11 Security Agenda: A Canadian Perspective

Thirteenth Session of The Complex Dynamics of International Migration Interdisciplinary Seminar on the Conceptualization of the Migration Phenomenon
2005 2006 Scientific Seminar of the Canada Research Chair on International Migration Law

Lors de ce treizième séminaire interdisciplinaire de la CDIM, , Sharryn Aiken a exposé que les mesures issues de la stratégie canadienne antiterroriste post 11 septembre 2001 (les certificats de sécurité en l’occurrence) ne représentaient pas une nouvelle orientation des politiques migratoires, mais plutôt le dernier chapitre d’une geste migratoire faite tant d’humanisme que d’expédient politique et d’exclusion raciste.

Résumé: A key plank of Canada’s anti-terrorism strategy post 9/11 has been an increasing emphasis on interdiction - measures aimed at intercepting “irregular migrants” before they reach a land border along with a series of specific policies targeting migrants and asylum seekers upon arrival. Two specific features of Canada’s interdiction strategy will be the primary focus of this paper: security-related detention and the newly adopted Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States. Detention pursuant to immigration security procedures aims to address “security threats” from within while the Safe Third Country Agreement operates at the border itself. Neither of these measures represent a sea change in migration policies, but merely the latest chapter in a fitful history of grand gestures of humanitarianism, political expedience and racist exclusion (Dauvergne 2003; Richmond 2001; Simmons 1998). The “big idea” of integration/ policy convergence with the United States and a North American security perimeter have yet to be embraced by the Canadian government. However, a growing reliance on interdiction measures and other quick-fix legal solutions (governing through law), have fuelled an increasingly securitized discourse on asylum and migration. The goal which underpins this discourse - containing genuine threats to global peace and stability - remains as elusive as ever.

Sharry Aiken is an assistant professor in the faculty of law at Queen’s University where she teaches immigration and refugee law, international human rights, law and poverty and administrative law. A past president of the Canadian Council for Refugees, Sharry currently serves as a member of the CCR’s Legal Affairs Committee. She is also editor-in-chief of Refuge, a member of the Equality Rights Panel of the Court Challenges Programme and a director of Jeunesse Canada Monde.