The Place of Immigrants: The Politics of Difference in Territorial and Social Space

ABSTRACT/RESUME Canada's immigration discourse tends to treat immigrants as the object of inquiry. The discourse itself is taken for granted and is seldom scrutinized. This paper discusses the framework by which the immigration discourse is shaped and articulated. The aim is to understand the of immigrants in the construction and safe-keeping of Canada's actual and virtual boundaries. The place of immigrants in territorial and social space reveals the discursive grounds by which insiders represent and racialize those deemed to be outside and different. In turn, plotting the place of reinforces the proprietary claim of territorial and social space by those who have secured legitimacy and power. Thus, the discursive mapping of immigrants in Canada's territorial and social terrains is an extension of politics of difference. Le discours sur l'immigration canadienne tendance traiter les immigrants comme des objets d'enquete. Le discours lui-meme est considere comme une chose acquise et rarement etudie dans le detail. Cet article propose une discussion sur le cadre dans lequel ce discours est forme et articule. Le but de cette enquete est de comprendre comment les immigrants sont representes dans la construction et la securite des limites virtuelles et reelles du Canada. La place des immigrants dans l'espace social et territorial revele les fondements du discours par lequel on represente par leur ceux qui sont differents et qui viennent de l'exterieur. En revanche, comploter la place des autres renforce la demande de propriete de l'espace territorial et social par ceux qui ont securise la 1egitimite et le pouvoir. La cartographie du discours propos des immigrants sur les terrains territorial et social n'est qu'une continuation des politiques sur la difference. INTRODUCTION Canada's public immigration discourse tends to treat immigrants as the object of inquiry, focusing on who they are, how they perform in Canada, and whether they bring economic and social value. Rarely is the discourse itself scrutinized. This paper examines the cultural framework by which the understanding of immigrants has been shaped, focusing on the historical continuity and contemporary relevance of race or racialized others. The focus is on the of desirable and undesirable immigrants in the construction, maintenance, and safe-keeping of Canada's actual and virtual boundaries. The place of immigrants in territorial and social space indicates not only the nature and quality of immigrants, but also the ideological and discursive grounds by which insiders represent outsiders and by which those who have successfully secured legitimacy and power racialize others deemed to be fundamentally different. Thus, the discursive mapping of immigrants in Canada's territorial and social terrains is an extension of politics of difference. IDEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK AND IMMIGRATION Gramsci (1973) and Hall (1996a, 1996b) stressed the importance of cultural frameworks in giving meaning to different classes to enable them to make sense of the world around them, and that in doing so, cultural frameworks assume life of their own, capable of changing the material and political world and thus contributing to reproducing it. In other words, the objectified social world is represented through ideas, language, symbols, and culture, and in turn, the provides the meaning of the social world. As Hall (1996c) put it, regimes of in culture do play constitutive, and not merely reflexive, after-the-event, role. In this way, contestations in the social world--whether based on class, gender, or --necessarily involve contestations in the symbolic order of representation. The study of frames of incorporates many facets, including what Hall (1996c:442) called relations of representation such as the contestation of the marginality, as well as how a set of ideas comes to dominate the social thinking of historical bloc (Hall, 1996a:27). …

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