Refugees and Racism in Canada

Refuge

Volumn 19, Issue 6, 2001, Pages 12-20

  Richmond, Anthony H ^a  

^a YORK UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84937338113     PISSN: 02295113     EISSN: 19207336     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.25071/1920-7336.21235     Document Type: Article

References (19)

1. The terms special measures and designated classes refer to Canada’s programs for bringing refugees to Canada under humanitarian criteria, who would not necessarily have met the strict UN Convention definition. An example was the program for Eastern Europeans in the 1980s. For a discussion of the relation between environmental crises and refugee movements see Thomas Homer-Dixon, Environment, Scarcity and Violence (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1999).
2. André Siegfried, The Race Question in Canada (London: E. Nash, 1907).
3. As defined in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (article 1), racial discrimination “refers to any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.” For a discussion of the various uses of the term racism, see Michael Banton, The Idea of Race (London: Tavistock, 1977), and John Rex, Race and Ethnicity (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1986.)
4. See N. B. Ryder “The Interpretation of Origin Statistics,” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 20, no. 4 (1955): 466–79.
5. See Ethnic Origin and Nativity of the Canadian People, 1941 Census Monograph (Ottawa, Queen’s Printer, 1965).
6. Ian Hunter, “Equality’s Bloated Bureaucracy,” Globe and Mail, 25 May 25 2001, 15(A). For a discussion of the Charter of Rights and its implications for Canadian federalism see a special issue of the International Journal of Canadian Studies, 7– 8, (1993); also vol.14, 1996.
7. For an examination of these questions, see Frances Henry and Carol Tator, “The Theory and Practice of Democratic Racism in Canada,” in Perspectives on Ethnicity in Canada, eds. M. A. Kalbach & W. E. Kalbach (Toronto: Harcourt Canada, 2000).
8. Race and Ethnic Relations in Canada, ed. Peter Li, rev. ed. (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 1999).
9. See Michael Ornstein, Ethno-Racial Inequality in the City of Toronto: An Analysis of the 1996 Census (Toronto: Access and Equity Unit, 2000), and A. Kazemipur and S. S. Halli, “The Changing Colour of Poverty in Canada,” Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 38, no. 2 (2001): 217–38.
10. For example, P. A. Cummings, et. al., Access! Task Force on Access to Trades and Professions (Toronto: Ministry of Citizen-ship, 1989).
11. I. Abella and H. Troper, None Is Too Many (Toronto: Lester and Orpen Dennys, 1983).
12. Freda Hawkins, “Uganda Asians in Canada,” New Community 11, no. 3 (1973): 268–75.
13. A recent example was reported in the media. A British-born woman of African descent, carrying a British passport, was handcuffed, detained, and interrogated at Pearson International Airport by an immigration officer who doubted the authenticity of her documents. Similar cases have been re-ported. See Maureen Murray, “Pain Still Persists Seven Years after Pearson Ordeal,” Toronto Star, 6 June 2001: 17(A).
14. G. E. Dirks, “A Policy within a Policy: The Identification and Admission of Refugees in Canada,” Canadian Journal of Political Science 17, no. 2 (1984): 279–307.
15. L. Wong, “Canada’s Guestworkers: Some Comparisons of Temporary Workers in Europe and North America,” International Migration Review 18, no. 1 (1984): 85–98; M. Boyd et al., “Temporary Workers in Canada: A Multi-faceted Program,” International Migration Review 24, no. 4 (1986): 929–50.
16. See Canadian Council for Refugees, “Report on Systemic Racism and Discrimination in Canadian Refugee and Immigration Policies,” online: (date accessed: 26 June 2001).
17. See J. C. Best, et. al., “Canada Must Stand on Guard: Open Letter to Jean Chrétien,” Globe and Mail, 6 June 2001, 17(A).
18. For a discussion of the changes in policy and their implications, see Sharryn Aiken, “Racism and Canadian Immigration Policy,” Refuge 18, no. 4 (1999): 1–7, and A. H. Richmond, “Global Apartheid: A Postscript,” Refuge 19, no. 4 (2001): 8–13.
19. Although the negative effects were not confined to that continent, it has been shown that structural adjustments imposed by the IMF and the World Bank, in the name of fiscal responsibility, aggravated social conditions in Africa and “ended in a considerable fiasco.” See Manuel Castells, End of Millennium (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998), 113–5. See also A. Adepojo, ed., The Impact of Structural Adjustment on the Population of Africa (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1993).