New book examines negotiating non-citizenship status

BookLuinGoldringA new book, Producing and Negotiating Non-Citizenship:Precarious Legal Status in Canada, which looks at a range of people whose pathway to citizenship is uncertain or non-existent and is co-edited by York sociology Professor Luin Goldring and University of Toronto sociology Professor Patricia Landolt, will launch tomorrow.

Published by the University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division, the book launch will take place May 9, from 4 to 6pm, at NEXUS Lounge, 12th Floor, 12-130 OISE, 252 Bloor St. W., Toronto.

Goldring of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and Landolt introduce the book with the first chapter’s look at Precarious Legal Status in Canada: Theorizing Non-citizenship and Conditionality.

Commentators Manavi Handa of Ryerson University, Audrey Macklin of the University of Toronto and Leslie Seidle of the Institute for Research on Public Policy will also be on hand.

Most examinations of non-citizens in Canada focus on immigrants, people who are citizens-in-waiting, or specific categories of temporary, vulnerable workers. However, Producing and Negotiating Non-Citizenship, considers a range of people including migrant workers, students, refugee claimants and people with expired permits. What they have in common is limited formal rights to employment, housing, education and health services.

The contributors present theoretically informed empirical studies of the regulatory, institutional, discursive and practical terms under which precarious-status non-citizens – those without permanent residence – enter and remain in Canada.

They consider the historical and contemporary production of non-citizen precarious status and migrant illegality in Canada, as well as everyday experiences of precarious status among various social groups including youth, denied refugee claimants and agricultural workers.

The book contributes to conceptualizing multiple forms of precarious status non-citizenship as connected through policy and the practices of migrants and the institutional actors they encounter.

To RSVP, contact creed@utpress.utoronto.ca.