Intentional Neglect or Callous Oversight?
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00
- Written by editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1489 .... September 26, 2017
_______________________________________________________
Intentional Neglect or Callous Oversight?:
How ‘Progressive’ Basic Income Proposals Fail Migrants
Yogi Acharya and A.J. Withers
In the debate around the pros and cons of basic income, the implications for immigrants are seldom discussed. This omission, whether intentional or a product of indifference, is particularly glaring in progressive pro-Basic Income (BI) literature where the term "citizen’s income" is often used synonymously. Taken together, a troubling picture emerges of what is imagined for basic income and who is to be included within it. While basic income is often promoted in the name of social justice, we will demonstrate that this vision is flawed and excludes migrants -- which we argue is both profoundly unjust and works to reinforce the white supremacy and class hierarchies that... are foundational to the Canadian state.
Globally, the predominant driver of migration continues to be poverty and war. Growing income inequality fuelled by neoliberal capitalism and ever-expanding wars are driving record numbers of people away from their homes. Historical forces have shaped the world such that a sizable amount of this migration is heading to the global north. The same forces have also created immigration systems to control migration, and by extension, migrants themselves. This control has taken the form of forcing migrants to work in precarious conditions for low pay and with few legal protections. A key mechanism of exerting this control has been the introduction of a tiered system of rights and privileges.
In Canada, this takes of form of the classification of migrants based on their mode of arrival. There are permanent residents, temporary foreign workers, refugees, and students. There are also those who are denied any legal status, and forced to become undocumented. Each category has a different set of rights and legal protections. Permanent residents are closest to citizens in their grant of rights and legal protections whereas undocumented residents are afforded virtually none of either. While there exists some mobility between the categories, the process is expensive and convoluted, often taking years, and in some cases, there is no mobility at all. Trends in immigration policy demonstrate a shift toward keeping an increasing percentage of migrants from obtaining permanent residency, and by extension, citizenship. For example, over the past decade and a half, when Canada increased its intake of immigrants, the greatest expansion -- a three-fold increase -- was in the category of temporary foreign workers. The clear motivation for these policies, despite often being couched in xenophobic rhetoric, is the need to create a flexible business-friendly labour market. Given this context, and Canada’s reliance on immigrant labour for its economic and population growth, it is imperative that we assess what the introduction of basic income means for migrants.
