Still Making Canada White: Racial Governmentality and the “Good Immigrant” in Canadian Parliamentary Immigration Debates

Reflecting on restrictive reforms to Canadian immigration laws in the 1990s, Sherene Razack has noted the emerging significance of racialized elites’ role in the policing of bodies of colour. Central to her analysis has been the national story of Canada as a peaceful and civilized “country of immigrants” that values cultural diversity and whose generosity is periodically besieged by masses of foreign criminals. This article, which was written two decades after Razack’s study, analyzes the racialized discourse of Canadian parliamentary debates on immigration and, in particular, the role that Conservative Asian members of parliament have played in debates throughout the consideration of Bill C-11, An Act to Amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which became the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and Bill C-31, Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, which became law in 2012. The article examines how Conservative Asian political elites have been drawn into hegemonic national stories in parliamentary debate on immigration by rehearsing “good immigrant” stories that distinguish “legitimate” from “illegitimate” immigrants.