The construction of the ‘immigrant’ in Canada’s immigration discourse : a Foucauldian critical discourse analysis through postcolonial lenses

Abstract

In this dissertation, I investigate how ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ relate to non-white immigrants’ socio-economic marginalization, such as job ghettoization, underemployment and unemployment. Over the last three decades, the gap between immigrant and non-immigrant population with regards to socio-economic outcomes has been steadily growing (Block & Galabuzi, 2011; Reitz, 2011a; Thobani, 2007). At the same time, the proportions of non-white immigrants to Canada have been increasing. Currently, over 80% of immigrants to Canada come from regions with non-white majority populations (Statistics Canada, 2009; 2014a). I analyze the present immigration discourse based on Foucauldian poststructuralism (Foucault, 1971; 1972; 1981) and postcolonialism (Said, 1978), to problematize contemporary societal and political engagements with ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’. Through a discursive review of Canada’s past, I show how concepts such as ‘visible minority’, ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘Canadian work experience’ contribute to the marginalization of non-white immigrants, ultimately racializing them. I also conduct a Foucauldian critical discourse analysis (CDA - following S. Jäger, 2004; S. Jäger & Maier, 2009) on selected ‘texts’. I show the colonial and binary dynamics at play in the image construction of non-white immigrants in the texts from politics, society and media. This dissertation contributes to Management and Organizational Studies (MOS) by shedding light on the taken-for-granted nature of discursive practices in organizations and contributing new insights into the current challenges that immigrant populations face. Finally, I show how theorizing about rather abstract concepts such as power, knowledge and discourse can serve as a framework to very ‘practical’ and ‘real world’ issues, thus making a strong case for how in-depth theoretical elaborations can serve very ‘pragmatic’ research inquiries.