Canada’s Fair Elections Act risks disenfranchising voters and handing an advantage to wealthy candidates

The Canadian government has proposed new legislation to reform electoral law in areas such as voter identification, fraud and campaign finance. The reforms have provoked a fierce reaction, with over 150 political scientists signing a letter of protest. In this post Patti Tamara Lenard summarises the proposals and explains why she and other experts believe they will undermine the integrity of elections in Canada

Democratic Citizenship and Denationalization

Are democratic states permitted to denationalize citizens, in particular those whom they believe pose dangers to the physical safety of others? In this article, I argue that they are not. The power to denationalize citizens—that is, to revoke citizenship—is one that many states have historically claimed for themselves, but which has largely been in disuse in the last several decades. Recent terrorist events have, however, prompted scholars and political actors to reconsider the role that denationalization can and perhaps should play in democratic states, in particular with respect to its role in protecting national security and in supporting the global fight against terror more generally. In this article, my objective is to show that denationalization laws have no place in democratic states. To understand why, I propose examining the foundations of the right of citizenship, which lie, I shall argue, in the very strong interests that individuals have in security of residence. I use this formulation of the right to respond to two broad clusters of arguments: (1) those that claim that it is justifiable to denationalize citizens who threaten to undermine the safety of citizens in a democratic state or the ability of a democratic state to function as a democratic state, and (2) those that claim that it is justifiable to denationalize dual citizens because they possess citizenship status in a second country that is also able to protect their rights

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Actions

What motivates “ordinary people” to support refugees emotionally and financially? This is a timely question considering the number of displaced people in today’s world is at an all-time high. To help counter this crisis, it is imperative for the Canadian government to determine which policies encourage volunteers to welcome asylum seekers, and which ones must be reviewed. Ordinary People, Extraordinary Actions relates the story of the St. Joseph’s Parish Refugee Outreach Committee over its thirty years in action, revealing how seemingly small decisions and actions have led to significant changes in policies and in people’s lives—and how they can do so again in the future. By helping readers—young and old, secular and faith-oriented—understand what drives individuals and communities to welcome refugees with open hearts and open arms, the authors hope to inspire people across Canada and beyond its borders to strengthen our collective willingness and ability to offer refuge as a lifesaving protection for those who need it

Migration and Global Justice

"Editors Introduction" zum "Special Issue on Global Justice and Migration

Ripe to be Heard: Worker Voice in the Fair Food Programme

The Fair Food Program (FFP) provides a mechanism through which agricultural workers’ collective voice is expressed, heard and responded to within global value chains. The FFP's model of worker-driven social responsibility presents an alternative to traditional corporate social responsibility. This article identifies the FFP's key components and demonstrates its resilience by identifying the ways in which the issues faced by a new group of migrant workers – recruited through a “guest-worker” scheme – were incorporated and dealt with. This case study highlights the important potential presented by the programme to address labour abuses across transnationalized labour markets while considering early replication possibilities

How Do Sponsors Think about "Month 13"?

There are many different ways in which one might describe the goal of Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. For sponsors, though, one goal is clear: to get “their” refugees ready to handle the rigors of “month 13.” The supposed ideal is that, by month 13, newcomers are employed and living independently in Canada, as productive members of society. The reality is messier. The objective in this article is to offer an account of how sponsors think of their job, in relation to month 13. Using data collected via interviews with nearly sixty private sponsors in Ottawa, it is shown that sponsors are motivated by securing stability for newcomers by the time month 13 arrives, but that sponsors differently flesh out the meaning of the stability they are seeking to achieve on behalf of newcomers. In particular, the data suggest, sponsors believe that newcomers’ attitude to integration is especially strongly related to their actual integration, and newcomers do especially well by month 13 to the extent that sponsors are able to build and support a positive attitude towards it.Il y a plusieurs façons dont pourrait être décrit l’objectif du Programme de parrainage privé de réfugiés du Canada. Pour les parrains, toutefois, l’objectif est clair : il s’agit de préparer « leur » réfugié à gérer les rigueurs du « 13e mois ». L’idéal supposé est qu’à partir 13e mois, les réfugiés travaillent et vivent de façon indépendante en tant membres productifs de la société. La réalité est plus compliquée. Cet article a pour objectif de rendre compte de la façon dont les parrains envisagent leurs tâches en lien avec le 13e mois. S’appuyant sur des données recueilles auprès d’une soixantaine de parrains à Ottawa, cet article démontre que les parrains sont animés par le désir d’assurer la stabilité des réfugiées avant 13e mois. Cependant, les parrains définissent de manière différente ce qu’ils entendent par stabilité. Notamment, les données indiquent que les parrains estiment que le niveau d’intégration des nouveaux arrivants est particulièrement relié à leur attitude envers l’intégration. Les parrains estiment également que la réussite des nouveaux arrivants dépend de leur capacité à développer et soutenir chez eux une attitude positive envers l’intégration

Exit and the duty to admit

Conventionally, it is presumed that while citizens have the right to exit the state in which they are located, no particular state (except a citizen's home state) is required to admit them. Yet, this convention has produced, and continues to produce, injustice; to understand why, I focus on defining and protecting a right to exit, as distinct from the right to move in general. This analysis leads me to propose that whereas the political theoretic literature appears to have converged on a commitment to decisive asymmetry (in favor of accepting a state's right to exclude), I propose that only a weak asymmetry is justified. I argue that receiving states are duty-bound to act in ways that enable migrants to exercise their right to exit. In particular, I argue that receiving states have a perfect duty to collectivize the process by which needy migrants can exercise the right to exit