Tracing the Invisible Borders of Canadian Citizenship: Critical Analysis of Social Work with Noncitizens
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis interrogates the notion of citizenship as a social good through critical analysis of Canadian social work with noncitizens. Drawing on multidisciplinary scholarshipcritical border scholarship, Indigenous studies, critical race studies, settler colonial studies, affect theories, and Foucaults notion of powerI consider both the historical and contemporary contexts in which social work with noncitizens has become invested in Canadian citizenship. My thesis addresses the co-constitutive dimension of border and citizenship and proposes the concept of inner borders to elucidate the ways in which inclusionary and exclusionary functions at the territorial border are internalized within the nation-state. I theorize social work as a site of inner border making where the boundaries of national membership and belonging are drawn through everyday practices of inclusion and exclusion. Weaving together interview data with social workers, policy analysis on immigration and citizenship changes, and historical analysis of border making, I conduct three strands of analysis of border making in social work that attend to: (1) entangled histories of the settler colonial project, immigration, and social work; (2) the contemporary context of neoliberalism and its relations to social work with noncitizens; and (3) affective relations involved in social work with noncitizens. My research findings reveal that the discourse of civility is fundamental to border making in Canada. The discourse of civility was foundational to the settler colonial project, which relied on the discursive construction of Indigenous peoples as uncivilized vis--vis civilized European settlers. The discourse of civility functioned not only to legitimize the violent land dispossession by Europeans but also as a mechanism to govern the internal lives of members of Canadian society, whereby whiteness, Britishness, and masculinity were defined as the ultimate standard of progress and orderliness. Early social w…
abstract: This thesis interrogates the notion of citizenship as a social good through critical analysis of Canadian social work with noncitizens. Drawing on multidisciplinary scholarshipcritical border scholarship, Indigenous studies, critical race studies, settler colonial studies, affect theories, and Foucaults notion of powerI consider both the historical and contemporary contexts in which social work with noncitizens has become invested in Canadian citizenship. My thesis addresses the co-constitutive dimension of border and citizenship and proposes the concept of inner borders to elucidate the ways in which inclusionary and exclusionary functions at the territorial border are internalized within the nation-state. I theorize social work as a site of inner border making where the boundaries of national membership and belonging are drawn through everyday practices of inclusion and exclusion. Weaving together interview data with social workers, policy analysis on immigration and citizenship changes, and historical analysis of border making, I conduct three strands of analysis of border making in social work that attend to: (1) entangled histories of the settler colonial project, immigration, and social work; (2) the contemporary context of neoliberalism and its relations to social work with noncitizens; and (3) affective relations involved in social work with noncitizens. My research findings reveal that the discourse of civility is fundamental to border making in Canada. The discourse of civility was foundational to the settler colonial project, which relied on the discursive construction of Indigenous peoples as uncivilized vis--vis civilized European settlers. The discourse of civility functioned not only to legitimize the violent land dispossession by Europeans but also as a mechanism to govern the internal lives of members of Canadian society, whereby whiteness, Britishness, and masculinity were defined as the ultimate standard of progress and orderliness. Early social w…
author: Ghelani, Chizuru Nobe
language: en
keywords: Social work
date published: 2019-07-02
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:33:49Z
provider: York University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: York University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/10315/36298