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The Discourse Of Hospitality And The Rise Of Immigration Detention In Canada

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Dr. Carrie Dawson is a professor in the English Department at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her published work examines a variety of issues, including, the depictions of refugees and undocumented migrants in Canadian culture. One such publications of hers is: “Refugee Hotels: The Discourse of Hospitality and the Rise of Immigration Detention in Canada,” published in 2014 in the University of Toronto Quarterly. In her article, Dawson first analyzes references to hotels by Jason Kenney during his accommodation as Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration between 2008 and 2013. On the one hand, Kenney likened the detention facilities used to house an incrementing number of asylum seekers and non-status migrants to hotels. …show more content…

Still, Dawson points out, when pointing out the responsibilities of citizenship, “Kenney argued that ‘Canada is not a hotel’.” Dawson employs discourse analysis to examine the tension between the Canadian ideal of hospitality and the realities of a growing immigration detention system. The preferred national self-image of Canada as intrinsically hospitable is visible in both of the antithetical references to hotels above. The first endeavors to obscure the astringency of the detention system, and the jail-like conditions in which people are held, by suggesting that they are not astringent but hospitable, in keeping with Canada’s preferred self-image, and thus that detainees are treated as if they were hotel guests. The second utilization surmises that Canada is hospitable and therefore is vulnerably susceptible to exploitation, for example by those who seek asylum under erroneous pretenses. To safeguard Canada from its own idealistic hospitality, the Minister is obliged to insist that Canada is not a hotel, not in other words welcoming to …show more content…

These sources include, “Disappearing Refugees: Reflections on the Canada–US Safe Third Country Agreement,” an essay published in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review and “The Crimmigration Crisis: Immigrants, Crime, and Sovereign Power” a study for the American University Law Review (qtd. in Dawson). Citing these sources boosts her integrity by demonstrating that she has done her research and has provided facts and statistics, as well as expert opinions to support her claim. The publication of her paper in a reputable and peer reviewed journal also adds to her ethos. The reader is satisfied that the paper they are reading has already been seen by many other experts in her field before publication, thus making her claims trustworthy. Dawson’s position as a professor for Dalhousie University and her PhD farther add to her credibility as a trustworthy author because they showcase her heightened level of

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