The Criminalization of Migration: Context and Consequences ed. by Idil Atak and James C. Simeon (review)

This book is an edited collection based on an idea following the Eighth Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies held at Ryerson University, 13–15 May 2015. The collection's key goal is to study the 'criminalization of migration, or "crimmigration", which involves the increasing use of criminal law in immigration matters, the criminalizing of public discourse and other policies and practices that stigmatize migrants and refugees, and/or diminish their rights in Canada and abroad' (pp. 4–5). Due to the limitations of space I will focus on three chapters in the edited book.

In his chapter on 'The (Mis-)uses of Analogy: Constructing and Challenging Crimmigration in Canada', Graham Hudson, a philosopher, explores the theoretical or intellectual framework of the issue of 'crimmigration'. He openly struggles with the term, but does show how the Canadian state has used a whole range of legalistic means to infringe on the rights of refugees to seek protection in Canada. One of the most prominent is the suspension of habeas corpus, detention without charge. Increasing use has been made of this as a means by which to prevent refugees from accessing support from NGOs and as a form of deterrence.

In his chapter 'The Interpretation of Exclusion 1F(b) of the 1951 Refugee Convention Internationally and in Canada', Joseph Rikhof argues that the clause he focuses on has been utilised by various states: Australia, Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand, France, and Belgium, to exclude refugees from the protection of the 1951 Refugee Convention. The clause in question relates to certain crimes being committed and acting against the ideals of the United Nations. He shows in some detail how these countries, to varying degrees, have made use of this clause to exclude certain undesirable individuals, as they saw them, from being allowed to remain in the country as refugees under the international convention.

Dan Horner looks at the large levels of Irish migration primarily to the North American continent following the potato famine in his chapter on 'A Population Takes Flight: The Irish Famine Migration in Boston, Montreal, and Liverpool, and the Politics of Marginalization and Criminalization'. Horner makes some interesting parallels to the way that the Irish refugees were treated in the nineteenth century and the way refugees are treated today. In the three major port cities of the Atlantic of his study he shows how authorities attempted to use laws to criminalise the Irish refugees who had entered their jurisdictions, or even attempted to stop them from arriving. Horner's chapter is an excellent illustration of the importance of historical precedent to challenges faced today when it comes to the treatment of refugees.

This is an interesting book which makes an important contribution to a very topical subject. I recommend it, although it will appeal more to experts rather than general readers, as a lot of the language used is quite legalistic.