CRS Book Launch: Age discrimination and migration policy in Canada: Toward an Equitable Approach

How and why does age function as part of a broader system of border control? Age and Immigration Policy in Canada uses the concept of social age – the socially constructed roles and norms attributed to different stages of life – to demonstrate how discrimination on the basis of age and family status is deeply embedded in Canadian immigration law and policy. Focusing on the comprehensive ranking or point system, immigrant detention, and refugee protection, Christina Clark-Kazak finds the state’s reliance on age to be context-specific, inconsistent, and arbitrary: a way to shut out certain groups or to absolve the state of responsibility for immigrant supports. Age and Immigration Policy in Canada advocates for a more equitable approach that reflects different migration experiences across the life course. This is an urgent call to bring immigration policy in line with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and rights-based international norms.

Christina Clark-Kazak is Professor, Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa and project director of UnborderED knowledge / Savoirs sans frontières.