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Check out this song! I used it as my creative work for the syllabus.

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The Honour Song Remix - City Natives (Official Lyric Video)

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Settler Colonialism and Borders: Immigration and Shared Struggle- Jeevan, Maia, Eugene, Steph

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Settler Colonialism and Borders: Immigration and Shared Struggle- Jeevan, Maia, Eugene, Steph

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1) Themes

Mobility

Capital as controlling people's movement. Physical distancing of groups from urban centres renders entire communities, First Nations Reserves, for example, economically inaccessible under neoliberalism. Limited access to reasonably priced groceries, unable to physically attend secondary or post-secondary education.

Bodies

Which bodies are considered legal vs not? Policies and legislation (i.e. UK teachers reporting on undocumented/precarious individuals) create hostile environments for specific communities and individuals.

Settler colonial borders. Reserves, "Indian Status," policing and legalization/illegalization of Indigenous movement.

2) What did you learn from the readings? Did you see an overlap?

We have learned that border regimes enforce the control, regulation, and surveillance of marginalized bodies. Border regimes allow for the criminalization of racialized bodies and the separation of racialized bodies from circuits of capital and public infrastructure. The hyper-surveillance of migrants results in hostile environments in which landlords, educators, and employers become border agents to limit the right to mobility.

There is an overlap between these ideas of migration and solidarity with anti-colonial resistance. As Wolfe purports, settler-colonialism is dynamic; it transforms and re-invents itself for the purpose of Indigenous subjugation. The border regime is an apparatus of the settler-colonial state as it criminalizes, controls, and dehumanizes subjects that do not adhere to the Western gaze. Thus, the violence and exclusion of the indigenous population and migrants are mutually constitutive.

3) Wages for Immigration! By Ashley J. Bohrer

The big vision in Bohrer’s piece is that, despite not being recognized as such, immigration is labour. From a Feminist-Marxist lens, Bohrer frames immigration as a function and aspect of neoliberal capitalism as migrants are exploited to fill gaps in global northern workforces. They state how, through this lens, immigration is considered social reproduction, as it is the “renewal of a subordinated class of direct producers committed to the labour process” (Vogel, as quoted by Bohrer, 87).

Though settler colonialism creates hostile environments for indigenous folks, migrants, and marginalized communities, it also fosters anti-colonial resistance in times and spaces of shared struggle. This happens across marginalized communities, which can be seen in the parallels between the Wages for Housework movement and that of Wages for Immigration, both fighting against neoliberal capitalism and settler colonialism in their own rights. Another example of shared solidarity across different groups under settler colonialism is how ​​Indigenous folks on Turtle Island have been and continue to show solidarity with Palestinians. Patricia Gonzalez and six other folks from the Water Warriors Council of the Puyallup Tribe delayed the arrival of an American ship loaded with munition headed toward Israel by blocking its path in canoes (Beaumont, 2023). Though the aforementioned groups and movements are spatially and temporally distant, their struggles each come at the hands of neoliberal settler colonial regimes and are thus interconnected through both their struggle and their liberation.

4. Our group wanted to reflect on Israel’s control over the Palestinian population through military checkpoints that use colour-coded IDs in the occupied territories. Israel’s colour-coded ID system (i.e. blue and orange ID cards based on rank) controls the population registry and ID system of Palestinians. The Israel military checkpoint restricts where “Palestinian residents can live, their access to services and their participation in the political system.” The intersection between technology and border regimes allows us to frame technology as a means to control and exclude people’s freedom of movement.

A quote in the Aljazeera article that stood out to our group: “The work inside Israel is forced upon us. In the Palestinian sector, the income is very low. Even when people are educated and have degrees, no one cares about them. There are no job opportunities for them, so they work anywhere they can.” This quote further speaks to how Palestinian people are unable to enter capitalistic economies (i.e. opportunities to study and work) to thrive. Hence, border regimes further exacerbate deplorable living conditions by imposing restrictions on Palestinians.

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Israel's military checkpoints: 'We live a life of injustice'

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The daily reality for over 70,000 Palestinians crossing through Israeli checkpoints on their way to work.

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Rethinking Immigration, Social Reproduction, Labour, and Solidarity (Tvishaa, Merveille, Vivian, Emma)

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Rethinking Immigration, Social Reproduction, Labour, and Solidarity (Tvishaa, Merveille, Vivian, Emma)

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Theme: What would happen if you were paid for immigration? The system would break down because the unseen and seen labour is incalculable. This draws parallels to the Wages for Housework and Wages Due Lesbians movement.

Idea: It is particularly insidious how the government of Canada exploits multiculturalism as an ideology that promotes ideas of democracy, equal opportunity, and colour-blindness to incentivize immigrants through conveying symbolic ideas like imagery of multicultural families or friend groups in spaces like airports, trains, buses, etc.

Example 1: Also advertisements in racialized areas heavily targeting newcomers to upgrade their skills. Also strange how assimilation is the English language-based, so multiculturalism is allowed, but language is separated, so newcomers are expected to learn and conform to the standards of English.

Example 2: Ghettoized neighbourhoods, such as Scarborough that are inherently associated with racialization, newcomer immigration, multiculturalism, and poverty. Examining the resource distribution in these neighbourhoods represent the direct contradiction between Canadian exceptionalism notions of multiculturalism and “The Canadian Dream” and the inacess, lack of resources, and barriers for new migrants in these neighbourhoods to access social services, resources, and social mobility.  Infrastructure is poorly developed like hospitals, buses, etc. Surrounding areas around the core of Toronto are inherently racialized meanwhile racialized folks living in these areas more and more go to work in the downtown core in order to sustain and build the resources that are centralized to downtown Toronto that are privileged for white, middle-upper class, cisheteropatriarchal, ableist populations (ex. Bay Street). This is reflected in Vancouver too; it is not an isolated phenomena.

Everyday bordering - ethnic enclaves, so if you are not allowed to work in your own language, then you are left seeking familiarity and form these big groups of similar ethnicities that comprise relationships of care and solidarity.

1. What did you learn from the readings? Do you see overlap with themes from past weeks? Explain.

1. Topic of ghettoized neighbourhoods including Scarborough for instance

2. Dynamic of ethnic minority against ethnic minority, pinning against each other

1. “We’re better”

3. Aspirations of wealth, will seek other ways to access the “promised” wealth, even through crime, pitting neighbourhoods, inherent policing “we’re good canadians”, us vs them

4. interesting/unfortunate tensions b/w Indigenous ppl and Chinese communities (BC/Lower mainland specific) -> govt benefits from this self management of conflicts

5. Attachment to land, what does this mean? When groups of people are being pushed around, govt benefits -> this breaks/blocks solidarity!! Migration never stops from the suburbs to the urban centres

6. Having your ethnic enclave also provides sanity in a constantly shifting society that is isolated further away from the core and is more sparse in its population and illusion of great/equal opportunities.

7. Who is being used as the model for incentivization/guilt?

2. Select 1 reading: Bohrer’s (2022) Wages for Immigration!

1. Is there a big vision (from above or below)? How does solidarity or blocking solidarity fit into the vision?

1. Ashley J. Bohrer is critiquing labour and social reproduction theorists who limit their analyses to a middle-to-upper class female centric perspective without accounting for the multiplicities of racialized people and immigrants, let it be refugees, undocumented workers, or temporary foreign workers. Immigration is central to social reproduction and 'productive' labour under capitalism. Immigration is the source of generational replacement for the Global North's workforce, which is aging and shrinking, but relies on welfare and pensions. So, there is a reshaping of the labour map under capitalism that encompasses transnational boundaries.

2. The big vision entails demanding wages for the social reproduction labour underlying immigration in order to visibilize the exploited labour of immigration that is rendered invisible under the global, capitalist system. As a result, Bohrer is envisioning a world where the exploitation of immigration and social hierarchies such as Global North vs. Global South is dismantled.

3. Re-theorizes certain functions of capitalism to account for all vulnerable populations, so that resistance movements and envisioning a better future and policies for all is fully possible.

4. Solidarity fits into this vision because solidarity must be transnational. For instance, we discussed care activism and how Filipino care workers undertook care as activism in caring for each others, and for the larger community of care workers and their families. Ideas of critical hope and practices of resistance instilled in each other.

3. Brief explanation of creative link/image/etc.

Creative Link: "Amazon History of a Former Nail Salon Worker" by Ocean Vuong. This poem lists the Amazon purchases of Vuong’s mother, who works in a nail salon. As the poem continues, the reader recognizes the convergence of home and work, as she purchases “Clorox Bleach, industrial size” and ““I Love New York” T-shirt, white, small” in the same breath. The purchase history also further indicates the changing health of Vuong’s mother, who is diagnosed with cancer, and eventually passes away at the end of the poem. We decided to use this poem as our creative link because we think it highlights the social reproductive care that one person takes on, and how the industry Vuong’s mother finds herself in is a type of care work that wears down the body. We thought that the space of the nail salon, and the poem, connects to the concept of ethnic enclave economies and those who seek familiarity through similar ethnicities to build relationships of care and solidarity, which can manifest in where one is employed.

Female immigrants across the board are recruited to western countries/global north for care work/reproductive work

She herself is required to supply the items for her job -> barriers imposed on newcomers, lack of programs, supports,

Lack of literacy, ability to speak english, goes to a place of work where she can communicate, find networks

Heavily surveilled place of work -> everyday bordering

Learnings:

Consider things further, pushed further in critical thinking, consciousness raising, own community building

More inclusive and compassionate

Reflection to include self and society

Link to poem by Ocean Vuong: https://www.instagram.com/p/CuM914VLKWx/

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Performative Solidarity and Statelessness by: Emma, Kayla, Thato, Simone

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Performative Solidarity and Statelessness by: Emma, Kayla, Thato, Simone

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1. key theme is that solidarity among marginalized groups relies heavily on self-advocacy. There is the need to physically take up space to show statelessness vs being hidden and displaced without notice. Governments don't advertise these issue because they are not pretty or good for state PR.

2.  From the readings we learned that due to precarious citizenship status situation, you cannot get access to services.

UK discourages immigration, only looking for people who are seen as productive or “high value workers”.

There is overlap in many of the readings about how solidarity from the state is often performative. example Toronto as a sanctuary state.

3. Toronto Sanctuary city reading

3.1 The system that we built around belonging to a place is incompatible with the aim of solidarity.

4. Surrendering by Ocean Vuong.

The article is about Ocean's experience as an ESL student in the United States. He, his mother and grandmother immigrated to the United-States when he was 2, lived in an unstable community, and was in a precarious state due to the Vietnam war. mother is illiterate, explains the his life through his work,

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“The trouble began when I decided to be dangerously ambitious. Which is to say, I decided to write a poem.”

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Labour: Immigration, Housework, and Social Reproduction (Izzy, Ava, Larauche, Raluca, Mathew)

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Labour: Immigration, Housework, and Social Reproduction (Izzy, Ava, Larauche, Raluca, Mathew)

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Some themes and ideas that resonated with us:

Invisibility:

The invisibility of migrant work– especially rural migrant work

The invisibility of work in the home

Inherent precarity in migrant worker’s program - use of cheap labour but denying permanent residence, threatening deportation if migrants dissent

Policing

Creation of a hostile environment

Makes it difficult to create networks of solidarity

over-policing/under-protection of marginalized groups

Borders and process of bordering:

Us vs. them dynamic is shaped by borders

Renegotiating borders, how they shift based on the intersectional factors of the migrant

The intensification of borders and their impact on people

Everyday bordering as a control of diversity

Class struggle:

Common theme throughout all the different readings

Questions about who make up the working class

Specific points that overlapped with Past weeks:

Wages for Housework and Wages for Immigration both aim to dismantle capitalism as an overall vision for change. Through demanding wages, an attempt to break the system can occur because if all labourers were to be paid fairly for their work and their time, then the system would ultimately collapse. This idea undergirds the ideas from the first and second vantage points.

The overlapping concepts from week 9 and 10 focus on the process of immigration and citizenship, and the process of creating the narrative of us versus them through borders and citizenship. Through the use of technology through immigration, diversity within a state can be controlled. The readings from week 9 and 10 also touch on the fact that immigration itself is a process that capitalism is dependent on. The jobs that immigration processes mandate, and the money that it brings in, help to sustain capitalism, however they are not traditionally viewed as so.

Big Ideas in Wages for Immigration, (Bohrer, 2022)

The process of imagining immigration itself as a form of social reproduction, immigration in and of itself is an industry

Immigration as an economic process that requires the use of human capital

The broader vision that you do not have to immigrate for a better future, it should not feel like the only solution for a better future

Immigration should be considered social reproduction in and of itself

People necessary to keep western economies functioning and the momentum of capitalism going are coming from other countries

“future immigrants and their U.S.-born children will account for 88% of the nation’s population growth between 2015 and 2065” (Passel & Cohn, 2017)

We shouldn’t conflate the struggles of women in household with the struggles migrant workers

Then that diminishes the struggles of women migrant workers

Immigration is highly gendered:

The breaking up of nuclear families through migration

“nearly 90% of deportees are men, although about half of all noncitizens are women”

Immigration does not necessarily lead to a ‘better life’

And there is so much labour associated with immigration

Although one may believe that the only was to succeed is to move to another state and pursue a life there, this thought process does not take into account the barriers that an individual may face within a new state

Neoliberal concept that if you work hard enough, you will be able to obtain your dreams

How does solidarity, or blocking solidarity, fit into the vision? Are people responding?

Within the ‘wages for’ concept– there can be solidarity– because various groups who do not receive recognition or payment for their labour have key goals and visions that connect them to one another

Broad idea of universality - create services that are meant to be accessed by everyone and in turn, this spills over into creating better access for the most vulnerable groups

The concept of solidarity fits into the vision as it can lead to collective action,

The concept of worker solidarity involves a sense of unity among all migrant workers, regardless of their national origin.

self-deportation policy blocks solidarity through people internalizing the concept of policing, border control and instilling fear (very effective tactic) in regards to accessing services/support networks

Blocking solidarity fits into the vision of the us/them narrative

People do respond, for example, through Geographies of Friendship, acting through radical love to dismantle the us/them narrative

For example, through Transborder Friendship Praxis (TFP), people may seek to build friendships, communities, and dismantle international borders that create the conceptualization of the “other”

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While watching him perform a trumpet solo in front of dozens of people, it's hard to imagine Arturo Almanza spending his days doing anything else.

But when he's not on stage, Almanza is an agriculture worker in Leamington, Ont. He often works 12-hour shifts tending to crops, practising music from 9 p.m. into the early morning hours.

His group, Latin Power Band, played its first big show at the Seacliff Amphitheatre in Leamington on Sunday.

The band is not only an escape from difficult manual labour, but it keeps him from missing his family - his parents, wife and three children - who are all back in Mexico.

"[The music] takes me away from problems or missing my family," Almanza said through a translator. "It brings me a lot of joy and it also helped ... being in the farm, having some negative or difficult thoughts."

He's not the only one finding comfort in his instrument - many of the other 13 band members joined for the same reason.

The group, which formed in October 2020, started as a way to give the men something to look forward to outside of work.
WATCH: Members of Latin Power Band talk about how music helps them cope with being away from home:

"My co-workers and I were kind of falling into a depression. Unfortunately, we have colleagues who have fallen into alcoholism and drug addiction, because we spend so much time away from home and without our families," conga player Noel Cedillo Aguilar said through a translator.

Cedillo Aguilar has worked in Canada for almost two years and hasn't seen his family since he left.

"You feel it. There comes a time when we feel lonely and to some degree without a security blanket, as we would say in Mexico," he said.

Thousands of migrant workers come to Windsor-Essex, many from Mexico, to work in the agriculture sector. While the adjustment has never been an easy one, COVID-19 has exacerbated the isolation and anxiety felt by workers.

During the first wave of the pandemic, migrant workers in Windsor-Essex also made up the bulk of COVID-19 cases, meaning many of the workers saw friends and colleagues fall ill.

'Brings sense of community'

Juan Jaime, a director at Working Link, an organization that runs work programs for migrant workers, says he saw their struggles and thought a band would be a good way to help. So he got the group together.

"If you imagine living in a room with four walls ... all the time for the last 14 months and doing the same job and nothing else, this is why [the band] is really important," Jaime said. "Something new, not the routine."

Jaime says it also helps the surrounding community see the men beyond their occupations.

"People see those guys not only as the greenhouse worker," Jaime said, but "that they have a lot of talent."

Vanessa Calva, the head of the Consulate of Mexico in Leamington, says the band is also a way to bring Mexican culture to Canadians.

"What we want is for them to have healthy activities that they can lean on, and music does that for them and it brings also a sense of community amongst them," Calva said.

"They're from different states [in Mexico] that have different stories to bring, which makes it very diverse, even if they are all Mexicans."

Workers reminded of life back home

The musicians agree. They told CBC News they're happy to share a piece of home with Canadians.

"I want to bring joy to the community, to the Canadian people, bring some music and culture, especially during the pandemic that we're going through," said pianist Juan Enrique Aranda Andrade through a translator.

Though the music they played on stage was joyous, it reminded the men of home and their desire to be reunited with loved ones.

When asked how their families would react to seeing them play on stage, Cedillo Aguilar said, "I think they would be very proud to see that I am well, that I am happy, that we have a positive project. They would definitely feel proud of me."

As the band continues to grow, Jaime said they are looking at getting a bigger practice space.

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Migrant workers in Leamington, Ont., use music to keep spirits up while away from family | CBC News

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The Latin Power Band, which formed in October 2020, was started to give the workers something to look forward to outside of labouring in the agriculture sector.

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Agency, resistance, solidarity (Genevieve) 

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Agency, resistance, solidarity (Genevieve) 

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Post the following

1. Which themes, ideas, examples resonated with the group and why.

2. What did you learn from the readings. Do you see overlap with themes from past weeks? Explain

3. Select 1 reading

3.1 Is there a big vision (from above or below)? How does solidarity or blocking solidarity fit into the vision?

4. Brief explanation of the link/image/ etc.

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Train tracks that once clattered with the sound of international goods travelling between Greece and Macedonia are eerily quiet now. There isn't a fault on the line at this Balkan border post - rather the train services have been halted by a protest by young refugees and migrants that has continued for over a month now.

In an attempt to persuade authorities to open the Macedonian border with Greece and let them reach mainland Europe, h undreds of refugees from the Idomeni refugee camp have pitched tents directly on and around the train tracks, forcing its closure.

One Syrian activist, Mohammed, told Middle East Eye that the mini-blockade's main aim is to eventually have an economic impact on Macedonia, and other Balkan countries.

'Suffering follows us wherever we go'

Haleem, a father of five, is from the Syrian-Kurdish city of Kobane. The farmer fled his village when Islamic State (IS) militants attacked and destroyed his family home. He fled to the Turkish town of Suruc, and then Erbil in Kurdistan, but each time was forced to move on.

"Kobani has been ruined and anyway I didn't have money to rebuild my home. Turkey doesn't like Kurds. We were hoping to reach Germany where we heard there is no war, life is easy, and the German government helps refugees," Haleem said.

Following a perilous journey in a rubber boat from the Turkish city of Izmir, Haleem and his brother's family arrived safely on the Greek Island of Lesbos. From there they took another boat to the capital city Athens and then boarded a train to the city of Thessaloniki, in northern Greece. To reach the Macedonia border near the village of Idomeni, they walked approximately 40-kilometres and they have been there ever since.

"We didn't expect the border with Macedonia to be closed, and now we've been stuck here for more than 50 days. We started to sleep and live in a tent on the train tracks after some activists in the camp called for protests and a closure of the railway. When it rained our tent was swamped by mud and my children became sick. There is no place worse than this place, particularly for the children. It seems that suffering follows us wherever we go," Haleem lamented.

Haleem's wife was eight months pregnant upon their arrival in Greece, and consequently was forced to give birth at the Idomeni camp.

"My wife gave birth in the tent three days ago, then one of the NGOs brought an ambulance and took her to the hospital to take care of her and the baby," Haleem said.

'We'll keep protesting until the EU finds a solution for us'

A few kilometres away from Idomeni refugee camp, dozens of refugees and migrants have also blocked the main highway near the northern Greek village of Idomeni at the Greek-Macedonian border, cutting off traffic between the two countries. This has angered travellers trying to continue their journey onto northern Europe.

"We will not let the highway, or the railway reopen and we will keep demonstrating until the EU finds us a solution or opens the border," said Mohammed, a Syrian activist from Damascus who is one of the protest organisers.

On the highway, protesters chanted, "Open the border", carrying placards with slogans like "Humanity has collapsed on the Balkan border" and "Enough Injustice."

Khadija, a 48 year-old Palestinian-Syrian woman from the Syrian refugee camp of Yarmouk, fled the war in Syria to join children who had already reached Germany. She left Turkey over 45 days ago.

"We are not occupying Greece, we only want to reach my children in Germany," she said as she participated in the protest.

"I didn't come to settle here. I am not hungry or naked. I am only a peaceful human. They are insulting and beating us. This is not a life," Khadija added.

The decision by Macedonia on 9 March to close its border to migrants has left thousands of people stranded at the Greek transit camp.

The closure, following the lead taken by neighbouring countries, has effectively sealed the so-called western Balkan route, the main migration route that has been used by hundreds of thousands of migrants to reach countries in western Europe. Humanitarian workers have described the conditions at the camp as desperate, and it has been made worse by the border closure.

To this day, there are over 46,000 refugees and migrants in Greece, with over 11,000 in the makeshift camp of Idomeni after an agreement between EU and Turkey was implemented in March.

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IN PICTURES: The tracks of refugee tears at Greek-Macedonia border

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Frustrated and traumatised, refugees at a rail station straddling the Macedonian border with Greece are taking matters into their own hands