Beyond Binaries and Polarization?

This book explores what lies between the statuses of insider and outsider in immigrant nations. It asks: Who is conditionally included/excluded in relation to whom, and for what reasons? What does this conditional inclusion/exclusion entail in terms of citizenship, material resources, and sense of belonging? How does it affect the cultural and economic well-being of refugees, migrants and the host society? The focus is on Canada, which is often described as the quintessential immigrant nation.

The chapters in this book provide new insights into several hotly contested issues: the overlapping cultural and economic logics of nationalist inclusion/exclusion, the growing prevalence of temporary and two-step migration regimes, the importance of cities in managing multiculturalism, the need to disaggregate minority groups, and the intersections of race, class and gender in narratives of nationhood. By shifting the focus of research from us/them binaries to the study of relational inclusion/exclusion involving three or more actors or groups, this book highlights the often-overlooked conditionality and temporality of immigrant inclusion, the messiness of policies aimed at ethnic diversity, and the uneven distribution of attitudes among members of minority groups.

This book will be valuable for scholars, students, and policymakers in the fields of sociology, political science, migration studies, and Canadian studies.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics and are accompanied with a new Foreword, a comprehensive glossary, and critical engagement questions.

Elke Winter is Professor of Sociology at the bilingual University of Ottawa/ Université d’Ottawa, Canada. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists and the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, she recently served as Harvard University’s William Lyon Mackenzie King Chair for Canadian Studies.