‘Same content in new bottles’ in the immigration detention system in Canada: Impacts on young adult and adult undocumented migrants

Abstract

In 2017, Canada started to implement the National Immigration Detention Framework (NIDF) with the aim of creating ‘a better, fairer immigration detention system that supports the humane and dignified treatment of individuals while protecting public safety’. This chapter has analysed the implementation of the main measures of the NDIF and its impact on young adult and adult undocumented migrants. It is based on research conducted on the Canadian detention system between 2019 and 2021 involving documentary review, analysis of statistics and qualitative interviews. The analysis shows that through technologies of criminalization through risk, privatization, bureaucratization, responsibilization and the reproduction of the condition of detainability, the immigration detention system in Canada is diversifying exclusionary discourses and practices, deepening neoliberal forms of governance and expanding forms of control and supervision into the community. As a result, immigration detention practices are reinforcing the shadow carceral state and creating an ‘autonomous detention machine’ that is increasingly sophisticated and robust while maintaining a high capacity of responsiveness and absorption of demands and critiques.