Stephanie Silverman

York University · Centre for Refugee Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic is hastening the shift of the world of work and study to online, remote, and flexible hours. The political science profession and its attributes of conferencing and workshopping will likely follow suit. To help direct this flow into relationships of reciprocity and scholarly co-creation, this article details the experiences of...

The term “irregular immigration” has no clear legal definition. (See also Immigration to Canada.) An irregular immigrant can refer to an individual crossing a country’s border without proper authority. It can also apply to those who violate residency conditions after entering a country. Many irregular immigrants come to Canada to seek asylum and ap...

For a 2016 article on immigration detention in Canada, I co-created a composite case study named Amir . At the end of writing, I left him indefinitely incarcerated. This article provides an opportunity both to suggest more ethical ways to research detention, and to query White scholarly acquiescence to anti-Black racism and the build-up of detentio...

This special issue focuses on what a standpoint of carceral abolitionism brings to citizenship studies, with immigration detention as the key case study. The nine articles and editorial introduction probe the intersections of detention with current and potential forms of citizenship. The contributions collectively emphasize what citizenship studies...

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers use the National Risk Assessment for Detention (NRAD) process to evaluate the ‘riskiness’ of immigration detainees. The NRAD’s key tool is a 2-page document laying out ‘risk factors’ with corresponding points that add up to scores of ‘dangerousness’ allegedly posed by non-citizens. CBSA officers then re...

This paper closely studies Scotland v Canada to reveal the normative and substantive justice challenges facing immigration detainees across Canada. The Scotland decision at the Ontario Superior Court certified a habeas corpus writ as an individual remedy to release Mr. Ricardo Scotland from a pointless, seventeen-month incarceration. The decision f...

This article describes and analyzes an emerging problematic in the asylum and immigration debate, which I cynically dub the "imposter-child" phenomenon. My preliminary exploration maps how the imposter-child relates to and potentially influences the politics and practices of refugee status determination in the United Kingdom. I argue that the "impo...

Using a combination of migration studies, political sociology, and policy studies, this paper explores the contradictions and violence of immigration detention, its architectures, and its audiences. The concept of ?detention-as-spectacle? is developed to make sense of detention?s hypervisible and obscured manifestations in the European Union. We fo...

This article brings a new, theoretically minded approach to weighing the relative utilities and harms of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) without dismissing the agency of SAWP enrollees or arriving at an abolitionist argument to end Temporary Migrant Worker (TMW) programmes in Canada. Building on the anti-trafficking debate with...

The growing Canadian immigration detention system touches upon the lives of thousands of people daily. However, despite significant legal and normative problems, the Canadian detention system seems to be escaping sustained scrutiny. To address this gap, we employ the rubric of “access to justice” to refocus on inequalities being reproduced in the l...

This comprehensive volume explores the development of immigration detention in, between, and across different states and regions and the human impact on asylum seekers. In so doing, the study provides an innovative overview of the spread of immigration detention policy around the world, an international survey of detention policy and practice, and...

Before the turn of the century, few states used immigration detention. Today, nearly every state around the world has adopted immigration detention policy in some form. States practice detention as a means to address both the accelerating numbers of people crossing their borders, and the populations residing in their states without authorisation. T...

This article seeks to address the policies, practices, and conditions of immigration detention in Canada. The article surveys detention worldwide, its promulgation in Canada, and changes ushered in via 2012 policy innovations. Focusing on mandatory detention and its relationship to the Designated Countries of Origin policy, the article also demonst...

Immigration detention is cementing into a permanent aspect of border and immigration control in the United Kingdom. This article uses a historical examination of internment to contribute to a larger literature that unsettles the official record of detention policy as a natural development in an otherwise functioning immigration and border control b...

Detention of irregular migrants and asylum seekers takes place at the behest and convenience of virtually all liberal states. It is a harmful practice that impacts non-citizens as well as citizens, and has far-reaching ramifications for our understandings of the ethics of immigration and border control. Thus far, however, normative theorists engage...

Although the three modern periods of internment in the United Kingdom remain relatively unexplored in the migration literature, these historical episodes have significantly impacted the development of that country’s immigration policy, law, and legislation. This paper seeks to explore the outcomes of these internments and to draw connections betwee...

This short overview of the Canadian system for detaining migrants and asylum seekers focusses on C-31, the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act. It is a working draft produced in late-autumn 2013.

This annotated bibliography is meant to serve as a resource for exploring academic work on detention and asylum. It is grouped thematically according to a series of overarching categories. A weakness of this approach is that the divisions amongst these categories are inevitably imperfect and so some authors and sources may be found under an unexpec...

This article explores both the official history of immigration detention in the U nited K ingdom as well as a lesser‐known narrative of challenges to the practice. After outlining the legislative development of the U . K . detention estate, the study uses original research to demonstrate that P arliament, the courts, and civil society have historic...

In this co-authored editorial introduction, Evelyne Massa and I provide a context for our special issue by outlining the major approaches and issues related to immigration detention in liberal, democratic states. We are concerned that there is no commonly accepted definition of detention, and so we endeavor to provide one here. Beyond the need for...

This article explores both the official history of immigration detention in the United Kingdom as well as a lesser-known narrative of challenges to the practice. After outlining the legislative development of the U.K. detention estate, the study uses original research to demonstrate that Parliament, the courts, and civil society have historically b...

This briefing provides an overview of immigration detention in the UK. It discusses the size of the UK’s detention facilities, the number of detainees, the average duration of detention, and the detention of children.

This paper seeks to lay the groundwork for a more in-depth exploration of the issue of indefinite immigration detention in Canada. It is concerned with understanding immigration detention in a philosophical and practical context, and why this issue should be of concern to the larger public. Since the paper is intended as a preliminary investigation...

This working paper investigates the legislative origins of the US immigration detention system. This critical history is an attempt to broaden the discussion of the place and propriety of immigration detention in the American political landscape. The paper explains who has historically been subject to immigration detention, where and for how long t...

Refugees and immigration detention are products of the sovereign state system. Central to this system is an understanding of refugees as apolitical actors. Indeed, refugees must be apolitical if their confinement in detention centres and camps is to be justified. Yet, upon closer look, it is clear that detained refugees participate in political act...