Thou Shalt Not Marry A Foreigner
()
About this ebook
Canada has long been considered a multicultural, welcoming, and tolerant society. But recently, academics, journalists, and policy analysts have called into question several aspects of the country's current immigration policy. One of the most controversial and lesser-known aspects of said policy is Citizenship and Immigration Canada's spousal sponsorship programme. The implementation, contradictions, and consequences of this programme are thoroughly documented in this research-based book.
“Thou Shalt Not Marry A Foreigner” describes the experiences of Canadian citizens who have chosen to live in Canada with their foreign spouses or partners. Through interviews and comments made in online forums, dozens of Canadians reveal every aspect of their dealings with bureaucrats and the wide-ranging effects that immigration policy has on their everyday lives. Ever heard of opaque transparency? What about consistent inconsistency? These are just some of the issues exposed in this book.
Be prepared to read through blunt comments and shocking revelations, which are interwoven with the author's critical voice and ironic tone. “Thou Shalt Not Marry A Foreigner” is an interesting experiment in “light sociology” and a must read for anyone who wants to gain a clearer and more realistic understanding of Canada's current immigration policy.
Damaris Garzon
Social anthropologist, writer, translator.
Related to Thou Shalt Not Marry A Foreigner
Related ebooks
Suburban Spies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeing BLACK or BROWN in the GREEN RUSH Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Is Wrong with Black People \\\White People? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Handbook- Coping with Racism Abroad Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mending the Flag, Healing the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe White People Show Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe (In)fidelity Factor: Points to Ponder Before You Cheat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Race to the Top: Structural Racism and How to Fight It Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLessons in Courage: How I Fought Back Against Cancel Culture and Won Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRock Paper Sex Volume 2: Trigger Warning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrossroads: Conflicted Journey of a New Jersey State Trooper Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeen or Unseen: What Is Your Choice? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWelcome to America: 52 Proven Strategies That Will Position You to Excel as an Immigrant Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrom My Lips to Your Ears: An Immigrant’S Advice on Navigating Life in the United States Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Divided America Can Recover From Shame & Blame Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Move To The USA, Today Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Distant Connection: Letters from Prisoners Concerned About Today's Youth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Spot a Liar: Why People Don't Tell the Truth . . . and How You Can Catch Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How To Successfully Escape Your Country & Beat The Authorities When The Worse Scenario Becomes Reality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiving in LaLa Land: Flipped Upside Down and Inside Out Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Be a Felon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMinority Viewpoint: My Experience - As a Person of Color - With the American Justice System Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPritical Thinking: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking and Common Sense in Politics and Public Policy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Underclass Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rock Paper Sex: The Oldest Profession in Canada’s Oldest City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Is This Country Coming To?: Things Most Sane People Will Not Say Out Loud Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUntapped Talent: How Second Chance Hiring Works for Your Business and the Community Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInvisible: The Story of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the United States Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Social Science For You
Questions for Couples: 469 Thought-Provoking Conversation Starters for Connecting, Building Trust, and Rekindling Intimacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Secret Garden: Women's Sexual Fantasies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All About Love: New Visions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fervent: A Woman's Battle Plan to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Denial of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Body Is Not an Apology, Second Edition: The Power of Radical Self-Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dumbing Us Down - 25th Anniversary Edition: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Human Condition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Thou Shalt Not Marry A Foreigner
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Thou Shalt Not Marry A Foreigner - Damaris Garzon
Thou Shalt Not Marry A Foreigner
By Damaris Garzon
Copyright 2014 Damaris Garzon
Smashwords Edition
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favourite retailer. Thank you for your support
Table of Contents
About this book
Chapter 1 - Stigma: Thou shalt not fall in love with a foreigner
Chapter 2 - Marriage of convenience: Guilty until proven otherwise
Chapter 3 - No work permit for you!
Chapter 4 - An opaque kind of transparency
Chapter 5 - Consistent inconsistency
Chapter 6 - Shut up and listen
: A helpful call centre
Chapter 7 - Now you see it, now you don’t: The strange case of the ECAS button
Chapter 8 - Stay with this guy or we’ll deport you
: A wider look at the state machine
Chapter 9 - Every action causes a reaction: The consequences
Appendix
About this book
What is this book about? To put it simply, it is about a group of Canadian citizens who are being put through significant financial hardship and emotional distress for having entered into a relationship with a foreigner. Is the non-Canadian partner causing all the affliction? Not really. The responsible is Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the federal government agency that oversees all immigration matters. In short, this book is about discriminatory action.
In this book I have documented the voices of Canadian citizens who feel they are being penalised for having made a personal choice that is no one's business but their own. More importantly, I have also documented the silence of government officers, which is just as significant. I suggest that you read this book paying attention both to what is said and to what it is not said. Think about who is present and who is absent, and think about why.
Some will say that Canada is not the only country taking this approach and that I am just magnifying the importance of this issue. Let me tell you something: this book is not a treaty in comparative immigration policy. I have made reference to the policies enforced by other countries where appropriate in order to prove a point, but it is not within the scope of this book to provide a comparative analysis of global immigration policy. There is only one benchmark here, and that benchmark is the one that Canada itself has created. Canada may not be the only country taking a discriminatory approach to immigration policy. Other countries do so too. But other countries do not purport to be welcoming and multicultural to the extent that Canada does. We all know that immigration is a thorny issue. Some countries have put on a global advertising campaign claiming that they excel at handling immigration. Other countries know better and just let it be. My point is that Canada has set its own standards, has failed to meet them, and now refuses to acknowledge it. If you think that Canada is no worse than other countries when it comes to immigration policy, the official discourse has worked its magic on you.
Initially, I planned to write an academic text packed with qualitative analysis, coding, sociological theory, a literature review justifying my rationale, and what not. This is what I have been trained to do and I do it well, but social research does not appeal to the general public, particularly when it deals with contentious topics like immigration. I therefore decided to take a different approach.
However, I must stress that while I have adapted my writing style to suit the average man and woman on the street, the methods used to collect data are still of an academic nature. I started collating evidence in March 2014. I had a hypothesis, which can be summed up in plain English as something is wrong
. I wanted to know the specific ways in which wrongness
is enacted, and I wanted to know what this means not only for the people involved, but for Canadian society at large. This is an ambitious objective and I fully acknowledge that my mission is not complete.
As for the research methods used, these include interviews, email exchanges, and short questionnaires delivered through electronic means. A significant amount of data was collected from online forums and social network groups. How reliable is this information? Much more reliable than one would expect, as in the majority of cases people feel much more inclined to tell their full stories while sitting behind a computer screen and using a nickname. In this respect, I want to mention that names and other identifying details have been changed at the request of participants, and this is important in its own right. Something is very wrong when people fear that they might be somehow penalized for divulging the hardships they are going through as a result of official policy. Then again, this fear may be unfounded, but the important thing is that the apprehension exists.
I have to expect that my objectivity will be called into question. It would be extremely difficult to remain neutral in the light of certain facts, and I believe that doing so would also be unethical. You can only be for or against discrimination. There is no middle ground. The deeper I dug, the more shocked I was by what I found. Let me make this clear: I have zero interest in giving readers the official party line or in glossing over the real issues. Doing this would discount the suffering of Canadian sponsors and their families, and their hardships must not be passed over. If you want to read the official party line, you only need to read the media. Journalists have to abide by editorial lines; I do not. Editors often receive orders from above that dictate their publication guidelines; I do not receive orders from anyone. I do not write bland statements to appease my superiors, because I don't have any. I have the luxury of freedom and I count on the privilege of having insider information. That makes all the difference. I do not care about what Canada Immigration and Citizenship says; I care about what it does. In the end, there is only one thing I can say: you will recognise them by their fruits. Canada Immigration and Citizenship is not only wronging Canadian individuals and their families. The whole department is an embarrassment to the country.
I also want to clarify that I am not launching a personal attack on individual Canadians whenever I use the word 'Canada' in this book. I have met immensely friendly Canadians and I have met obnoxiously racist Canadians, just like I have met friendly South Africans and racist South Africans; friendly Mexicans and racist Mexicans; friendly Germans and racist Germans. Canada is no different and I am well aware of it. This book is not about Canadians' attitude to immigration. I will say it again: this is an attack on a specific government agency. Some will be offended all the same, but frankly, that is not my problem.
Last but not least, I want to thank those who have contributed to the write up with their experiences, and I hope that their ordeals are over very soon.
So, what is this book about? It's light sociology. It's a frontal attack on Citizenship and Immigration Canada. It's a comprehensive overview of everything that is wrong with the spousal sponsorship programme.
WARNING:
NOT to be read by those who do not have a sense of humour
NOT to be read by those who do not appreciate sarcasm
NOT to be read by wannabe diplomats
Without consideration, without pity, without shame,
they built around me great and towering walls.
And now I am sitting and despairing here.
I think of nothing else: this fate is gnawing at my mind;
for I had many things to do out there.
When they were building the walls, how could I not be aware?
Yet never did I hear the clatter of builders, or any sound.
Imperceptibly, the shut me off from the world outside.
Walls, Constantine Cavafy, 1897
Chapter 1
Stigma: Thou shalt not fall in love with a foreigner
In 1963, US sociologist Erving Goffman wrote a book entitled Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
. The book is a fascinating and highly readable account of what it feels like to be branded an outsider for not fitting the mold. Goffman was not your average academic: he wrote in plain English and his work was eminently practical. Stigma
draws on the first-hand experiences of outliers and presents comprehensive case studies that help us understand what it means to be different.
According to Goffman, stigma is enacted in three different ways. Some people will be stigmatised because their physical appearance does not conform to the norm. Others will be stigmatised because their personalities do not fit. But it is the third type of stigma the one that concerns us here. It is what Goffman called tribal or group stigma
that is particularly relevant to this book. How so?
Despite claiming to boast a long history of acceptance and despite preaching the virtues of multiculturalism, something smells fishy at the Canadian executive. The central theme of this book relates to the stigma that is enacted on foreign marriages and relationships. Canadians who choose to enter into a sentimental relationship with a non-Canadian deviate from the norm. They do not marry within their in-group, which means that they are out, that they become in-betweeners, borderline citizens who deserve to be chastised, outsiders who have surrendered some of their basic rights by virtue of being love with a foreigner. They are a discredit to certain sectors of society. Just like Goffman's research subjects, Canadians who fall in love with a foreigner and who want to live with their partners in Canada straddle the line between the discredited and the discreditable. They are expected to accept that lower standards of life will apply to them and their families. Through the implementation of official policy and with the blessing of bigots and uneducated individuals, they become second-class Canadians. In doing so, government bodies like Canada Citizenship and Immigration are micro-managing social identities, creating a hidden social hierarchy that consists of good Canadians
(those who do not disturb the social order) and not-so-good Canadians
(those who infringe non-spoken rules by bringing in a foreign element into their lives).
Am I making all this up? Read this book and judge by yourself. As it happens with most studies that are of a sociological nature, the results are open to interpretation. Is it fair to say that the Canadian government discriminates and stigmatises en masse? Perhaps we are asking the wrong question. Instead, the question should be is it fair that thousands of Canadians and their families feel that they are being wronged by their own government and left out?
At the time of writing, there were 10,000 spousal sponsorship applications being processed by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. I did not interview every single one of those 10,000 families (mostly due to lack of funds), but I need to comment on two issues in this respect:
a) I very much doubt that any Canadian citizen going through the process described in this book is content