Between Nationalism and Neoliberalism: Problematizing Immigration in Canada and Australia

Abstract

Through conducting a critical discourse analysis of Canada’s and Australia’s immigration policies and national news media framing of immigration, informed by an intersectional and Foucauldian foundation, this thesis exposes and challenges the fundamental assumptions associated with the ideologies of nationalism and neoliberalism that underlie the way the notion of immigration has been conceptualized and problematized within these discourses. Furthermore, by deconstructing the structures of policy and media and the underlying principles, this study demonstrates how personal identifiers are incorporated into the dominant understanding of what it means to be an immigrant in juxtaposition to what it means to be Canadian or Australian on several levels of identification. Lastly, the findings of this study demonstrate the implications that result from how the concept of immigration has been problematized and the role that personal identifiers play for those whose existence had been framed as an issue.