Trudeau 3.0 Endgame: Immigrants, Refugees, Venue Shifting, and the Deepening of Securitization

Having carried three general elections, the Trudeau government has continued the concurrent trends of its predecessors by restricting certain, yet liberalizing other, aspects of Canada’s immigration and refugee policy. During its most recent period in office, reverberations of the Trump presidency, pandemic-related border closures, the invasion of Ukraine, and the growing significance of artificial intelligence have further deepened the “securitization” of migration—that is, the construction of some migrants not only as “unwanted,” but as security threats. Much of this deepening occurred alongside a shifting of decision-making “venues” away from traditional arenas characteristic of the Westminster system, particularly Parliament, toward other avenues. This trend was interwoven with government and societal perceptions of threats, security, and deservedness, which is in line with the evolution of migration policies in other advanced industrialized societies.