Le passage de sujets à étrangers : les immigrants indiens et la racialisation de la citoyenneté canadienne
This article investigates the historical process by which citizenship practices in Canada came to be racialised. Until 1914,Canadian legal practice allowed all of those who were British subjects entry and citizenship rights in Canada. There werenotable exceptions to this; First Nations, Chinese and...
| Published in: | Sociologie et sociétés |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | French |
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Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal
1999
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.7202/001201ar http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/001201ar |
| Summary: | This article investigates the historical process by which citizenship practices in Canada came to be racialised. Until 1914,Canadian legal practice allowed all of those who were British subjects entry and citizenship rights in Canada. There werenotable exceptions to this; First Nations, Chinese and Indian British subjects were denied citizenship rights. As a result,throughout the British Empire, indigenous, Chinese and Indian British subjects began to dispute these restrictions. In Canada,in 1914, Indian men filed a court case which challenged the legal power of the Canadian state to deny any British subject entryinto Canada. The British Columbian Court of Appeal decided that the Canadian state possessed the formal power to controlborders and to define who was a Canadian citizen, ending the legal ambiguity in Canadian law. This case raise significantimplications for our understanding of modern citizenship practices. First, it suggests that Canadian citizenship practices havebeen predicated on preexisting British imperial policies. Second, it suggests that in Canada the development of power of thestate to control borders and define who is a citizen was tied to exclusionary racist practices. Cet article montre par quel processus historique s’est effectuée au Canada une racialisation des pratiques en matière de citoyenneté.Jusqu’en 1914, la tradition juridique canadienne permettait aux sujets britanniques d’entrer au Canada et d’y acquérir les droitsd’un citoyen. Il y eut pourtant des exceptions : les membres des Premières Nations, les Chinois et les Indiens qui étaient sujetsbritanniques se virent refuser ces droits. Ces restrictions furent appliquées dans tout l’Empire britannique. En 1914, des Indiensintentèrent une poursuite contre l’État canadien, contestant son pouvoir d’interdire l’admission de n’importe quel sujet britannique.La Cour d’appel de la Colombie-Britannique confirma que l’État canadien était habilité à réglementer ses frontières et à décider quiétait canadien, ce qui mit fin à l’ambiguïté de la ... |
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