Latin American Refugeeships in Canada and the Hemispheric Border Regime

This chapter examines Latin American refugeeships in Canada as part of a broader hemispheric border regime, analyzing three cases: Chileans seen as educated political activists, Salvadorans as civil war victims, and Mexicans labeled as “bogus” refugees seeking work. Through these narratives, the authors reveal how Canadian state policies, media portrayals, and nonstate actors contribute to the categorization and assessment of Latin American refugees, affecting their collective experiences and legal statuses. Refugeeship politics operate across multiple scales and actors, producing differential inclusion based on perceived deservingness, shaped by geopolitical context, policy shifts, and civil society activism. This chapter highlights the complexities of Canada’s humanitarian migration framework, showing how classification struggles impact migrants’ rights and entitlements. Ultimately, it demonstrates how Latin American refugeeship in Canada reflects broader hemispheric and global migration governance, shaping patterns of inclusion and exclusion within an interconnected border regime.