CINETS 2026: Crimmigration in an Age of Authoritarian Drift

Panelists: Dr. Jessica Templeman, Brianna Garneau, Kate Motluk, Bahar Banaei, Sanjida Salman

Chair: Dr. Carmela Murdocca, York University

This panel brings together work by members of the Collaborative for Racial Justice (Canada), a coalition of scholars who center Critical Race Theory (CRT) in their modes of structural inquiry. Each panelist turns to CRT to interrogate the histories and continuities of slavery, settler colonialism, and border imperialism in the management and criminalization of racialized migrant mobilities in Canada. These papers challenge legal jurisprudence and critical scholarship that obfuscates the intrinsic nature of race and racism within crimmigration practices. We contend that modes of legal reform in pursuit of migrant justice not only fail to guarantee liberation but reify racism under the guise of legal reform. Thus, there is an intimate relationship between legal 'progress' and the continuation of racial subjection. Furthermore, the erasure of the centrality of race can be seen within socio-legal scholarship on migration more broadly. Thus, these panelists challenge the study of migration, freedom, and mobility as ahistorical abstractions, void of their connections to racial logics of differentiation, and offer critical anti-racist interventions and reflections to consider when advancing legal strategies in the pursuit of migrant and racial justice.