MLC 2015 Keynote: Undocumented: The Architecture of Migrant Detention

Abstract

Since 2006, nearly 100,000 people have been jailed indefinitely in Canada, without charge or trial. This is the reality of immigration detention in Canada, a reality that is mostly invisible. Migrants are incarcerated because they are undocumented. Likewise, there is little trace to be found of these sites of detention: drawings and photos are classified; access is extremely limited. The detention centres, too, are undocumented. This presentation highlights the graphic novel, Undocumented: The Architecture of Migrant Detention, which details the banality and violence of sites and contrasts them with stories of daily resistance among immigration detainees. This work is grounded in grassroots organizing in solidarity with immigration detainees through No One Is Illegal – Toronto and the End Immigration Detention Network.