Biometrics: constructing 'ideal' subjects and 'aliens' at the Canada-U.S. border

Employing critical social research in combination with critical discourse analysis, this paper examines the use of biometrics technology in the citizenship and immigration context with particular emphasis on its application at the Canada-U.S. border. The central argument of thls paper is that through the use of biometrics technology at the Canada-U.S crossing, the border has become a social filter that separates welcome from unwelcome migrants depending on strategic objectives to include and exclude population groups, which makes them part of a social an economic strategy in the post-September 11 securitized environment. Moreover, the paper takes the position that through the use of biometrics technology at the Canada-U.S. border, the notion of citizenship is being reconstructed whereby racialized migrants and vulnerable populations will be tremendously affected: most notably, poor migrants from the South as well as refugees and asylum seekers from elsewhere.