Deprivation and Deservingness: Exploring Basic Income in Response to Immigrant Poverty

Research on the economic trends for immigrants to Canada shows a progressive trend towards impoverishment, particularly for racialized groups. This review presents the case that current responses to poverty in Canada are inadequate, and tend to perpetuate the cycles they seek to address by reifying group divides. Building on theories of social exclusion, this MRP explores the potential of basic income to create greater access to social and material capital for otherwise marginalized groups. Finally, by looking at current policy approaches to welfare, public attitudes towards redistribution, and historic BIG trials, the argument is made that with non-moral framing a basic income trial in Canada could be both politically feasible and destigmatizing.