Legacy Refugee Claimants in Canada: Integration and Substantive Citizenship Within a Liminal Space

In 2012, during a period of refugee policy reform in Canada, nearly 32 000 asylum claimants were pushed behind in the waitlist to finalize their claim (Refugee Board of Canada, 2019). Refugee claimants who had arrived prior to enacted changes found themselves suspended within a state of undetermined status. This group, acquiring the title of ‘legacy claimants’, was faced with establishing life in Canada inside a zone of ‘liminality’, that is, “between recognized fixed points in space-time of structural classification” (Turner 1967, p. 96; Menjivar, 2003, p. 1007). This study seeks to explore how the obstacles faced by legacy claimants due to undetermined status impact integration and substantive citizenship. The research goals are met through a narrative analysis of legacy claimant experiences using the lens of social constructivism and by foregrounding the zone of ‘liminal legality’ as both restrictive and conductive to new forms of inclusion and citizenship (Menjivar, 2006).

Key words: Refugees; citizenship; liminality; substantive citizenship; narrative analysis