Canadian immigration and citizenship law has been subject to frequent and seemingly frenzied revision and reformulation by the government of the day as it attempts to identify the country’s social, economic, and demographic needs and to respond to perceived threats to its sovereign control over Canada’s borders.

This book builds upon the first edition as an introductory guide to immigration, refugee, and citizenship law. Its aim is to provide an overview, or a starting point, both for those who want to investigate the mechanics of Canada’s immigration regime and for those who want to assess, critique, or question the aims and impacts of the law.

The book is divided into four parts. Part 1 provides context and delves into the sources and evolution of Canadian immigration law. Part 2 examines status in Canada, identifying how persons may obtain, keep, and lose temporary or permanent status. Part 3 discusses the devices that the Canadian government uses to enforce immigration law. Part 4 examines judicial supervision of government action under the immigration regime, and in particular judicial review and constitutional challenges.

Anyone interested in the general shape and sense of Canada’s immigration law and policy, in its evolution, and in the issues that will dominate the field in the future, will want to read this book.

A daughter of a stateless immigrant to Canada, Jamie Chai Yun Liew is an immigration and refugee lawyer who has appeared at the Immigration and Refugee Board, Federal Court, Federal Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada. She is also an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, where she teaches, among other courses, Immigration and Refugee Law, Advanced Refugee Law, and Administrative Law. Professor Liew is the holder of degrees in political science and commerce from the University of Calgary, international affairs from Carleton University, and law from the University of Ottawa and Columbia University. She is a member of litigation committees for the Canadian Council for Refugees and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, and her research focuses on the performative and consequential aspects of how Canadian law is affecting refugees and immigrants. Having clerked with Justice Douglas Campbell at the Federal Court of Canada, Professor Liew was also a member of the Sesay defence team at the Special Court in Sierra Leone and the Commission counsel team at the Cornwall Public Inquiry.

Jamie Chai Yun Liew's profile page

J. Donald C. Galloway, LL.B. (Edinburgh) 1974, LL.M. (Harvard) 1975, is Professor of Law at the University of Victoria. From 1975 to 1991, Professor Galloway taught at Queen's University in Kingston. In 1991, he was awarded the Bora Laskin National Fellowship in Human Rights Research and completed his project on Immigration and the Liberal State at the University of Victoria. He has published several articles on criminal law, tort law, and legal theory in addition to Immigration Law in the Essentials of Canadian Law series. His teaching is now focused on administrative law and jurisprudence.

Donald Galloway's profile page