(Re)Constructing and Resisting Irregularity: (Non)citizenship, Canada’s Interim Federal Health Program, and Access to Healthcare

Abstract

This article analyzes the experiences of refugee claimants in Toronto’s everyday healthcare places, like walk-in clinics, doctor’s offices, and hospitals, in the aftermath of the 2012 Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) revisions. By drawing upon critical migration scholarship that prioritizes (non)citizenship, as well as semi-structured interviews, I highlight how the social positioning of refugee claimants is modulated in ways that justify and extend the IFHP revisions to effectively deny access to healthcare, demonstrating the indeterminacy of access. I understand this process through the concept of irregularity, a non-juridical status that is contingently configured and enforced by state and non-state actors when one is (re)constructed as “out of place,” hence limiting access to resources and rights. In accordance with citizenship, it indicates how we can think of the (re)fashioning of people and groups particularly within the everyday. I follow this with a critical analysis of the contestations that emerged to challenge the IFHP revisions