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Social Science Emigration & Immigration

Screening Out

HIV Testing and the Canadian Immigration Experience

by (author) Laura Bisaillon

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
May 2022
Category
Emigration & Immigration, Immigration, Disease & Health Issues
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774867504
    Publish Date
    May 2022
    List Price
    $32.99
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774867474
    Publish Date
    May 2022
    List Price
    $89.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774867481
    Publish Date
    Dec 2022
    List Price
    $32.95

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Description

What happens when people with HIV apply to immigrate to Canada? Screening Out takes readers through the process of seeking permanent residency, illustrating how mandatory HIV testing and the medical inadmissibility regime are organized in such a way as to make such applications impossible. This ethnographic inquiry into the medico-legal and administrative practices governing the Canadian immigration system shows how this system works from the perspective of the very people toward whom this exclusionary health policy is directed.

 

As Laura Bisaillon demonstrates, mandatory immigration HIV screening triggers institutional practices that are highly problematic not only for would-be immigrants, but also for those bureaucrats, doctors, and lawyers who work within that system. She provides a vital corrective to state claims about the functioning of – and the professional and administrative practices supporting – mandatory HIV testing and medical examination, pinpointing how and where things need to change.

About the author

Awards

  • Winner, Best Book Award, Canadian Studies Network
  • Commended, <P>Canadian Sociology Book Award, Canadian Sociological Association</P>

Contributor Notes

Laura Bisaillon is a political sociologist and associate professor in the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Through journal articles, scholarly blogs, documentary film, photography, and creative writing, her research investigates interactions between migration, health, and the state. She has held research fellowships at the Brocher Foundation, Geneva, and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Amsterdam. The research on which this book is based was awarded a Governor General’s Gold Medal.

Editorial Reviews

Laura Bisaillon’s Screening Out is a brilliant and much needed study of one barely known aspect of the Canadian immigration system: the medical screening of immigration applicants and the mandatory testing for HIV.

Canadian Journal of Disability Studies

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