Flexible and Assembled Bordering Practices for Mexicans travelling to Canada

This article examines a temporary residence visa (TRV) requirement for Mexicans travelling to Canada 2009–2016. The policy was implemented to control the travel of Mexican refugee claimants to Canada, with the explanation that they were making “bogus” claims. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of news sources, parliamentary debates, and policy documents, I argue that the TRV and subsequent policies and practices enacted during the 2009–2016 period illustrate bordering practices as flexible and assembled, regulating entry and access to secure immigration status. I analyse how bordering practices operated through the enactment of policy, the circulation of anti‐immigrant/anti‐Mexican discourses, and economic arguments about the cost of lifting the TRV. They were also affected by U.S.‐Canada relationships, particularly after the 2016 U.S. election.