From Sanctuary to Abolition: migrant justice organizing in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and Ottawa

In this dissertation I examine the politics, policies, and practices of sanctuary in Canada. Specifically, I offer the first comprehensive account of how migrant justice activists have understood and approached the work of building sanctuary cities in Toronto, Vancouver, Montréal, and Ottawa. I show how migrant justice activists have been crucial actors in the development and implementation of sanctuary policies and practices in Canada, despite being largely ignored in scholarly literature on the topic. Beyond an analysis of the rich grassroots theories and strategic practices that activists have developed over two decades, I discern and theorize two fundamental approaches activists have taken to building sanctuary cities: demanding "sanctuary from above" and cultivating "sanctuary from below." Both approaches seek to increase access to services for precarious and non-status migrants, but differ in their theory of change and in practice. On the one hand, demanding sanctuary from above seeks to increase access to services by pressuring municipal governments and public service institutions to adopt sanctuary or "access without fear" policy reforms. On the other, building sanctuary from below prioritizes working directly with frontline service providers, advocates, and migrant communities to secure localized access to services, build networks of mutual aid, and cultivate a culture of solidarity with and among precarious and non-status migrantswith or without the presence of a formal sanctuary policy. I find that both approaches contain common potentials and limits that are traceable across the four cities included in this study. I argue that each approach can hold strategic and tactical value in different circumstances, but also note that the sanctuary from below approach appears to hold more potential to achieve the kinds of long-term social transformation that migrant justice activists are committed to achieving. I conclude by theorizing an abolitionist approach to sanctuary organizing. I combine elements of Black liberation, abolitionist, anti-colonial, and no borders scholarship to construct framework to both evaluate past sanctuary policies and practices, as well as offer a radical agenda for future sanctuary organizing.