Chapter 12: CAGE(s) and the State

Question 1

How do we define the state?

Answer 1

A complex array of governing institutions in a society. The state includes:
- national-security
- parliamentary
- judicial
- bureaucratic institutions, etc.
The state itself cannot be said to act either consciously or uniformly; however, agents (both internal and external) can use the tools of the state to acquire, monopolize, or distribute resources and services and to maintain social order.
This diversity of institutions means that dissent and conflict within and between institutions are a feature of democratic states.
Clearly, some individuals and groups in a society are more vulnerable to punitive action on the part of state institutions, whereas individuals and groups with more power are better equipped to attempt to use the state to their advantage.
- the government dictates education and health policies

Question 2

What are the state’s three main tasks? How does the state carry out these tasks?

Answer 2

1. Capitalist Accumulation
2. Legitimation
3. Coercion (social control)
   To carry out these tasks involves the establishment of a citizenship regime consisting of boundaries, rules, definitions, and geographic boarders.
   Citizenship rights are defined, and avenues for obtaining access to these rights are made clear.
   A complex bureaucracy establishes the “democratic rules of the game” and determines things such as acceptable ways in which to make claims.
   Nations are defined on the basis of historical claims and conceptualizations of nationality.
   States establish “the geographical borders of the political community” as an exclusionary principle of citizenship.

Question 3

How does Marshall define citizenship? What are the three groups?

Answer 3

According to Marshall, citizenship is a status bestowed on those who are full members of a community. The concept of citizenship organizes the rights and responsibilities of citizens into three groups:
1. civil citizenship;
- includes basic human rights, such as the right to individual freedom and legal justice
2. political citizenship;
- includes the right to participate in the political process
3. social citizenship (focus of the chapter)
- includes financial well-being, social heritage, and access to social services
All who possess the status of citizen are equal with respect to the rights and duties with which the status is endowed
Each classification, in Marshall’s view, is a site of struggle between individual actors and the state over how the boundary of inclusion/exclusion of citizenship is determined.

Question 4

How is Marshall’s typology criticized?

Answer 4

Walby says that Marshall’s typology is generalized to the experience of white European men. All groups do not share the same facilities. Specifically, women and children face difficulties when trying to obtain full citizenship in some parts of of Northern Africa and the Middle East.

Question 5

What sexist law exists in the Middle East regarding citizenship?

Answer 5

In order for a child to gain a Lebanese citizenship, they must be conceived by a Lebanese man. However, they do not have to be birthed by a Lebanese woman.
If a woman conceives from a foreigner, her child does not qualify for social benefits, such as healthcare and education, and can not not inherit the mother’s property.

Question 6

How are the policies towards poverty organized and unjust?

Answer 6

The Canadian state has a long history of policies designed to aid those who are poor, but the state’s conceptualization of the “deserving” poor has largely incorporated the image of the “white, working-class, breadwinner” who is temporarily out of work.

The poor of Canadian society are not all viewed as entitled to the rights of economic well being and social security. They are sorted and classified on the basis of their age, race and ethnicity, and gender in order to determine their measure of entitlement.

Traditionally, the white, working-class breadwinner has been seen as the “real” citizen, deserving of the guarantee of the rights of social citizenship. The conflation of the “deserving worker citizen” with the white, male, working-class worker engaged in paid work has long shaped policy making.

Question 7

How does the state perpetuate inequalities in poverty?

Answer 7

The face of poverty and social class is deeply gendered, racialized, and age-based.

The notion of the “deserving” recipient and the moral regulation and monitoring of those receiving state support illustrate the state’s role in constructing gendered and racialized ideologies and in perpetuating class inequalities.

Question 8

What were the provinces and cities most affected by poverty in Canada in 2018?

Answer 8

Breakdown of poverty rates by province and territory:

1. Nunavut (29.0%)
2. Manitoba (20.7%)
3. British Columbia (18.7%).

Among major Canadian cities:

1. Vancouver (20.4%)
2. Toronto (20.0%)
3. Windsor and Abbotsford-Mission (18.2%).

Question 9

How many people live in poverty in Canada?

Answer 9

5.8 million Canadians live in poverty; that is 16.8% or 1 in 6.

Question 10

What are three poverty measures of Canada?

Answer 10

1. Low Income measure (LIM)
   - a fixed percentage (typically 50%) of the adjusted median household income; anyone below the threshold is considered poor
2. Census Family Low Income Measure (CFLIM)
   - calculates family size and median income, leading to a higher threshold and more people falling under the poverty line than the LIM
3. Market Basket Measure (MBM)
   - an absolute measure and is the level at which a household does not have the income to purchase a specific basket of essential goods and services (food, shelter, clothing, etc.); criticized for not properly accounting for living costs

Question 11

What are child poverty rates in Canada?

Answer 11

• Children - 19.6%
• Children in lone-parent families - 47.4%
• Single parent families - 36.0%
  Single-parent families are less prevalent than couples with children in Canada; however, of the lone-parent families they are highly vulnerable to poverty.
• 80% of single-parent families are female-led, and of these households, Indigenous women, racialized women, and women with disabilities have higher poverty rates

Question 12

How does living single affect poverty rates?

Answer 12

• Single adults - 37.7%
• Single seniors - 25.7%
• Single persons with disabilities - 23%;
  Single working-age adults, especially females, and single seniors continue to experience high rates of poverty.
  People with disabilities are highly vulnerable to poverty, particularly those facing multiple discriminations.

Question 13

Why are single adults affected drastically by poverty?

Answer 13

• Precarious employment; low wage, non-permanent, lacking benefits
• Inadequate social assistance programs
• Few income security benefits
• Lack of safe, affordable housing
  Barriers multiple for those are women, Indigenous, racialized, newcomers, and for persons with disabilities, including mental illness.

Question 14

How does being Indigenous affect chances of living in poverty?

Answer 14

Indigenous peoples - 23.6%
High poverty rates for Indigenous people are part of the continued legacy of colonization, discrimination, a lack of access to education, health care, and child care services, and inadequate housing and infrastructure.
- half of the children in foster care are Indigenous
- 1 in 5 Indigenous living in homes in need of major repairs
- many live without running water and electricity; there were 174 drinking water advisories in First Nation communities in May 2018 alone

Question 15

At what percent does racialized Canadians experience poverty?

Answer 15

Racialized people - 20.8%
Poverty among racialized communities is persistent and reflects a range of social and economic barriers
- immigrants allowed entry to Canada for cheap labour
- refugees are burdened with the repayment of travel loans starting 1 year after their arrival to Canada

Question 16

What is the mother’s allowance?

Answer 16

The mother’s allowance (which evolved into Family Benefits) was introduced in 1920 and was restricted to WWI widows, who were eligible for support from the government because they were not to blame for their own widowhood.

• Evans calls this the “breadwinner/dependent model of the family”
• the “mother citizenship” was owed a stake in social citizenship only because of her association to her deceased “citizen” husband and she had to adhere to the prevailing gender norms and strict behavioural guidelines

Question 17

What is Mooers concept of lean production?

Answer 17

The rights of Canadian citizens are in jeopardy.
With the idea of “lean production” in the global workplace, there’s been a shift in the notion of citizenship; social citizenship rights are being pared down (simplified) and citizens are increasingly being required to “earn” their right to social benefits.
The requirement that Canadians perform labour for the right to economic survival can be seen as one example of the move to “lean citizenship.”
- employment is acting as the key signifier of “active citizenship”
Stands in contrast to decommodication.

Question 18

What is decommodification?

Answer 18

Decommodification is the process of viewing social rights as entitlement rather than commodities to be earned.
The strength of social entitlements and the degree to which people are protected from market dependency.

Question 19

Define workfare.

Answer 19

A type of social assistance program that requires the recipients to take certain paid work or enroll in educational or training courses for receiving welfare benefits. Although some recipients, notably mothers of young children, have been exempt from this requirement, some of these exemptions are being revised or abolished.
- Schragge argues that workfare is calculated to make use of the unemployed and the vulnerable who would perform work for less than a job would normally pay

Question 20

What did Klein and Pulkingham find when studying welfare recipients in BC?

Answer 20

On average, they received $510 per month, $325 for shelter and $185 for all other needs.
Many were deemed as “expected to work” even though their physical, mental and other health difficulties prevented them to do so.

Question 21

How do workfare programs contradict women?

Answer 21

Some welfare states encourage women to stay at home and depend on their husband for financial assistance; however when single mothers want to stay at home to raise their children, they are unable to and do not qualify for the program if they do.
Evans argues that the area of social assistance has been to define “mothers” as “workers” simultaneously with the increasing inaccessibility of child care.

Question 22

How do Canadians practice agency towards the state?

Answer 22

Citizens have continued to mobilize against the state’s welfare reforms and attempts to privatize various public enterprises (e.g., health care).
Mooers claims that the state’s recruitment of public support and community input for government privatization projects have been tactics in the attempt to minimize opposition.
Citizen protest and dissent exist, but they are often harshly challenged by those who support the ideologies of the ruling regime.

Question 23

How do Indigenous peoples struggle with citizenship?

Answer 23

The Indian Act (1876) wreaked havoc on Aboriginal communities and caused a perpetual cycle of poverty and dysfunction.
Political citizenship has been historically denied to Aboriginal groups by the Canadian government.
The civil and social citizenship rights of Aboriginal peoples have also been strongly deprived by the Indian Act and its legacy.
Heritage and social relations were ignored because Indian status was defined by the government on the basis of where one lived and band registration.

Question 24

What’s the struggle of Indigenous women and their citizenship?

Answer 24

Aboriginal women who married non-Indians were stripped of their Indian status, as were their children.
These women were forced to leave the reserve and live apart from their families.
This policy illustrates that the Indian Act was both a racial and gender project.
Although Aboriginal women who married non-Indians were subsumed under their husband’s status, this stipulation did not apply to Aboriginal men who married non-Indians.
The policy is dehumanizing because it treats a person’s identity and social heritage like a set of clothes that can be taken on and off (at will or by force).

Question 25

What inequalities did Chinese immigrants face in Canada through history?

Answer 25

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese immigrants did the labour-intensive work that “white” Canadians would not do, and they did so for a lesser wage.
They worked on the railway, in salmon canneries, and, until they were barred from doing so, in mines.
As soon as the exigencies of labour passed, citizenship infringements were imposed on Chinese immigrants.
Head taxes were imposed as early as 1885, and by 1903 they were as high as $500 per person. The federal government required all Chinese in Canada to be registered and to have a certificate.
In BC, the Chinese were barred from voting, and they were legally excluded from numerous professions.
The government’s immigration policy significantly shaped social relations within Chinese communities, because women were effectively excluded from entering Canada for many years. As the head tax prevented Chinese men from bringing their families to Canada with them.

Question 26

What is the live-in caregiver program? How is this unequally disadvantaging immigrant woman?

Answer 26

An immigration policy that gives temporary work permits to women coming to fill the Canadian need for live-in caregivers (ex. nannies). This policy aims to fill a demand for child care, while at the same time severely restricting the activities and the duration of stay for the women involved in the program.

When Caribbean black women were brought in they faced opposition because people believe they were “unfit” and “undeserving” of motherhood. They were not wanted for their biological reproductive capabilities but for their reproductive labour.

Question 27

When does racial profiling occur?

Answer 27

Racial profiling occurs when law enforcement or security officials, consciously, subject individuals at any location to heightened scrutiny based solely or in part on race, ethnicity, Aboriginality, place of origin, ancestry, or religion or on stereotypes associated with any of these factors rather than on objectively reasonable grounds to suspect that the individual is implicated in criminal activity.
Racial profiling sees “race” first and then seeks out a crime.

Question 28

How are Aboriginals discriminated against in the justice system?

Answer 28

Systemic discrimination in the Canadian justice system is evident in the disproportionate number of Aboriginal Canadians in the penal system, in the disproportionate targeting of racial minorities by police, and in the use of “racial profiling” by government officials.
In 2013, 23.2% of those admitted to federal correctional services were Aboriginal, although Aboriginal peoples make up only 2.6% of the population of Canada.
The overrepresentation of Aboriginals in Canadian prisons has risen by 56.2% since 2001; with Aboriginal women being more overrepresented than Aboriginal men.
77% of Aboriginal street youth have been arrested compared to 44.% of non-Aboriginal street youth.
In Saskatchewan, 76% of young offenders in custody are Aboriginal.
The treatment of Aboriginal youth may also lead to subsequently harsher sentences for any future offences, since they would now have a record and any prior offences would effect future sentences.

Question 29

How are crimes against Aboriginals treated?

Answer 29

At the same time that Aboriginal peoples are targeted for surveillance, crimes against Aboriginal peoples have historically been treated lightly and many have gone unsolved.
Aboriginal people in Canada are 3x more likely to be victims of violent crime than non-Aboriginals, and 3.5x more likely for Aboriginal women.
In a 2013 RCMP report it was indicated that there were 1,017 homicides and 164 incidences of missing Aboriginal women, of which there were 225 unsolved cases in a time period from 1980-2012.
Other estimates suggest that as many as 500 Aboriginals women have gone missing in the past two decades in Canada and little has been done about it by state officials.

Question 30

What did the government do recently in response to residential schools?

Answer 30

The government apologized.
Aboriginal peoples have faced violence from the state through both its action and its inaction.
The length of time Aboriginal people had to wait for the government’s apology and admission to the horror of residential schools and the theft of Aboriginal children from their families reveals a complicit public acceptance of racist and colonial policies.
This apology at long last makes public that what the government did was wrong and validates Aboriginal communities’ pain and need for justice.
The government formed the Aboriginal Truth and Reconciliation Commision which include 94 recommendations in child welfare, education, language and culture, health, justice, and reconciliation.

Question 31

How does race affect citizenship in Canada?

Answer 31

Race affects who is allowed to enter Canada, what work people are allowed to perform, what “class” of citizenship they are granted, and whether this citizenship can be revoked.

Question 32

What was the Naturalization Act?

Answer 32

The act of 1914 stated that a woman’s status was that of her husband’s; therefore, any Chinese woman with a Canadian citizenship, for example, lost her citizenship if she married a man who was not a Canadian citizen.

Question 33

How has the Live-In Care Program changed? How are the changes problematic?

Answer 33

Jakibowski argues that it has been “deracialized” by removing specified “race” preferences of caregivers in exchange for “educational requirements” that are generally held by people from First World countries. However, the majority of live-in domestic workers in Canada continue to be women from Third World countries, and these workers are required to live in the employer’s home for two years of a three-year period. This leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse with little recourse.

Question 34

How is the perception of workers from First World countries different than of workers from Third World countries?

Answer 34

Immigrant women are effectively denied their right to “motherhood” and femininity and have been classified as “individual workers” similar to the male conceptualization of “worker” and yet they are still excluded from citizenship; immigrant women are viewed as “workers” and not as “mothers”.
Arat-Koc argues that domestic workers from Western Europe are conceptualized as “deserving immigrants”, likely to get higher pay, better treatment, and recognition for their work.
Caregivers from the Caribbean are seen as “undeserving immigrants”, they are required to do more for less, and are expected to be grateful for the “opportunity” to do so.

Question 35

How is racial profiling seen with African-Canadians?

Answer 35

Of 480,000 criminal chargers in Toronto, 34% of African-Canadians have been charged. Despite that they only represent 8.1% of Toronto’s population, this is an overrepresentation by 4.2 times.
Once in the system, African-Canadians are treated more punitively.
- 14% of visible minorities felt that they had experienced discrimination from the courts, compared to 8% of non-visible minorities
Citizenship is no guarantee of protection or fair treatment by the law.

Question 36

What is transnational action?

Answer 36

The mobilization of international agencies and non-governmental organizations (ex. environmental or human-rights groups) to generate support for the protection of Aboriginal lands and land claims.
The James Bay cree have had success in the courts by using this; first, by winning against Quebec putting a hydroelectric project on their hunting lang.
This was the first time that Canadian citizenship included collective rights for aboriginal peoples.

Question 37

What is breadwinner wages?

Answer 37

The “family-supporting” wages to which some men (especially white European men) were considered to be entitled during the 20th century. State laws and support systems reinforced and sustained this gendered division of labour in the family, thereby reproducing an ideology of female economic dependence for some groups of women.

The privileges of the breadwinner wage are largely limited to racial and ethnic majorities.

Question 38

How does the breadwinner regime cause inequalities for women?

Answer 38

Caring work in the household is unpaid, predominantly performed by and expected of women, and these responsibilities penalize women in a citizenship regime that preferentially rewards paid work (particularly work that does not involve caring).

Historically, the imperatives of the breadwinner policy have worked to exclude and limit the participation of women (especially married women) in the labour force.

Question 39

What are the principles of the unemployment insurance (UI)?

Answer 39

The UI was introduced in 1940. Changes were made in 1996 that were intended to help women qualify for the program, but they had the opposite effect.

1. Less eligibility
   - the doctrine that the level of relief must be based, not on need, but on a rate lower than the wages for the meanest work available
2. Actuarially sound
   - benefits, both size and duration, are tied to contributions.
   - premiums were to be shared; 40% from employees, 40% from employers and 20% from government.

Question 40

How were women affected by the UI?

Answer 40

From its beginnings in 1940, unemployment insurance was intended for the male breadwinner: married women could not receive direct compensation on the basis of their own work.
Instead women were eligible for state support only through their status as a dependent of their husband.

In 1950, the impact of gendered ideologies on policy inequality becomes even more apparent as a woman who married was rendered ineligible to claim UI benefits for a period of two years following her marriage; barring 12,000-14,000 women each year
To obtain UI a woman was required to prove her attachment to the labour force in a number of ways

Women who refused to take low-paying hobs for which they were overqualified were also denied benefits, unlike men. Thus, women’s access to the “first-track” citizenship benefits of UI (as opposed to the “second-track” benefits of social assistance) was made exceptionally difficult.

Question 41

How are employment insurance (EI) benefits unequal towards women?

Answer 41

Even when women qualify, the lower pay of women combined with more unstable work patterns means that they usually qualify for lower benefits.

In 2012-13 only about one third (35.2%) of the total dollars of regular EI benefits was paid to women, even though women now participate in the work force at almost the same rate as men.
The new system of EI requires 420-700 hours in the preceding 12 months in order to qualify for EI; with the combination of domestic responsibilities, devalued work, and lower wages, EI is a predominantly male benefit.

Question 42

How has the state controlled reproductive rights of women?

Answer 42

Historically, women’s reproductive potential has been closely watched by the state, while in the areas of sexual assault and “domestic violence the state has been less willing to intervene on women’s behalf.”

Women’s sexuality and reproductive potential have been controlled in varying degrees by the state, from the outlawing of birth control until 1969 to the practice of sterilization for reproducers deemed “unfit.”

While some women have been financially and ideologically supported for their reproductive potential (ex. with baby bonuses and nationalistic rhetoric), other women have been penalized and degraded for it.

The right to have control over one’s own body has not been a guaranteed right for women in general, especially for women of colour and working-class women.

Question 43

What is the liftetime impact of caring on women?

Answer 43

McDaniel argues that “caring is central to welfare states, not because they are inherently caring (abundant evidence calls this into question), but because care (for the young, old, sick and infirm, and those who cannot work) leads to more productive, less discontented, workers and consumers for capitalist economies.”
The weight of the imbalance in caring work intensity penalizes women through increased work absences, more departures from and entries into the labour force, and consequently, lower lifetime wages.

Question 44

What are the three different gendered approaches to to policy in democratic welfare states proposed by Sainsbury?

Answer 44

1. Male Breadwinner
   - considered to be predicated upon gender inequality and differential responsibilities
2. Separate Gender Roles
   - social citizenship and benefits in the form of income security are designed and distributed with the ideology of the patriarchal family in mind
   - housework is unpaid and expected of women
3. Individual Earner-Carer
   - a more equitable option, as women and men are viewed equally as potential earner and/or carers and carework is valued on par with “productive” labour

Question 45

What was bill C-484?

Answer 45

The bill did not pass, but it stated that “injure, cause the death of or attempt to cause the death of a child before or during its birth while committing or attempting to commit an offense against the mother. Voluntary abortion or act of omission by the mother are exempted in the legislation”
- opposers to this bill stated that it allowed the state to interfere in pregnancies too much, and would be used against abortions

Question 46

What is one problem with domestic violence policies in Canada? What is one advancement in domestic violence policies?

Answer 46

Problem: They use gender-neutral language.
Ex. the “zero tolerance” policies whereby charges are laid for any domestic complaint have in some cases resulted in criminalization of women who try to defend themselves from abuse.
Advancement: specialized court for domestic cases
Ex. The Family Violence Court (FVC) was instituted to handle all cases of spouse, child, and elder abuse. Leading to them being taken more seriously with specialized lawyers and judges.

Question 47

What are shelter attendance rates for victims of domestic violence?

Answer 47

Between 2009-2010, there were 64,500 admissions of women to shelters, a rate of 452 admissions per 100,000 women.
It is estimated that on a daily basis, 200 women are turned away from shelters.
Violence against men is gaining more attention, but women are 3x more likely to report they have been sexually assaulted, beaten, choked, or threatened with a knife or gun.

Question 48

What policies have been put in place for the elderly in Canada?

Answer 48

In the mid-20th century, the poverty of Canadian seniors sparked the enactment of a number of distributive policies designed to ameliorate this situation.

The Canadian government instituted a network of financial coverage for elderly citizens, including:
- Old Age Security (OAS)
- The Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS)
- The Canada/Quebec Pension Plan
And incentives for retirement savings in the form of registered Retirement Savings Plans

Question 49

How have the implemented policies affected poverty rates for the elderly?

Answer 49

The OAS and GIS were designed specifically to improve the situation of low-income seniors.
These policies have had success in alleviating extreme poverty among seniors.

In 2011, 16.1% of unattached women aged 65 and older were living in poverty, a dramatic reduction from 1980 and yet it is still high compared to the percentage of all Canadian families living in poverty (7.8%).
Thus, Canadians are differentially protected from the vulnerabilities of old age.

Question 50

How does the state show inequalities towards Aboriginal mothers?

Answer 50

According to Kline, Aboriginal women have been constructed by child welfare agencies as inadequate and uncooperative mothers who violate the dominate definitions of “good mothering”.
The “good mother” ideology includes an ethic of selflessness whereby a mother is ready and able to provide her children with a stable and enriched environment. This is judged without considering the impact of the broader socio-structural factors on inequality.
The inequalities stemming from colonization and racism leaves many Aboriginal women (like other poor women) much more vulnerable to state intervention and the potential dissolution of their families.

Question 51

What are the different citizenship identities proposed by Jenson?

Answer 51

1. Model citizen
   - can expect to receive the full entitlements of citizenship, deemed deserving of social assistance
2. Second-class citizen
3. Non-citizen
   - both can expect to be faced with inequalities and disadvantages, deemed undeserving of social assistance