a targeted destination
a point of no return
a place for rehabilitation
that we may never earn
divisive powers
dispirit by dispossession
devour our way of living
as we map through marginalization
a targeted destination
a point of no return
a place for rehabilitation
that we may never earn
divisive powers
dispirit by dispossession
devour our way of living
as we map through marginalization
we land at mid-point
isolated and disengaged
to provide skilled labour
and draw minimum wage
re-imagining borders
within a mass monoculture
fitting into invisible gaps
designated for newcomers
an incomplete construction
structured by dominating monopolies
living within barriers
adhering to false ideologies
our racialized bodies
naturalized in desperation
assimilating to a homogeneous society
a socially conditioned conscience
caged in by forms of insecurity
escaping suffering, as life’s trajectory
becoming a minority to a new majority
and gripping onto a flawed sense of stability
echoes of liabilities
vibrate through the walls of society
and the ground below us creaks
when they question our propriety
perks of securing citizenship
another politically stigmatized home lacking right of possession
space as contingent of monetary channels
encountering daily, exogenous oppression
watching neoliberal dreams collapse
depending on our income tax
this is the socialized economy of migration
condemned to deficit and deprivation
Author Statement:
As a first-generation immigrant, I am a Sri Lankan, Tamil-speaking, post-colonial feminist, working on taking up space with both my voice and body. I was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, moved to British Columbia for my undergraduate degree in 2014, but I never really felt at home in either place. Synonyms for “colonize” include “conquer, found, immigrate, migrate, people, pioneer, transplant”—one of which is accurate while the signified meanings of the other terms denounce the cultural, political, economic, environmental, psychological, sexual, and biophysical violences caused by such conquests. This easily reflects the normalization of structural and symbolic cruelty racialized bodies are subjected to. Structural inequalities are embedded into institutional and political mechanisms, making secure housing and stable livelihoods inaccessible on the basis of identity politics. White supremacy has, and continues to have, a strong influence on the locomotion and means of labour that determine a newcomer’s belonging in Canada. Cultural imperialism and technological globalization help further colonizer sentiment by expanding the reach and persuasion of whiteness. Racialized bodies are disadvantaged in racially stratified cities and self-consciousness is detrimentally implicated by dominant ideologies. Today, both colonizers and the colonized travel through space and time, inhabiting land as “home” while experiencing varied, historically informed measures of suffering.
