For many racialized immigrants such as myself, the seemingly inherent contradictions of being both a settler and a working-class Global South migrant settling in a Global North country is an often difficult reality to reconcile with. However, this publication offers a robust alternative to the rigid perceptions of settler colonialism and migration, and encourages us to take a more nuanced approach towards what it means for Canada to be a settler nation. Using assemblages methodology, which, in this context, postulates that the conditions of racialized migrants and Indigenous peoples of Canada should not be framed as two separate and linear variables competing against each other, but rather demands that we view them as fluid and interconnected. I agree with that thinking. The deteriorating socioeconomic conditions in the Philippines, which forced me and my family to migrate to Canada over two decades, is not only not dissimilar to the socioeconomic plight of Indigenous peoples of Canada as well as other racialized groups (re: over 4 centuries of colonialism in the Philippines, as well as unequal treaties and relationships with more powerful countries such as the United States and China), but they are connected socially and economically. For example, the struggle to protect Indigenous lands from fossil fuel-augmenting infrastructure such as Coastal GasLink Pipeline’s intrusion into Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation territory nearly mirrors the struggles of the Philippine peasant class and Indigenous communities’ (katutubo) struggles against land and labour exploitation by foreign mining and fruit companies, and their Philippine allies. While I do not wish to deny agency from anyone that chooses to migrate to Canada, it is nevertheless important to keep in mind that many of us migrate out of the need to provide for our families back home and protect them from the worst of deteriorating socioeconomic conditions.

The four portraits of Scarborough discussed in this work is a welcomed alternative narrative to the misleading mainstream and popular media narratives that it is a far-away, lawless, socioeconomic dump that somehow deserves the scorn from the rest of Toronto. Not only do they highlight its multicultural nature, but do so in a way that is not fixated on the present moment nor tokenizes it to weaponize against Indigenous resistance the way governments and institutions continue to do. It is rightfully framed as a form of resistance, from the community events celebrating heritage to the foundation of civic organizations advocating for more equitable public policies. (I personally am in the process of getting involved with the Scarborough-based Urban Alliance of Race Relations). It uplifts its Indigenous history and ongoing part of Indigenous struggle while notable Scarborough institutions such as UTSC continue to erase it and replace it with settler colonial romanticized narratives of “unoccupied far-away lands”.

Works like this one are key in pushing back against narratives that attempt to frame settler colonialism as a monolith, and beliefs that nation-states such as Canada should be the only point of analysis within decolonial discourses and migration studies.