University of Victoria

Immigrant Integration and Immigration Policy @ the Edge: Constructing Admission Categories

Recently, federal government policies regarding international migration changed in three fundamental areas: a) in provincial allocations of settlement funding with shifts away from Ontario towards Prairie provinces and British Columbia; b) in the immigration policy arena, with enhanced criminal justice measures targeting immigration consultants, fraudulent marriage, and unauthorized migrants including trafficked women and refugees claimants; and c) in the recruitment of workers (temporary and permanent residents) via the ongoing expansion of the Provincial Nominee class and the decentralization of selection, with provinces and employers having greater roles in the selection process. These developments underscore the importance of sociological research on contemporary topics such as immigrant integration, labour recruitment, economic (in)equalities, trafficking, migration for marriage, refugee populations and past, present and emerging migration policies. This session solicits papers on these topics of Canadian migrant integration and/or immigration policy, as well as papers which assess current on-going issues and/or future implications of policy changes.

Session Chair and Discussant: Rima Wilkes, University of British Columbia

Session Organizer: Monica Boyd, University of Toronto, monica.boyd@utoronto.ca

Entry Categories as State Based Boundary Work on National Identity: Expanding Sociological Approaches to Studying Immigration Policy

Jennifer Elrick, University of Toronto, jennifer.elrick@utoronto.ca

In Canada, immigration policy has long been a cornerstone of nation-building endeavors. However, developments in recent decades suggest that there has been a shift in the form and content of the national project reflected in that policy. These developments include changes to the “mix” of immigrants admitted under different entry categories (e.g. skilled workers vs. family members), the relative weight of permanent versus temporary admissions, and the quality of legal status accorded to immigrant spouses.

In this paper, I show how a sociological approach to immigration policy analysis that (a) reconceptualises entry categories as sites of symbolic boundary-making rather than substantive objects, and (b) links macro-level policy and micro-level interpretations of street-level bureaucrats, can lead to a nuanced understanding of how the Canadian nation-building project has changed over time. I illustrate this point with reference to both permanent and temporary paths to family-related admission.

Thursday June 6, 2013 08:45 AM - 10:15 AM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-168

Canadian visa officers and the social construction of ‘real’ spousal relationships

Vic Satzewich, Department of Sociology, McMaster University, satzewic@mcmaster.ca

This paper examines how Canadian visa officers process Family Class spousal sponsorship applications. In attempting to weed out ‘marriages of convenience’ and other non-genuine relationships, visa officers must decide whether relationships are ‘real’, or ‘fake’. I argue that visa officers socially construct ‘real relationships’. This process of social construction involves the use of various typifications of what ‘normal’, ‘genuine’ relationships look like. These typifications, however, also take into account the culturally conditioned ways in which people fall in love, form relationships, and solemnize their marriages and partnerships. This paper shows that there is no single set of culturally based typifications that visa officers rely on; instead they use general typifications that, depending on the context, are driven by ‘Canadian’ and ‘other’ notions of normality. Data is based on ethnographic field-work, interviews with Canadian visa officers and observations of interviews with Family Class applicants at eleven overseas visa offices.

Thursday June 6, 2013 08:45 AM - 10:15 AM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-168

Who Counts as Family in Canadian Immigration?: A Genealogical Study of Canada’s Family Reunification Policies

Sherry Thorpe, Carleton University, xc.sherry@gmail.com , Xiaobei Chen, Carleton University , xiaobei.chen@gmail.com

Canadian immigration policies have been going through rapid and massive changes since 2008. This paper focuses on the federal government’s changes to family reunification policies, among which the most significant is the introduction of the “Super Visa,” a ten-year multiple-entry visa that allows eligible parent and grandparents applicants to come to Canada as visitors, but not to settle as permanent residents. Taking a Foucauldian genealogical approach, the paper historicizes the problematization of the family by examining the emergence of family reunification as a rationality and practice in the post-WWII era and various shifts in the subsequent decades. We argue that “who counts as family in Canadian immigration” has been a biopolitical question. Family members are recognized as such when they suit the needs of the Canadian population. The latest changes in family reunification policies objectify potential parents and grandparents reunification applicants as economic and health risks to the Canadian population and manage these risks through the neoliberal responsibilizing technology of the Super Visa.

Thursday June 6, 2013 08:45 AM - 10:15 AM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-168

Sorting or Shaping Immigrants? Exploring the Function of Canadian Immigration Policy Using the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada

Jennifer Elrick, University of Toronto, jennifer.elrick@utoronto.ca , Naomi Lightman, University of Toronto, naomi.lightman@utoronto.ca

This paper explores the premise that immigration policies do not simply regulate the inflow of newcomers, but rather shape the objects they regulate. While this premise has been discussed in relation to ‘illegal’ immigration and precarious workers, we use it to explore skilled immigrant admissions. Many qualitative studies of skilled, dual-career family migrants have argued that crossing an international border sorts family members into ‘primary’ (economic) and ‘secondary’ (non-economic) migrants, and that this sorting has gendered effects on employment outcomes. We assess the potential magnitude and pervasiveness of these tendencies by conducting a panel data analysis of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC), in order to answer the following question: What relationship exists between state-defined immigrant entry categories, application status (as primary/secondary migrant), and economic outcomes (as measured by income)? We find that Canada’s immigration policy shapes immigrant outcomes in two ways: by creating relationships of dependency, and by gendering those relationships.

Thursday June 6, 2013 08:45 AM - 10:15 AM Building: Elliott Building, Room: E-168