Canadian Politics

A14(c) - Roundtable: Qualitative Research on Contemporary Francophone Migration to/in/from Canada: A Roundtable on Methodology, Social Class, Religion and Race

Date: Jun 13 | Time: 03:30pm to 05:00pm | Location:

This panel puts into conversation a small boom of scholarship – four independent research projects conducted by Barras and Selby, Belkhodja and Mazot-Oudin, Moghadam and Molho, and Sharokni - that examines French and Francophone migrants to Canada. Over the last two decades, there has been a significant increase in the migration of individuals of French nationality to Canada (they are the ninth largest group of immigrants in Canada, and the first group in Quebec (Statistics Canada 2016)), and of Francophones more generally. This growth is partially the result of immigration policies at the provincial and federal levels that seek to encourage Francophone migration. We ask: (1) How have we grappled with Francophone migration methodologically and theoretically? (2) How has immigration policy facilitated this immigration, and do these agreements differentiate French immigrants from other Francophones? (3) How do these immigrants conceptualize their location of arrival, Canada, and more particularly Ontario and Québec? (4) Are they impacting political debates in their locations of settlement? (5) Does social media impact their immigration journeys? And (6), what does the current situation tell us about ‘(in)visible’ mobility in Canada? This panel will grapple with these questions and engage in a broader shared discussion of how/whether Francophone immigration produces an essentialist image of Canada, as a peaceful, and non-settler-colonial land of opportunities. In short, we will aim to consider the ways in which privilege might be sustained and (re)produced through Francophone immigration, both in policy and through people.