Canadian Politics

A05(a) - Issues in immigrant integration in Canada

Date: Jun 3 | Time: 03:30pm to 05:00pm | Location:

Chair/Président/Présidente : Antoine Bilodeau (Concordia)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Antoine Bilodeau (Concordia)

Organized by the Immigration Research Initiative (IRI), this panel proposes a discussion on the conditions of successful integration for immigrants into the host society. It offers a series of papers highlighting the key role of different factors, notably the role of information as well as economic and social ties in choosing immigration settlement upon arrival, or the role of belonging, defined both as identification with the place of residence and the feeling of being recognized as full members of the province of residence, in shaping the desire to stay or move to another province. The papers also discuss the role of ethnic networks and diasporas for voicing demands on behalf of specific immigrant communities, and how premigration ideology helps guide newcomers in their new political environment. IRI is funded by the Secrétariat aux affaires canadiennes du Gouvenement du Québec.

The Information Needs and of French-speaking immigrants to Canada and their consequences on location choices and retention in minority Francophone communities: Colin Scott (Concordia)
Abstract: Francophone immigration targets figure prominently in the Government of Canada’s Immigration Levels planning, yet the attraction and retention of French-speaking immigrants to smaller and mid-sized communities, especially outside of Quebec, remains a challenge. How informed are prospective French-speaking immigrants of the opportunities and realities across the Canadian Francophonie, and what role do economic and social ties play in initial location choices and retention decisions post-settlement? This research draws on a mixed-methods study of how the needs, experiences, and aspirations of French-speaking immigrants to Canada influence their location choices, with data drawn from surveys and conjoint experiments with two samples of French-speaking migrants, before and after their immigration to Canada, as well as semi-structured interviews conducted on-site at the 2023 Destination Canada immigration recruitment fair. Results suggest there is significant appeal in migrating to smaller and mid-sized communities across Canada but also illustrate how respondents lack information about the practicalities of life in Francophone minority communities and how their location choices are shaped by economic and social ties, as well as access to French-language services. Implications for Canada’s Immigration Levels plan and opportunities to improve communication about Francophone immigration outside of major urban centres are discussed.

Religious Institutions and Political Mobilization: The Role of Sikh Gurdwaras in Canadian Elections: Rupinder Liddar (McGill)
Abstract: In the broader discourse of ethnic minority political behaviour, the role of religious networks has become increasingly important in understanding how political candidates are mobilized. This paper investigates the drivers of political participation within the Sikh diaspora in Canada by analyzing the distribution of Sikh candidates through Elections Canada data and conducting original interviews with incumbent Sikh politicians at both federal and provincial levels. By focusing on how Sikh gurdwaras or places of Sikh religious worship act as hubs for political engagement and mobilization, this study explores the unique role of religious institutions in shaping political ambition and candidacy within the Sikh community. This work reveals that Sikh candidates are more likely than other South Asian-Canadians to contest nominations for all major political parties in urban and South Asian ethnocultural ridings. The interviews shed light on how political parties can strategically engage religious networks during election periods, identifying gurdwaras as key spaces for political outreach. Overall, this paper demonstrates that gurdwaras play a crucial role in understanding Sikh political participation and electoral success in Canadian politics.

Contextualizing immigrants’ self-reported change in political ideology: Eline A. de Rooij (Simon Fraser University), Maxime Coulombe (Western University)
Abstract: Disagreement exists in the literature about whether political attitudes and behaviors are formed early in life and are resistant to change, or are highly adaptable in response to political experiences in a new context and as a migrant. This paper examines how differences between self-assessed pre- and post-migration political ideology of immigrants in Canada can be explained. We find that, in general, immigrants report a shift to the ideological right post-migration. This finding contrasts with the common finding that immigrants tend to prefer political parties on the left of the political spectrum post-migration. Using survey data on approximately 2,500 recent immigrants, we test hypotheses about the role of the immigration experience, aging, and different political and ideological contexts in explaining this ideological change, and discuss the implications for the literature.

Identity, Recognition, and Immigrant Retention in Quebec: Antoine Bilodeau (Concordia), Stephen White (Carleton)
Abstract: Political theorists and politicians put forward discussions about identification and recognition of minorities and the importance of making room for minorities; we investigate these questions but looking at how immigrants perceive their place and the community and the implication it has for their desire to stay or leave the host community. All sorts of conceptual tools and measurement instruments have been developed to investigate how majority group members perceive minorities and whether they consider them as part of the national in-group, such as types of group boundaries, shared membership. More rarely, however, have scholars spent attention at minorities’ perceptions about the extent to which they think of themselves in relation to the national in-group, either whether they think of themselves as members and whether they think others see them as members of the group. We investigate this question by examining minorities’ identification with the national group and perceptions of being recognized as members of the group. Moreover, this paper examines to what extent dynamics of retention in relation to identity and recognition are different and/or similar among first- and second-generation immigrants. The paper relies on a stratified sample of first- (n=1100) and second-generation immigrants (n=1300) in Quebec.