The book collects contributions on Canada’s and Quebec’s experiences with immigration and diversity management. It is the outcome of a two-day international symposium that was held in Barcelona, Spain in October 2008 in which an interdisciplinary group of Canadian scholars and policy practitioners examined Canada’s immigration experience in order to imitate it in Europe. The symposium’s aim is to present an extensive analysis of the Canadian “model” of immigration policy and diversity management for both scholars and policy-makers in Europe (and Spain more specifically). The editor Dan Rodríguez-García presents the book as a comparison of Canada with Spain, and Quebec with Catalonia. Thus, the book invites a transatlantic dialogue, but reference to Europe (Spain particularly) is only made in its introduction and very briefly in Chapter 1 on the Canadian case (by Jeffrey Reitz). The other chapters sketch how immigration and diversity are managed in multicultural states such as Spain.
Part I explores the “government jurisdiction over immigration and diversity”. In Chapter 2, Peter Li analyzes the (racist) history of immigration legislation and the intergovernmental agreements in the immigration sector. In Chapter 3, Louise Fontaine summarizes the allocation of responsibilities in immigration between the federal government and Quebec as settled by the Canada-Quebec Accord. Part II covers the “management of immigration flows”. In Chapter 4, Monica Boyd and Naomi Alboim provide a synopsis of governance systems, immigration legislation, and policy goals. They analyze the recent legislative changes that enhanced the power of the Minister of Immigration in immigrant selection and processing applications. It focuses on the latest legislative changes that reinforced the authority of the Minister of immigration in immigrant selection and processing applications. In Chapter 5, Gérard Pinsonneault, empirically corroborates the efficacy of the Quebec government’s immigrant selection policies in meeting their objective of “francization of its immigrant population”. Part III deals with the “immigrants and the labour market”. In Chapter 6, Yves Poisson asserts that employers, communities, and cities should be more involved in the immigrant selection process. In Chapter 7, Jack Jedwab determines income inequality between immigrants and Canadian-born people. The results show that the income inequality between immigrants and non-immigrants has been growing markedly in Quebec than the “rest of Canada”. Part IV examines the subject matters of “citizenship, settlement and socio-cultural immigration”. In Chapter 8, Myer Siemiatycki initiates three periods of immigration in Canadian history contending that the present-day era’s emphasis is on a “flexible workforce in a securitized state” that has subverted the “pillars of integration” in Canada. In Chapter 9, Maryse Potvin concentrates on the media’s mantle in exasperating strains during the reasonable accommodation debate in Quebec. Part V reviews the “linguistic policies and linguistic pluralism” by focusing mostly on the integration of language in schools. In Chapter 10, Elizabeth Coelho examines the language policy in Ontario schools. She indicates that heritage languages are taught in many school districts “outside regular school hours” (2012: 297) because they positively influence children’s integration and development. In Chapter 11, Zita De Koninck overviews a “linguistic revolution” in Quebec since the 1960s, she mentions that mainly schools are in charge of the linguistic integration. Part VI discusses the Metropolis Centers as an example of “partnerships and knowledge transfer between government, universities and civil society”. In Chapter 12, John Biles describes the metropolis project and provides constructive lessons to policy makers who could imitate the proposed project. In Chapter 13, Joanna Anneke Rummens presents theories of knowledge transfer using CERIS, the Ontario Metropolis Centre. In Chapter 14, Annick Germain describes the Centre Métropolis du Quebec (CMQ-IM)’s experience with partnerships across sectors and universities, highlighting some of the distinctive contextual elements of CMQ-IM’s experience such as the strained political atmosphere in which it was born when Quebeckers were segregated on the matter of sovereignty in the mid-1990s.
Managing Immigration and Diversity fills a void in the research, providing much needed knowledge on managing immigrant integration. This comprehensive set of chapters from outstanding immigration researchers provides lessons that are relevant to other OECD countries by highlighting national and provincial views in order to acknowledge the concurrent processes of multiculturalism and “multinationalism” in Canada. Each chapter of this book develops an international dimension by comparing both Canada and Spain and Quebec and Catalonia. Specifically, Chapter 4 titled “Managing International Migration: the Canadian Case” by Monica Boyd and Naomi Alboim represents a profound mapping of the long Canadian history of managing immigration, which is an essential reading for anyone interested in newcomer settlement and integration policy change. It could be used to assist professors, researchers, and professionals working in the areas of either Canadian immigration and diversity or comparative migration.
As a whole, all contributors propose an equalized perspective of Canada’s experience, making Canada a success story in immigration. In addition, many challenges are ingrained in Canadian society such as the political participation and recognition as elaborated in Reitz’s contribution. Other European countries and more specifically Spain rely on the Canadian model for policy guidance, but Canada’s temporary immigration boost may cause some political and social problems that have been previously seen in Europe throughout the history. The book is in fact an exemplary source on Canada’s success story in immigration. I recommend the book highly for immigration researchers and policy makers in Canada and internationally, particularly in Europe approaching the intersection of multicultural diversity. Consequently, the book would also serve as an undergraduate or graduate level textbook in universities that assign reading in both English and French, noting that six of the seven chapters on Quebec’s experience are written in French. |
