By 2031, immigrants are expected to make up between 25 and 28 per cent of the Canadian population and visible minorities about one-third Malenfant et al., 2010!. Since more than 95 per cent of foreign-born and visible minority Canadians live in urban centres, municipal governments will increasingly assume a de facto role in crafting policy and program responses to migration and cultural diversity. Yet, despite the urban character of immigration to Canada and other settler states, scholarship on the responses of public authorities to migration has been dominated by state-level typologies of laws governing territorial admission and cit-izenship~Castles and Miller, 2003;Mahnig, 2004!. This bias has obscured important variations in subnational approaches to the settlement and integration of newcomers.This article shifts the focus to the local arena by analyzing municipal roles in immigrant settlement, integration and cultural diversity in six of Canada's most diverse cities. Drawing on interview and documentary evidence, an inventory of corporate policy and program responses in Vancouver, Abbotsford, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Brampton will provide the database for a proposed local-scale typology that classifies and distinguishes among cities according to the normative premises underlying the official recognition of cultural differences in the public sphere, the types and extent of their initiatives and the locus of bureaucratic authority for settlement, integration and diversity issues. The article concludes with a brief discussion of the factors influencing variations in local approaches.A study of the scope and nature of municipal involvement in this policy field is timely as newcomers and members of cultural minorities face serious challenges to their economic and social integration in cities across Canada.

This essay investigates whether the generally positive relationship between membership in voluntary associations and political engagement that has been observed for adults in many countries also holds true for young Canadians who are becoming marginalized from democratic life. Drawing on survey data, the study assessed the impact of organizational type on youth involvement in conventional and unconventional political activities. It found that affiliations with certain voluntary organizations in the secular and religious domains exerted a significant impact on the likelihood of joining a political party. Some apolitical and political associational memberships in the secular domain were associated with a higher incidence of unconventional political activism. The impact of associational memberships on turnout and expressions of political interest, however, was largely neutral for Canadians under the age of 30. The findings show that different organizational affiliations lead to different civic outcomes for young Canadians.

This article explores whether ethnic, religious and regional parties in 21 advanced capitalist democracies are more likely to achieve political salience in systems which have been more exposed to the effects of globalization and post-industrialization. Globalist—localist scholars have argued that the new localism — which encompasses the post-war resurgence of decentralist political movements — is linked to intensified international interdependence and changes in production and consumption modes. Using quasi-likelihood statistical methods, we find that parties catering to particularist interests are more likely to participate in ruling coalitions to support minority governments, or to serve as the official opposition in countries that have been relatively insulated from transnational forces. While domestic economic conditions and a party's lifespan and programmatic orientation also influence the probability for success, domestic institutional arrangements such as electoral systems and the division of powers do not.

This article examines whether the family and religious networks and attachments that are central to the migration experience facilitate the political and civic integration of foreign-born Canadians. Using data from the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey, we investigate whether immigrants and newcomers who are more closely integrated into these networks are also more likely to vote in national and sub-national elections and to join voluntary associations. We found that ascriptive bonds had a relatively more positive effect on the democratic engagement of members of the general population than on immigrants and newcomers who had arrived in Canada since 1991. For both immigrants in general and new arrivals, institutional or solitary forms of religious worship were important determinants of political and civic engagement at the local level. However, family networks did not realize their potential to stimulate voting and associational activities. Immigrants who expressed higher levels of trust in family members were less likely to vote in federal, provincial and municipal elections, with all else held equal. Dans cet article, nous examinons si les réseaux et liens familiaux et religieux qui fonctionnent au coeur de l'expérience de la migration rendent plus facile l'intégration politique et civique de Canadiens nés à l'étranger. À partir des données du Recensement sur la diversité ethnique de 2002, nous étudierons si les immigrants et les nouveaux-venus qui sont plus étroitement intégrés dans ces réseaux sont plus susceptibles d'aller voter dans les élections nationales, provinciales et locales et à se joindre à des associations de bénévolat. Nous avons trouvé que l'effet positif des liens indiqués ci-dessus est plus marqué sur l'engagement démocratique des membres de la population générale que sur celui des immigrants et des nouveaux-venus arrivés au Canada depuis 1991. Pour ceux-ci, le fait de pratiquer une religion, que ce soit dans un cadre institutionnel ou individuel, joue un rôle déterminant dans l'engagement politique et civique au niveau local. Cependant, il n'y a pas de prise de conscience de la capacité des réseaux familiaux à stimuler la participation au vote et aux activités associatives. À niveau égal dans tout autre domaine, ce sont les immigrants exprimant le plus de confiance envers les membres de leur famille qui tendent le moins à voter dans les élections fédérales, provinciales et municipales.

The goals of promoting diversity, equity and inclusion have gained currency in planning practice, and institutions are increasingly expected to address structural inequalities related to race, ethnicity and other forms of marginalization. This article examines how six Canadian municipalities have adapted their parks, recreation and culture strategic plans, policies, programs and services in response to international migration and racial diversity. The analysis of official documents and interviews with municipal officials and community representatives reveals that municipalities have adopted de facto multicultural planning practices aligned with the state paradigm of immigrant integration and national identity, even when the term “multiculturalism” is rarely employed in official discourse. They have also incorporated some aspects of mainstreaming into the planning repertoire. In Canada, mainstreaming is not an alternative to group-specific programing, but an additional mechanism for the recognition of difference in public institutions.