Branding ‘Canadian Experience’ in Immigration Policy: Nation Building in a Neoliberal Era

Abstract

This paper examines the branding of 'Canadian experience' in Canadian immigration policy as a rhetorical strategy for neoliberal nation-building. Since 2008, the Canadian government has introduced an unprecedented number of changes to immigration policy. While the bulk of these policies produce more temporary and precarious forms of migration, the Canadian government has mobilized the rhetoric of 'Canadian experience' as a means to identify immigrants who carry the promise of economic and social integration. Through a critical discourse analysis of Canadian print media and political discourse, we trace how the brand of Canadian experience taps into the affective value of national identity in an era of global economic insecurity. We also illustrate how the discourse of Canadian experience (CE) remains ideologically deracialized, such that the government's embrace of CE as an immigrant selection criterion dismisses the discriminatory effects that this discourse is shown to have for racialized immigrants in Canada.

Hidden Voices in Transnationalism: International Post-Secondary Student Experiences of Precariousness and Belonging in Ottawa

“…In academia, research on international university students has focused primarily on their mobilities (Cairns, 2015;Finn, 2017;Perkins & Neumayer, 2014;Tan & Hugo, 2017) and the integration of international students into the economy, whether through invitation into permanent residency for work or the mistreatment of students in under-the table, or irregular, revenue streams or having to work longer hours than permitted, which puts them at risk (Bhuyan, Jeyapal, Ku, Sakamoto, & Chou, 2017;Johnstone & Lee, 2017;Nyland et al, 2009). What both of these streams on international student research have in common is the need to examine more critically the varying experiences of students in the post-secondary sector that are affected by class, race and gender (Perkins & Neumayer, 2014;Sweetman & Warman, 2014;Waters, 2012).…”

“…These additional costs are related to public education, healthcare and other such investments and rights of citizens, that international students would not have had access to, or used growing up in a different country (Johnstone & Lee, 2017). There has even been the creation of specific immigration programs as incentive to attract foreign students such as the Canadian Experience Class in 2008 (Bhuyan et al, 2017;Johnstone & Lee, 2017), the Federal Skilled Workers Program in 2013 that provided a fast track option of PhD candidates to obtain citizenship, and the Provincial Nominees Program, also in 2013, that provides the opportunity for international graduate students, among other skilled migrants, to be nominated by their province for citizenship and employment (Johnstone & Lee, 2017). These programs make it easier for foreign students to become part of the society but primarily in an economic capacity, and not necessarily in a fully permanent way, with some exceptions.…”

“…While it may seem to simply prioritize work that has already contributed the economy, it is hard to ignore the roots of the system that eventually created this avenue for international students and other economic migrants. This immigration pathway is rooted in the transition of the Canadian national identity from one of White settler domination prior to 1970 to one of multiculturalism and tolerance (Bhuyan et al, 2017). Rather than being judged on acceptability due to more racist systems, Canada transitioned after the 1970s to a more neoliberal model of admitting people based on their economic value and investment in Canada, creating a more universal model (Bhuyan et al, 2017).…”

“…This immigration pathway is rooted in the transition of the Canadian national identity from one of White settler domination prior to 1970 to one of multiculturalism and tolerance (Bhuyan et al, 2017). Rather than being judged on acceptability due to more racist systems, Canada transitioned after the 1970s to a more neoliberal model of admitting people based on their economic value and investment in Canada, creating a more universal model (Bhuyan et al, 2017). The need for economic migrants, and the strategies to improve economic integration, precipitated the need to restructure immigrant policies (Sweetman & Warman, 2014).…”

“…For instance, Sweetman and Warman (2014) have mentioned that the Canadian Experience Class could be beneficial to international students but admit that there will be variations in experiences according to gender that need to be investigated. While racial context has been brought up as a significant factor in some international student experiences (Bhuyan et al, 2017;Daniels, 2014), there is still much to be done in understanding how these shape the experiences of students, both while they are students and when they become workers, because racialization is ubiquitous and shares common threads, but it is not homogeneous.…”