Community versus Commodity in Francophone Canada: A Multilevel Approach to the Neoliberalization of Immigration

Abstract

Since the 1990s, Canada's francophone minority communities (FMCs) have become increasingly involved in francophone immigration governance, and this trend has coincided with the wider neoliberalization of immigration in Canada. This article analyzes the implications of the growing influence of a neoliberal immigration policy and the narrative of an ideal immigrant on Canada's FMCs by focussing on the francophone Acadian community in New Brunswick, Canada's only constitutionally bilingual province. Making use of three types of sources-semistructured interviews, debates in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, and official and archival documents-the article argues that francophone and Acadian organizations have adopted the federal, neoliberal perspective on immigration, placing greater emphasis on economic integration and the creation of a bilingual workforce. Changes in the type of immigrant selected and role of the community in the lives of francophone immigrants create new challenges for minority language communities that define and identify themselves through language use and belonging.

Toronto’s Francophone Voluntary Sector Under Pressure: The Challenges of Immigrant Integration in a Linguistic Minority Context

“…This observation echoes the insights of this study's other participants, as well as the literature on the topic (Edwards, 2020;Sall, 2019). As participant #4 confirmed: "A tip that I share with all newcomers: we can't settle in Toronto and limit ourselves to the Francophone community and remain solely within Franco-Ontarian circles.…”

The Revolving Door of Im/Migration: Canadian Refugee Protection and the Production of Migrant Workers

“…The existing scholarship has capably examined both the discursive and material encroachment of capital on im/migration regulatory policies. In the context of Canada alone, critical scholars have documented the growing weight of notions of economic value and self-sufficiency (Abu-Laban et al, 2022;Arat-Koc, 1999;Bhuyan et al, 2017;Edwards, 2020;McLaren and Dyck, 2004;Vanderplaat et al, 2013;Walsh, 2011) and private responsibility (Chen and Thorpe, 2015;Ferrer, 2015;McLaren, 2006;Ritchie, 2018) in immigration admissions. These scholars, further, have outlined the shifting logics of immigration policy from humanitarian (i.e., refugee protection) and communal (i.e., family reunification) to occupational (i.e., skilled migrants), financial (i.e., investment classes) and capitalist (i.e., business classes) (Abu-Laban and Gabriel, 2002;Bragg and Wong, 2016;Creese et al, 2008).…”