Earning their support: feelings towards Canada among recent immigrants

Abstract

This article examines the factors that lie behind Canada's success at earning the support of its newcomers. It examines the extent to which feelings towards Canada are grounded in immigrants' experiences in the host country, predispositions inherited from their lives prior to migration, and their comparative assessments of the host country and the country of origin. The findings indicate that although feelings towards Canada are partly shaped by post-migration factors, immigrants also interpret experiences in their new host country through the lens of their pre-migration experiences.

Political Adaptation of Foreign-Born Ethnic Minorities in Britain: The Effects of Pre-Migration Political Learning and Post-Migration Exposure

“…One possibility is that the relatively high level of confidence in political institutions among immigrants with autocratic origins (i.e., transferability effect) gradually decreases or disappears as they spend more time in the new system. 7 Provided that transferability is based on the contrast or similarity between the new and old systems, immigrants from countries with dissimilar systems (e.g., non-democracies) may, as time passes, start evaluating the performance of host-country political institutions in their own right, rather than in relation to the previous system (Bilodeau and Nevitte 2003; White, Bilodeau, and Nevitte 2015). Under this arrangement, “the ‘external’ point of comparison would lose its relevance as ‘internal’ points of comparison gain relevance” (Bilodeau and Nevitte 2003, 16).…”

Competing challenges for immigrant seniors: Social isolation and the pandemic

“…Second- or third-generation Canadians showed few significant differences in terms of socio-economic status or educational attainment from those with deeper roots in the country. 13 , 14 …”

“…Second-or third-generation Canadians showed few significant differences in terms of socio-economic status or educational attainment from those with deeper roots in the country. 13,14 In comparison to Canadian-born seniors, new immigrant and refugee seniors face a higher risk of social isolation. 9 An important risk factor for social isolation among this population may be related to the specific category under which they arrive.…”

Feeling Attached and Feeling Accepted: Implications for Political Inclusion among Visible Minority Immigrants in Canada

“…Simonsen (), analysing in‐depth interviews with second‐generation Danes, proposes a resembling distinction between “belonging in” and “belonging with”. However, the few empirical studies to consider the role of feeling accepted examine it as a precondition for attachment to, or identification with, the host community (Nesdale and Mak, ; Ersanilli and Saharso, ; Simon, ; White et al., ; Van Heelsum and Koomen, ; Jones‐Correa et al., ). In this study, we argue that even though acceptance is likely to be a source of attachment to the host community, they are nevertheless two different conditions with independent effects on political inclusion.…”

“…There is, however, no consensus on which attributes of belonging are most relevant to understanding inclusion, nor is there agreement on how the sense of belonging ought to be measured empirically. Immigrants’ sense of belonging is measured in a variety of ways, whether it is through national identity (Nesdale and Mak, ; Staton et al., ; Agirdag et al., ; de Vroome et al., ; Ersanilli and Koopmans, ; Simon, ; Fischer‐Neumann, ), national pride (De la Garza et al., ; Janmaat, ), attachment (Bilodeau et al., ; Kazemipur and Nakhaie, ; White et al., ), or immigrants’ explicit sense of belonging (Reitz et al., ; Wong and Simon, ; Wu et al., ; Hou et al., ) . This study proposes to assess immigrants’ sense of belonging to the host community and its relationship to political inclusion – the extent to which immigrants are involved in, and committed, to the host polity.…”