Municipal Roles in Immigrant Settlement, Integration and Cultural Diversity

Abstract

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.

Framing Immigration in the Canadian and British News Media

“…This cross-national difference may, in part, be explained by Canada's larger social safety net and Britain's reluctance to provide social benefits to newcomers. Whereas Canada offers a variety of settlement services, including language training, health care and education (Tolley, 2011; Tossutti, 2012), the British government has been adamant in its refusal to provide language training or settlement services for immigrants (Bleich, 2003; Siemiatycki and Triadafilopoulos, 2010). One might expect the relatively positive Canadian experience with newcomer integration to be the focus of a great deal of news coverage; however, it may be that positive experiences are simply less newsworthy.…”

La construction des attitudes envers les Roms : le cas français

“…Troisièmement, certains contextes locaux peuvent limiter les contacts, tout comme ils peuvent les encourager et les rendre optimaux (Pettigrew, 1998 : 78). En encourageant la mixité, les politiques d'intégration municipales peuvent diminuer les discriminations envers un groupe minoritaire et améliorer les relations intergroupes (Berthet et Poirier, 2000 ;Tossutti, 2012). Notre troisième hypothèse est que la mise en place de politiques municipales favorisant l'intégration des Roms encourage le développement de contacts intergroupes de meilleure qualité.…”

“Bringing Cities Back In” To Canadian Political Science: Municipal Public Policy and Immigration

“…5 For example, in Quebec, Bilodeau and Turgeon (2014), as well as Gallant and colleagues (2013), rely on previous larger surveys and use geographical units that are not municipal. 6 The notion of "responsiveness" is used in many studies (for instance, Good, 2009;Tolley et al 2011;Tossutti, 2012;Wallace and Frisken, 2000). This quote illustrates this line of reasoning (I italicize): municipalities "are very much on their own in multiculturalism policy making … .…”

“…For example, a book co-edited by Tolley and Young (2011) emphasizes both the intra- and interprovincial differences through a broad overview of policies on immigrant integration in 19 different municipalities across four provinces. In order to have a broader view of municipalities’ responses to immigration, Tossutti (2012) proposes a typology of municipal policies implemented by six major immigration centres. For example, she shows that in BC, Vancouver has a “multicultural” discourse and is “comprehensive” in terms of its initiatives whereas Abbottsford has a “civic-universalist” approach and has developed “limited” initiatives to address immigration issues.…”