Discounting Immigrant Families: Neoliberalism and the Framing of Canadian Immigration Policy Change: A Literature Review

Abstract

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework to assist in understanding how the immigrant family is impacted by recent changes to immigration policy in Canada. We contend that neoliberalism, broadly defined, is a helpful lens through which to comprehend some of the specific policies as well as discursive outcomes which have real effects on immigrant families. Based on our findings from an in-depth literature review, our goal is to identify and summarize the recent changes to the Canadian policy environment and to develop a critical conceptual framework through which to understand policy change in relation to families and immigrants. Key Words: families, neoliberalism, policy change, social policy, multiculturalism, gender, race, neoconservatism Acknowledgements The research for this paper was supported by a Partnership Development Grant titled “Integration Trajectories of Immigrant Families” by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Framing the Immigrant Family: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Immigrant Families and Family-Related Immigration Policies in Newsprint Media

“…Positioning the family within the broader neoliberal context is useful for understanding more recent family-related immigration policy as well as discursive outcomes (Root et al, 2014;Gabriel, 2017). This explicit neoliberal restructuring of the state has been evident in Canada since the 1990s (Arat-Koc, 1999Gabriel, 2006;Root et al, 2014).…”

“…Positioning the family within the broader neoliberal context is useful for understanding more recent family-related immigration policy as well as discursive outcomes (Root et al, 2014;Gabriel, 2017). This explicit neoliberal restructuring of the state has been evident in Canada since the 1990s (Arat-Koc, 1999Gabriel, 2006;Root et al, 2014). Since the shift, the idea that the state should and could regulate the labour-market has been replaced by the supply and demand of private employers (Gabriel, 2006, 167).…”

“…This is driven by the notion that formally fitting into and being successful in the labour-market is what perpetuates one's ability to integrate well into Canadian society. Therefore, Root et al (2014) argue that the concept of the "ideal immigrant," or the "ideal immigrant family," has been constructed, particularly during Stephen Harper's federal Conservative government, on "the neoliberal ideals of self-sufficiency, traditional hard-working 'family values', a law-and-order orientation, and the embracing of a liberal-democratic value system focused on individual rights and western values" (Root et al, 2014, 3). In turn, it is also the family unit under neoliberalism that acts as the "primary source of economic security and a comprehensive alternative to the welfare state" (Roots et al, 2019, 49).…”

“…From its inception as a nation-state, immigration policies in Canada have implicitly and explicitly been about the economy and the family (Albanese, 2009;Root et al, 2014). Initially, the idea was that settlement of individuals and their families would economically benefit the country over time and through generations.…”

“…Initially, the idea was that settlement of individuals and their families would economically benefit the country over time and through generations. After World War II, this was complemented through national goals of family reunification and humanitarian aims (Root et al, 2014). However, since the 1980s and the explicit neoliberal restructuring of the state, the economic benefits of individual migrants have been celebrated and rendered supreme, while the importance of immigrant families has become increasingly invisible and downplayed.…”