Immigration and the acquisition of citizenship in Canada

Résumé du document

In the first part, we will focus on the potential and historical goals of the Canadian immigration policy. We will focus on humanitarian goals such as helping refugees and reuniting families in Canada, social goals such as altering the nature of the Canadian society and goals related to foreign policy. But, we will emphasize that one of the main uses of the immigration policy in the past has been meant to implement an economic policy. In the second part, we will study how the Canadian government has managed immigration according to the goals set before.

Extraits

[...] The acquisition of citizenship is ruled by the Citizenship Act of 1977. An immigrant must have lived in Canada for at least three years, he must know English or French, and must learn about Canada You must know about the rights and responsibilities that Canadians have. You must also know some things about Canada's history and geography, and about our political system. This issue of integration has to be replaced in the relationships between the State and the provinces. Since 1996, Quebec can define its own immigration policy. [...]

[...] Historically, immigration has always been favorably seen because it fostered the creation of a communication network in a vast and empty land. But, under the impulsion of the ALENA agreements, Canada adopted a long term policy in the context of a more globalize economy. But, away from this idealistic vision, immigration policies have aimed at creating a national identity, especially in front of the US: The immigration and citizenship program is an expression of Canada's national values both to Canadians and to the world. [...]

[...] Recent trends in immigration policies have been concentrated on long term objectives. The debate has opposed the true believers (often liberals - in the American sense), in favor of a steady and large immigration and the skeptics (on the right wing) who still want to link immigration to the present economic climate. During the 1990s, an average of 250 000[2] new migrants arrived each year, a record since the period before WWI. More important, immigration has become an important, if not essential, for the domestic development of the country. [...]

[...] From 1960 to 1978, the economic goals of the immigration policy changed to the short-term one of matching skill gaps in the occupational structure. From 1978 to 1986, the economic goals of immigration policy were swamped by humanitarian goals. The government maintained a commitment to targeting immigrants to skill gaps but their ability to do so was hampered by a system in which applicants assessed for their skills were a residual category relative to refugees and family class immigrants. Then from 1986 to 1989, the government focused on long term, demographic goals for immigration, placing little emphasis on selecting specific skills. [...]

[...] This area extended to Southern and Eastern Europe. During the 1960s, Canada competed with Germany, France, Great Britain, Australia and of course the US to get more immigrants. Immigration offices opened in Egypt, Japan (1967), Lebanon (1968), Philippines, Caribbean and Pakistan. For the first time, Canada abandoned its criteria of ethnic origin. Economic aspects in the center of Canadian immigration policies The years before 1960 is a period when short and long term economic goals for economic policy were in concert. [...]