Les provinces et la fédéralisation de l’immigration au Canada, 1990-2010
This dissertation analyzes a process of gradual institutional change defined as a federalization of the governance of Canada’s immigration and integration regime. This process of change unfolded gradually between 1990 and 2010. Its central feature was the growth of the activities of the ten provincial governments in the domains of immigration and integration, coupled with the maintenance of federal activities in these same policy areas. The central argument defended in this dissertation is that provinces acted both as central triggering agents of this process of institutional change, as well as the maintainers of this process Thus, federalization cannot be understood solely as the result of federal decisions to decentralize Canada’s immigration and integration regime. Instead, the analysis shows that this change is the result of the interaction – in time – of two mechanisms: province building and decentralization. Central to this argument is the existence of a structured variation in provincial policy responses, which hints at provincial agency within a specific institutional regime. Indeed, the dissertation’s central argument is rooted in the empirical demonstration of four contemporary modes of intervention in immigration and integration: 1) holistic (Quebec and Manitoba), 2) reactive (Ontario and British Columbia), 3) bridging (Alberta and Saskatchewan), 4) attraction-retention (Atlantic Provinces). Despite this structured variation, one similarity is shared by all of the provinces: a conception of immigration as a resource for provincial societies.  Process-tracing methodologies are used to follow the unfolding of the federalization process, focusing on ten provincial trajectories. This method makes it possible to document the activities and interactions of the two mechanisms in time. The analysis demonstrates that the timing of each province’s engagement in the federalization process partially explains the specificities of their mode of intervention in immigration and integration. More broadly, the analysis highlights important connections between the evolution of Canadian federalism and the activation of a province building mechanism centered on immigration in Canada between 1990 and 2010.  The dissertation makes three contributions. First, it demonstrates the relevance of the historical institutionalist approach, particularly of work focused on gradual processes of institutional change, for the study of Canadian federalism and public policy. Second, the dissertation makes an empirical contribution by comparing ten provincial trajectories of policy development over a twenty-year period, using interviews, official documents and archival materials. Third, the dissertation contributes to a revitalization of the concept of province building by showing that recasting it as a social mechanism can increase both its portability and its explanatory power.
immigration provinces Canada federalism integration social mechanisms