Citizenship Learning and Political Participation: The Experience of Latin American Immigrants in Canada

Abstract

This research note presents a study in progress that explores the continuities, tensions, and ruptures in the lifelong citizenship learning and the political engagement experienced by Latin American immigrants to Canada. The authors are particularly interested in the extent and nature of “civic changes” that occur among members of this community through the process of becoming Canadian. By means of in-depth interviews with Latin American-Canadians in Toronto and Montreal, they aim at examining the barriers and enabling factors for citizenship learning and political participation, as well as the relationships between immigrants' political agency and institutional/social structures.