Abstract
AbstractSince the 1990s, Canada's francophone minority communities (FMCs) have become increasingly involved in francophone immigration governance, and this trend has coincided with the wider neoliberalization of immigration in Canada. This article analyzes the implications of the growing influence of a neoliberal immigration policy and the narrative of an ideal immigrant on Canada's FMCs by focussing on the francophone Acadian community in New Brunswick, Canada's only constitutionally bilingual province. Making use of three types of sources—semistructured interviews, debates in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, and official and archival documents—the article argues that francophone and Acadian organizations have adopted the federal, neoliberal perspective on immigration, placing greater emphasis on economic integration and the creation of a bilingual workforce. Changes in the type of immigrant selected and role of the community in the lives of francophone immigrants create new challenges for minority language communities that define and identify themselves through language use and belonging.
Highlights
Résumé Depuis les années 1990, les communautés francophones en situation minoritaire (CFSM) du Canada participent de plus en plus à la gouvernance de l’immigration francophone, ce qui a coïncidé avec la néolibéralisation de l’immigration au Canada
Market-based, selfsufficient and entrepreneurial independent immigrants are highly valued by the Canadian state, “family class” immigrants and refugees are less highly valued (Abu-Laban, 1998a; Arat-Koc, 1999; Dyck and McLaren, 2004). These changes to immigration policy and practices highlight issues of citizenship and belonging: who is welcome and who is not, who is in and who is out, who is considered an ideal immigrant and who is considered deficient. This new understanding of belonging and contributing to Canadian society has implications for Canada’s francophone minority communities (FMCs), who have become increasingly involved in immigration decision making and policy implementation since the 1990s
By focussing on New Brunswick, the article advanced a number of empirically grounded claims and developed a conceptual framework based on the community–commodity dichotomy in order to deepen our understanding of the intersection between the politics of a neoliberal immigration regime and language and community sustainability
Summary
Résumé Depuis les années 1990, les communautés francophones en situation minoritaire (CFSM) du Canada participent de plus en plus à la gouvernance de l’immigration francophone, ce qui a coïncidé avec la néolibéralisation de l’immigration au Canada. The article’s primary empirical contribution is to show how French is being used as a demographic and economic resource in New Brunswick; the article shows how the ideal neoliberal francophone immigrant is helping to build the province’s bilingual workforce and economy.
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