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the list. First, is this simply part of the slow IMMIGRATION AND ETHNIC
evolution of Québec towards full statehood? DIVERSITY (ANN DENIS)
That may be the case, but Québec is but one
example, albeit the most developed, of the Throughout its history Canada has been a
increasing involvement of sub-national settler society, encouraging immigration, as
political units in immigration, in Canada and Couton has mentioned, mainly for the utili-
elsewhere. Québec is unique in that it seeks tarian objectives of increasing the population
to include immigration in a specific nation- and meeting labour market needs. These
building project, but many of its objectives reasons have at times been leavened by
are similar to those of other provinces in humanitarianism, as in the case of admitting
Canada and to those of other political com- refugees, while family reunion policies
munities in the rest of the world. The emer- incorporate a combination of utilitarian and
gence of a number of semi-autonomous humanitarian considerations. Although the
sub- and trans-national spaces, including Canadian immigration policies have been
cities, regions, migrant communities, exiled severely (and legitimately) criticized as
24
polities, etc., is a global phenomenon (Faist, exclusionary, at the same time, along with
2000: 281), independent of Québec’s state- other national policies related to ethnic
seeking politics. This leads to the second relations, they have often been proactive in
question: Is this trend towards the displace- promoting inclusion, leading, rather than
ment of nation-state sovereignty indicative of following, public opinion in the promotion of
the increasing irrelevance of traditional ethnic diversity. This section will highlight
immigration policies? The emerging ability some of the contradictory tendencies that
of large conurbations and other sub-national result – evidence of racism, sexism and clas-
jurisdictions to influence their migratory sism in Canadian immigration policies, and
inflows may actually signal the development evidence supporting the interpretation of the
of more targeted, localized immigration Canadian and Québécois governments as
policies (Nairn, 2003). Instead of the global, promoting ethnic diversity.
random migration some predict, we may be Permanent, rather than temporary, immi-
witnessing the rise of fine-tuned population gration has been the norm in Canada. Until
movements, resulting in niched diversity, 1962 this resulted in an explicitly racist
with Montréal, for instance, tending to immigration policy: depending on their
become a microcosm of the French-speaking national origin, which was considered to be
world. The multiple efforts of the provincial a predictor of their ability to assimilate to
government to integrate newcomers into the dominant Anglo/British culture, potential
Québec’s French-speaking political commu- immigrants were welcomed (if British,
nity are reinforcing this trend, sometimes including those from the (ex-)colonies, or
with mixed results, but with some clear suc- American, and ‘white’), accepted (if European,
cesses as well, including the rising use of with those from Southern and Eastern Europe
French rather than English as the preferred being the least welcome) or excluded, usu-
home language of recent immigrants ally implicitly, if not of European (‘white’)
(Grenier, 2003; Helly, 1996). origin. 25
Against this backdrop of national immigra- Since 1962, with the introduction of the
tion policies, Denis now considers the contra- ‘points system’, Canadian immigration policy
dictory tendencies of these and other state became formally non-discriminatory, with
policies related to ethnic relations – towards admission as an ‘independent’ or ‘economic’
exclusions based on racism, sexism and clas- immigrant 26 based on points assigned for
sism, on the one hand, and towards the individual attributes other than national
promotion of ethnic diversity, on the other. origin. The preferred attributes are those