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Can Immigrants Solve Can Immigrants Solve Canada’s Skill Canada’s Skill

Shortage? Shortage?

Dr. Michelle Goldberg

8th National Metropolis Conference, Vancouver

March 25, 2006

Minister of Immigration Minister of Immigration

Joe Volpe (2005)Joe Volpe (2005) “Canada's future is dependent on immigration…

The evidence for this is clear: Our birth rate is among the lowest in the western world, our participation rate is the highest among countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and our unemployment rate continues to fall. Indeed, even smaller centres and rural communities across this country are now entering the competition for new Canadians as they seek to keep the critical mass of people needed for their long-term survival”

Skill Shortage Skill Shortage DiscourseDiscourse• Brain drain and demographic issues

– Low fertility rates, aging population

• Immigrants as solution to crisis• Immigrants as commodity

– Key to building human capital– Add value to economy

• Immigration as a benefit to the nation for economic prosperity

• Investment in economy• Compete in global marketplace

Globalization & Globalization & Neoliberal EraNeoliberal Era• Economic logic used to justify a

market- driven mentality – calls for deregulation or unrestrained

policies – everything is couched in economic terms

and competition – market-driven mentality

• Reduced state spending and eliminate public deficits and debt

Immigration and Immigration and GlobalizationGlobalization• Increased mobility of capital and

persons

• Proliferation of trade agreements– facilitate labour mobility

• Rapid technological advancements – facilitating information flows

• Policies couched in economic terms

The education and skills that immigrants bring are an essential tool that Ontario employers need to utilize to keep pace with global competition

Canada’s National Canada’s National DiscoursesDiscourses• Multiculturalism• Equality• Social justice• Interaction

– “Immigration is not only fair and equitable but makes good economic sense” (Government of Ontario, 1992)

FrameworkFramework• Beyond referential view• Social constructivist view• Social construction of reality through

discourse• Constitutive view of discourse

Discourses are practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak…they are not about objects; they do not identify objects, they constitute them and in the practice of doing so they conceal their own invention (Foucault, 1974, p. 49)

• Informed by ideology

Discursive WebDiscursive Web

• Multiple discourses• Multiple voices• Predominant discourse – Hub• (Con)text• Intertextuality – Gale (1999)• Polycentricity – Hogwood & Gunn

(1990)

• Policy web – Joshee & Johnson (2005)

TruthTruth

• Common sense • Affects our understandings,

thoughts and behaviours which influences the reality we are living in

• Perpetual irritation in media & authority

• Multiple voices

Immigrants as a Benefit Immigrants as a Benefit to Societyto Society• Fill skill shortages• Help business compete globally

– Knowledge of overseas markets, cross cultural communication, language

• Right kind of immigrants who integrate– easily employable upon arrival – contribute quickly to the economy

Impact of Discourse on Impact of Discourse on ImmigrantImmigrant• Ignores other contributions• Depersonalizing• Limits the types of policy solutions• Demands less government policy• Constructs negative immigrant

identities• Ignores racism

Training DiscourseTraining Discourse

• Immigrants as “foreign-trained”– Devalued as not up to Canadian

standards

• Immigration policy as training policy

• Blame the “victim”

Negative ImpactsNegative Impacts

• Negative Immigrant Identities – Drain on resources– Economic migrants

• Negative Attitudes– Threat to social cohesion– Erosion of Canadian national identity

Social Construction of the Social Construction of the “Other”“Other”• Binary• Positive self & negative other

presentation

• Limits what is thinkable• Assimilatory• Facilitates competition• Canadian-born entitled to first

choice

Discursive InteractionsDiscursive Interactions

• Self sufficiency discourse– Home grown solutions

• Distribution discourse– Rural communities

• “Made in Ontario” discourse

ConclusionConclusion

• Neo-liberalism emerges to suppress overtly racist discourses

• Reinforces Canada’s tolerant, pluralistic, free of racism view

• Skill shortage is truth and immigrants are solution

• Only seen through web approach

ImplicationsImplications

• Limits immigrant professionals access to Canadian labour market

• Limits policy makers ability to implement policies to facilitate access

• Training, information and assessment policies distract from systemic change policies

Transformative ActionTransformative Action

• Discourse that constructs positive identities

• Move away from binaries to thirdspace• Highlight social benefits of

immigration• Value immigrant knowledge and

culture• Admit systemic racism exists