This thesis is a study of the current backlash against immigration and multiculturalism policies. The author looks at current arguments against both policies, and compares them to evidence. These arguments are drawn from the media; the writings of critics like Richard Gwyn, and William D. Gairdner; and the policies of the Reform Party. It will provide a historical review of the experiences of immigrant groups in adapting to Canadian society. From this review, the author identifies several consistent themes in anti-multiculturalism and anti-immigration literature, which include: multiculturalism is little more than "flash and dance", the policy is unanimously unpopular among the general public, immigrants take jobs from Canadian-born, immigrants are a burden to society, and that immigrants are not needed to offset the ageing of the Canadian population. The author concludes that these criticisms are based on misconceptions and distortions of facts. In some cases, the criticisms reflect more of an attack on minority groups rather than on these policies, and reveal a movement to reverse the pluralistic nature of Canadian society. This research comes at a time when the debate over these policies is clouded with emotion. The author makes several recommendations as to how the public education system can help counter the use of these themes in the media.

This thesis considers the apparent shift in Canadian refugee policy between the more liberal refugee programs of the 1980s to the more restrictive contemporary orientation. We provide an explanation for the nature and content of policy pronouncements made in the period following the events of September 11, 2001. In order to put contemporary policy in context, we begin our investigation post-World War II when Canada first entered the international arena as a fully independent state. What follows is an examination of why the Canadian government has preferred its choice of refugee policies, and a consideration of forces and institutions that have shaped policy in the postwar period. At the same time, we reflect on the tension between Canada's refugee policy choices and its stated commitment to humanitarian values and international agreements.

In 1847, 215,000 Irish fled their famine-stricken and diseased homeland, and of this number, some 90,000 headed for the shores of Canada. It was both the largest and most diseased and destitute emigration that Canada had ever received, and it caught the colony almost totally by surprise. Many Canadians had been able to follow the course of the potato blight and famine in Ireland, but very few appeared to have considered their impact on the emigration to Canada. They had the assurances of those best informed about the condition of Ireland, the Imperial Government, that, no extraordinary measures would be needed; why should their word be doubted? In the first weeks of the Immigration season, Canadians discovered that the Imperial authorities were wrong; the colony found itself forced to deal with an abnormal immigration with only the meagrest preparations, Canadian emigration officials spent the rest of the season attempting to recover from the shock of those first weeks; all they could do was attempt to. relieve the sufferings of the immigrants to the best of their ability. Stop-gap relief measures were authorized by the Canadian Government for as long as distress and disease were prevalent; private charitable institutions stepped in to provide shelter and care for the helpless among the immigrants. In the end, the colony succeeded, despite its financial difficulties, both in enabling the Irish to regain their health and in making them producing members of the community, something which few Canadians, at the height of the crisis, felt would be possible. This successful 'absorption' of the immigrants, however, had been accomplished only with difficulty and at great cost. This thesis examines the Canadian response, and particularly that of the various levels of government, to the immigration crisis which it faced in 1847 and the strains which this crisis placed upon the relations of the Imperial and Colonial governments. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

This thesis is a study of the current backlash against immigration and multiculturalism policies. The author looks at current arguments against both policies, and compares them to evidence. These arguments are drawn from the media; the writings of critics like Richard Gwyn, and William D. Gairdner; and the policies of the Reform Party. It will provide a historical review of the experiences of immigrant groups in adapting to Canadian society. From this review, the author identifies several consistent themes in anti-multiculturalism and anti-immigration literature, which include: multiculturalism is little more than "flash and dance", the policy is unanimously unpopular among the general public, immigrants take jobs from Canadian-born, immigrants are a burden to society, and that immigrants are not needed to offset the ageing of the Canadian population. The author concludes that these criticisms are based on misconceptions and distortions of facts. In some cases, the criticisms reflect more of an attack on minority groups rather than on these policies, and reveal a movement to reverse the pluralistic nature of Canadian society. This research comes at a time when the debate over these policies is clouded with emotion. The author makes several recommendations as to how the public education system can help counter the use of these themes in the media. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

This thesis analyzes the influence of globalization on state sovereignty in the design and implementation of policies concerning asylum seekers. Using Canada as an example, it is argued that there are three emerging global forces that directly challenge the sovereignty of the state in matters of immigration. These forces are neoliberal and global security discourses and international refugee rights standards. But these forces have not led to a decline in the power of the state. Rather, they have forced the state to develop new strategies in order to reassert its sovereignty and regain its legitimacy. The state has responded to neoliberal and security pressures by designing, implementing and reinforcing control policies over asylum seekers. It has reacted to the international refugee rights norms and the demands of the refugee advocacy groups by developing strategies to integrate some of their principles without relinquishing its authority and autonomy.

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This thesis is a comparative study of contemporary German migration to Australia and Canada, specifically to Sydney and Vancouver. It explores the dynamics of the migration process from a phenomenological point of view. All events and circumstances in the migration process are seen as interrelated, and therefore important to the analysis. Furthermore, the meaning of a phenomenon can only be understood by exploring its context. Therefore, this study views contemporary German migration in its various contexts—how it is displayed in the social science literature and manifested in government statistics, how it is presented as common sense, and how it is experienced by the migrants themselves. Thus, the phenomenological approach attempts to be holistic. Using the phenomenologic-hermeneutic paradigm the thesis focuses on the subjective experiences of individuals; in terms of migrants' understanding of their own motivations, migration decisions, and the process of adjustment, and in terms of their understanding of other contemporary German migration experience. The study examines the migration narratives of a sample of thirty Germans who have migrated, or are at some stage of the process of migrating, to either Australia or Canada over the last twenty-five years. The specific analysis and interpretation of these accounts are based on the hermeneutic philosophy of meaning and discourse. The sample interviews reveal two levels of conceptualization in the subjects' accounts. At one level all migrants talk in a way that can be characterized as representing "common knowledge". On another level, the interviewees interpret their own personal motivations and experiences in a way which does not correspond to common knowledge. Interviewees commonly described the Neueinwanderer (new immigrant) as wealthy, arrogant business migrants, but none of the interviewees described themselves in those terms. In Australia it was commonly thought that Neueinwanderer have a difficult adjustment time, but most personal narratives related positive adjustment experiences. In Canada all interviewees believed that German immigrants had no great adjustment difficulties. The major finding of this thesis is that the conventional notions of linearity and finality with respect to migration need to be re-evaluated in the social science literature, government policies and common sense. The phenomenologic discussion reveals that modern migration, at least for certain groups to certain countries, is not a linear, discrete and final process. Instead, this thesis argues that migration is best seen as a comprehensive, recursive process of decision making, action (legal application and geographic move) and adaptation to a new environment. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

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No description available.

No description available.