This report seeks to outline recent federal policy regarding home mortgage finance, specifically the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), the main tool of the Making Home Affordable Program (MHA), which is aimed at helping the United States recover from the housing crisis it has been experiencing ever since the mid-late 2000s. A modern history of federal policy on home mortgage finance will help to set the stage for the reader for what has been one of the most difficult housing disasters that America has ever seen. After outlining HARP’s background, the background of the housing crisis, the roles of Government-sponsored entities, and the effectiveness of the most current federal responses to the crisis, this report will detail policy recommendations and changes to the current programs that may help to further alleviate the problems discussed in this report, and more effectively achieve the stated goals of the MHA and HARP. / text

While it is generally agreed that First Nations in Canada are facing a housing crisis in their communities, the Canadian public has largely misunderstood what the crisis of housing is, thus frustrating efforts to improve the situation. A re-conceptualization of the problem of on-reserve housing as a crisis of governance with roots in processes of colonialism (both historical and ongoing) offers the possibility of addressing the crisis and moving forward. This research seeks to situate housing as an important site of engagement for First Nations and settler society (as important in decolonization efforts as it was in colonization) and points to the importance of relationships both within Indigenous communities and with settler society in restoring governance and improving housing. Housing has been a contested site throughout the history of First Nations-settler relations, with colonial policies focusing on reshaping how First Nations lived. These policies have been consistently resisted by First Nations. This history of struggle provides the crucial context for understanding how and why housing has reached an impasse. This impasse is illustrated by examining federal housing policy, which appears to offer increased community control over housing but does so without addressing underlying governance and capacity issues. First Nations are becoming increasingly responsible for on-reserve housing without corresponding supports or redress for the history of colonialism that has created the crisis. Current approaches to solving housing problems on-reserve are then critically assessed, focusing on policy and legislative moves toward homeownership and privatization on-reserve. I argue that this approach circumscribes self-determination for First Nations in particular ways, reducing these claims to a set of market based options. Finally, several innovative community housing initiatives are examined, moving beyond the debate to privatize. Priorities identified are consistent across the examples: housing is at the service of the community, is affordable, builds local capacity, is self-sustaining, is culturally and environmentally appropriate, and the locus of authority remains in the community. The initiatives were achieved by cultivating relationships, both within First Nation communities and with settler society. In this thesis, I suggest the importance of housing for decolonization efforts for First Nation and settler alike. / Graduate / 0334 / 0740

This paper traces the effects which federal policy has had on home mortgage finance in the United States. In the past, the phases of intervention have been described as 1) the New Deal responses to the Great Depression, 2) the creation of the Government- Sponsored Enterprises and promotion of the secondary market, and 3) the deregulation of the banking industry. This paper uses the historical backdrop to examine the current era of intervention, including the Making Home Affordable initiative. The paper concludes with policy recommendations that tie past experience with current problems and explores shared equity homeownership as a sustainable model for the future. / text

Borders and border barriers can be breached and boundaries and political agendas can change. The Great Walls of China, Hadrian's Wall, and the Iron Curtain have lost their strategic value. Walls are contested presently in the Middle East. And the unpopulated DMZ in Korea, while still of strategic value, is being recognized for its biodiversity and resurgence of endangered flora and fauna. Presently, the United States is building a defensive wall along the U.S.-Mexico border in the name of national security and to stem the tide of drug and human trafficking. In the process it has waived numerous environmental laws thereby putting transboundary ecosystems in danger of irreparable harm. Why should there be interest? For the reason, as put forth by Mumme and Ibáñez, that while much attention has been paid to adverse environmental effects within the United States, "little attention has been given to the potentially complicated effects of the international boundary, water, and environmental agreements to which [the United States and Mexico] are party should Mexico choose to press its rights at the level of international law. . . . As international treaties and protocols, these agreements enjoy a legal standing that may supersede the authority of most domestic legislation." The implications are far reaching. Mexico has sent diplomatic notes to the U.S. embassy in Mexico and to the U.S. Department of State, and the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT), Mexico's environment secretariat, has held informal talks with the Department of the Interior (DOI) and with the Secretary of Homeland Security--all apparently of no avail. Canada's notes have been similarly ignored by the Department of Homeland Security. What then for the U.S-Mexico border fence? Will it eventually become a relic of past political policy? Is the United States to ignore the lessons of the past and void its environmental treaties and agreements with Mexico? Should we not be concentrating on comprehensive immigration reform and the causes of drug abuse in the United States rather than a short-term solution to long-term problems?

This dissertation uses historical analysis to understand the political and social conditions that allowed for the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Education when many congressional representatives, state governments, and citizens of the United States were ideologically against federal involvement in education. A cabinet-level Department of Education posed problems for the United States because nowhere in the nation’s Constitution is education mentioned, thus leaving education to be a function of the states according to the 10th Amendment. This dissertation looks at calls for a department of education leading up to and including the one initiated by Jimmy Carter. Conducting a historical analysis of the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Education allows for the analysis not only of educational policies but also of culture and society both outside of and within the political sphere. This study relies on documents from the Carter presidency, the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, Congressional records, education polls, and the New York Times and Washington Post, as well as secondary sources related to the various calls for a creation of a cabinet-level Department of Education and policy pieces associated with the creation. The study concludes that while the legislation for the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Education was politically motivated, it would have been difficult to pass if the groundwork for federal involvement in education had not already been put in place through previous congressional legislation and court decisions. By easing public sentiment and creating a need for managerial and administrative reform these prior acts of Congress and the courts paved the way for a cabinet-level Department of Education.

This study explores the effect of economic and military crises on federal policy growth in higher education from 1932 to 1963. By analyzing federal records, campus materials, newspapers and educational association journals, the papers demonstrates that economic crises led the federal government to institute decentralized state building efforts to resolve the emergency, while military crises resulted in more centralized growth. In addition, the paper also examines the effects of federal growth during the period on different institution types within higher education. The study explores how individual structures at each institutional type—such as missions, financial stability and history—influenced reactions to federal assistance. By examining institutional structures and their interaction with federal policy during the period, the paper provides a more complex analysis of the outcomes of federal growth for land-grant institutions, religious colleges and women’s colleges and universities that enriches the current historical understanding.

No description available.

This thesis studies the history of the National Associations of Canadians of Origins in India (NACOI) and its role in helping to shape and impact federal policy relating to immigration reform and multicultural policy in Canada. Ethnic political associations in Canada have a long and extensive history of impacting federal policy. However, the role of NACOI has been underreported when looking into the history of South Asian political advocacy in Canada. The institutionalization of multicultural policy created a framework for ethnic associations to discuss issues that mattered to them. NACOI’s establishment in 1976, five years after multiculturalism became government policy, allowed it to take the helm of these new discussions. Furthermore, NACOI is significant because it represents one of the first attempts to create an organization that aimed to federate all South Asian groups under one umbrella with a solely political goal. This thesis aims to understand whether NACOI was successful in its endeavours to impact federal policy as well as which struggles led to the decline of the organization. Alongside these questions, this thesis also seeks to explore whether NACOI aided in the integration of East Indians in Canada by the mid-1970s to the early 1990s through their efforts as a political advocacy group. Using NACOI’s quarterly publications, published material produced by the group, internal reports, and interviews with some of the founding members of the organization, this thesis also attempts to provide a micro-history of the organization by detailing its formation, growth and eventual dissolution by the early 1990s.

Among the different immigration streams in Canada- family reunification, economic immigrants and refugee protection- newcomers have cited diverse experiences. This is problematic since Canada has a goal of increasing its population to a hundred million within the next seventy-eight years (Century Initiative, 2020). Sixty-two million new Canadians facing inconsistent settlement experiences would be considered a failure of this policy (Century Initiative, 2020). The literature of integration in Canada diverges into two streams: economic model of conformity and socio-cultural. According to the literature, Canada’s immigration policies use more of an economic conformity model than a socio-cultural conformity model of integration, with the former more widely cited. The strength of Canada’s economic conformity model was challenged when comparing immigration policies and immigrant outcomes with Australia and New Zealand. Using a case-oriented comparative analysis, performance indicators demonstrated that Canada had the strongest socio-cultural integration policies between the three cases. These findings were triangulated by a document analysis of Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada’s departmental plans and performance reports from 1998 till 2020. Analyzing the evolution of immigration policies across the different streams found that the federal government decentralized policies and programs to the provincial level. This allowed newcomers to better adapt to the needs and environment of their specific provinces, confirming Canada’s socio-cultural approach to integration. Canada’s strength in its immigration policy resulted in the federal government’s ability to decentralize programs and policies to the provincial level such as welcoming and integrating new immigrants. The document analysis also found inconsistencies with performance indicators measuring integration across the three streams: economic immigrants were only assessed on economic integration factors whereas family reunified immigrants and refugees were only assessed on socio-cultural integration indicators. / Graduate

An analysis of President George W. Bush's first Secretary of Education Rod Paige's speeches in 2001 explains the way in which the Bush Administration articulated its educational policy agenda. Literature on No Child Left Behind tends to focus on the specifics of whether the law helps children learn better or worse without recognizing or engaging with the broader policy agenda. This study attempts to bridge connections between No Child Left Behind and the broader Bush Administration ideology. A major connection this work highlights is between welfare policy and education, and by doing so utilizing George Lakoff's theory of moral politics examines highlights an overarching philosophy of governance, which shapes educational policy, perhaps even without regard to classroom outcomes. This analysis utilizes an interactive-hermeneutic model to crunch the text of Rod Paige's speeches. By coding and explaining major themes from the speeches, analyzing the language and rhetorical choices against itself and then comparing it to extant research on education policy and welfare rhetoric, this study provides a different way to examine political maneuvering on educational policy, which positions politics and language at the center of educational policy rather than efficacy and policy. This analysis finds by applying Lakoff's theory and work that Rod Paige's rhetoric, on behalf of the George W. Bush administration, is about reducing Federal responsibility for social problems and reducing the government's role overall. This is a "slippery slope policy" aimed at eliminating public responsibility for schools and privatizing education in service to the goal of creating an "ownership society" of privatized services and personal responsibility for success. / Urban Education