Neo-liberalism, State Restructuring and Immigration: Changes in Canadian Policies in the 1990s

The essay focusses on recent changes in immigration and settlement policies in Canada and their impact on immigrant women and immigrant families in the 1990s, at a time when Canada has been experiencing a restructuring of the state as well as a restructuring of the economy. In the 1990s several significant changes have been introduced in immigration and settlement policies. On the one hand, the emphasis on global competitiveness has led to increased requirements on the type of independent class immigrants Canada recruits, who not only have to be highly skilled and educated and/or wealthy, but also "up and running" on arrival. On the other hand, fiscal restraint on the part of the state has led to an emphasis on self-sufficiency and individual responsibility on the part of immigrants. In line with this latter emphasis, Canada has introduced several new policies in the 1990s with significant implications for immigrants: more stringent requirements and enforcement procedures for family sponsorship; changes to language training programmes and cuts in other settlement services; and the introduction of the landing fee (the "head tax"). The essay argues that the changes in immigration are parallel with and part of the general undermining of social citizenship in Canada. These policy changes in the 1990s also represent a radical retreat from the possibility of an expansion of rights during the 1980s in Canada, when the state seemed to be moving towards more social and redistributive justice through the introduction of the equality clauses of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In addition to framing theoretically the changes in immigration and settlement in restructuring of the state, the essay also focusses on the impacts of the changes on women and families. There are reasons to expect that the pressures for self-efficiency on the part of families will increase relations of dependency within families.