Framing Families: Neo-Liberalism and the Family Class Within Canadian Immigration Policy

Authors

  • Christina Gabriel Carleton University

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of changes to the family class category under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and in particular the introduction of Conditional Permanent Residence (CPR) for sponsored spouses. It raises questions about the extent to which gender mainstreaming as an approach within immigration policy making can actually challenge recent developments, which are animated by familiar neo-liberal rationales but also gesture to a discourse that constructs family class immigrants as “suspicious” and “criminal.” Résumé Cet article examine les répercussions des modifications apportées à la catégorie du regroupement familial en vertu de la Loi sur l’immigration et la protection des réfugiés du Canada et en particulier l’introduction de la résidence permanente conditionnelle (RPC) pour les conjoints parrainés. Cela soulève la question de savoir dans quelle mesure l’intégration de la dimension de genre comme approche au sein de la politique d’immigration peut en fait remettre en cause les récents développements, qui sont animés par des logiques néo-libérales familières, mais invoquent aussi un discours qui définit les immigrants appartenant à la catégorie du regroupement familial comme « suspects » et « criminels ».

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Author Biography

Christina Gabriel, Carleton University

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science

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Published

2017-06-09