Immigration and Integration Policy and the Complexity of Multi-level Governance: A Case Study of British Columbia

ABSTRACT

This article explores the role of different levels of government in managing the flow of migrants across Canada’s international borders and in integrating migrants into broader Canadian society. British Columbia is the focal point of the article as its recent experience in the immigration field is emblematic of broader decentralizing and re-centralizing trends within Canadian intergovernmental relations. More broadly, the B.C. experience reveals how the governance and management of Canada’s borders in relation to transnational migration has become more dependent on multi-level cooperation.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigration
• multi-level governance
• borders
• federalism
• British Columbia
• Canada

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.