‘Stand by me’: competitive subnational regimes and the politics of retaining immigrants

ABSTRACT

This article examines the pivotal role of immigration for subnational units, focusing on their efforts to retain immigrants. In the global competition for ‘wanted’ immigrants, subnational governments have developed innovative immigration-related programmes tailored to their demographic, economic, and linguistic needs. While previous research has mainly focused on the selection of international immigrants, this study delves into subnational efforts to keeping immigrants ‘in’. Using Canadian provinces as a case study, and through a qualitative content analysis of policy documents and immigration schemes, this article asks: To what extent do Canadian provinces compete to retain immigrants? The analysis reveals ‘subnational competitive immigration regimes’, wherein subnational units take policy actions to not only attract immigrants but influence or hinder their internal mobility. Downstream, provinces employ settlement and integration services to encourage retention. Upstream, provinces fine-tune their selection streams to choose migrants who are deemed more likely to stay. Policy outputs reveal how ‘wanted immigrants’ are conceptualized at the subnational level: those who can demonstrate a commitment to staying, rather than solely those who fulfil economic and demographic needs. The results shed light on the interplay between international immigration policies and immigrants’ internal mobility, and emphasize the significance of subnational policy in retaining immigrants.

KEYWORDS:

• Retention
• wanted immigrants
• internal mobility
• competitive immigration regime
• Canada

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Lana Van Langendonck for her assistance in collecting the documents. The initial ideas of this article were thoroughly discussed with Mireille Paquet, whose insights have enriched its development. I am grateful to Aiden Selsick, Juliette Dupont, Sidney Leclercq, and Willem Maas for their suggestions and help. The reviewers provided generous and insightful comments that improved the quality of the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 In the Canadian context, the term ‘immigrant’ refers to all foreign-born individuals who are permanent residents of Canada. Conversely, I employ the term ‘migrants’ to describe individuals who are not permanent residents (e.g. temporary migrants, such as temporary workers or international students).

2 While an examination of the terminology employed in this context goes beyond the scope of this article, it is nonetheless intriguing to consider the diverse array of terms utilized by scholars: ‘desirable’, ‘wanted’, ‘needed’, ‘privileged’ immigrants. I chose to refer to the concept of ‘wanted’ immigrants (Zolberg 1987; Triadafilopoulos 2013; Sandoz 2019). Some scholars make use of the term ‘privileged migrants’ to bring attention to the practices and imaginaries of privilege within the migration system (Cranston and Duplan 2023).

3 Just like Canadian citizens, permanent residents have the right to live or seek work anywhere in Canada. However, provinces can set reasonable residency requirements for accessing certain social and welfare benefits, creating certain limits to transferability and setting waiting periods/périodes de carence (https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cp-pm/just/06.html#mr).

4 Due to the scope of this article, the analysis does not consider the specificities of entrepreneurs and business investors selection programs, as they respond to very different rationales, they concern a much smaller group of persons and imply different rules.

5 For the province of Quebec, the equivalent terms in French are: ‘rétention, retenir, garder, migra* interne, migr* secondaire, migration interprovinciale’. ‘Taux de présence’ was added as Quebec publishes its retention rates under this label.