Francophone Immigrant Integration and Neoliberal Governance: The Paradoxical Role of Community Organizations

Abstract

Francophone immigration is prioritized within Canadian immigration policy, with community organizations receiving government funding to support the integration of French-speaking immigrants. These organizations serve as intermediaries between governmental social policies and individual immigrants, brokering immigrants' occupational possibilities by offering specific services and emphasizing some occupations over others. As part of a critical ethnography, government documents were critically reviewed and in-depth interviews were conducted with six representatives from governmental and community organizations operating within the London, Ontario Francophone minority community. Findings highlight how characteristics of neoliberal governance shape the provision of government services through third party service providers, including community-based non-profit organizations. These organizations currently face neoliberal pressures of decentralization, decreased funding, and increased accountability. Findings specifically address how immigrant integration is constructed in government documents and how respondents viewed the role of their organizations, the particularities organizations face by being embedded within a minority setting, and the challenges this context creates for immigrants. The ways government policies are enacted via organizations have implications for immigrants' occupations. Examining the role of organizations adds an important scale of analysis to considerations of international migration within occupational science, which to date have largely attended to the experiences of individual migrants.

Keywords:

• Immigration
• Integration
• Language
• Neoliberalism
• Service provision

Notes

1. Francophone minority communities are French-speaking communities in Canada located outside of the province of Quebec. FMC designation requires a geographical region to have over 5,000 French-speakers or a French-speaking population accounting for more than 10% of the total population.

2. The term ‘immigrant’ is used as a general term encompassing all newcomers, including immigrants from all classes and categories (e.g. economic, family) as well as refugees and asylum seekers.

3. This study was completed as part of the author's doctoral degree. The dissertation examined the integration of French-speaking immigrants from visible minority groups to London, Ontario, Canada (Huot, 2011).