Belonging in Unceded Territory
(2020-2024) ($200,000)
This research collaboration of the Centre for Migration Studies, Frog Hollow Neighbourhood House, Immigrant Services Society of BC and the Affiliation of Multicultural Societies and Service Agencies of BC is funded by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (#890-2019-0100).
For details, check out our project page.
Immigration Bureaucracies in an Era of Anti-Immigration Populism
(2021-2026) ($284,864)
This research collaboration with Mireille Paquet (Concordia University) is funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant (#435-2021-0316).
Objectives
The project examines how comparatively powerful bureaucracies in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom (UK) have navigated policymaking in contexts that have been marked by anti-immigration populism since the early 2000s. In particular, this comparative study will document and compare how bureaucratic organizations responsible for immigration define and respond to the legitimacy challenges stemming from anti-immigration populism. The project pursues three objectives:
1) provide an analytical account of how anti-immigration populism has impacted bureaucratic organizations responsible for immigration in Canada, Australia, and the UK since 2000
2) contribute to theories of immigration policymaking by developing a richer understanding of the work of immigration bureaucracies
3) develop new insights into how bureaucracies can respond to the challenges associated with populism in countries with Westminster systems where the executive dominates policymaking.
Context
Over the past two decades, populism has swept across the Global North, questioning the legitimacy of policymaking by established elites and framing immigrants as a threat to national identity and economic welfare. This project explores the impact of anti-immigration populism on bureaucratic organizations. The rise of anti-immigration populism challenges the legitimacy of bureaucracies responsible for immigration. It disturbs traditional immigration policymaking, the agreed upon goals of national immigration programs, and official state discourse on immigration. Yet, while much has been written on the impact of populism on parties and elected officials, its impact on bureaucratic organizations, and immigration bureaucracies more specifically, remains poorly understood. Indeed, the rich body of research on anti-immigration populism has thus far neglected to explore how bureaucratic organizations have navigated this changing policymaking context.
