Immigrants’ Attitude towards the Immigration Policy Change in South Korea

The ability to regulate the flow of goods, capital and people across borders is one of the defining characteristics of nation-state political power. But there is not always agreement between the central government and local officials as to the desirability of immigration, where local governments may desire greater, or fewer, numbers of immigrants, depending on the local economy and labor needs. In South Korea, a unitary form of government offers an opportunity to examine the policy distance between the national government’s stance on immigration based on the politics of the ruling party, and the attitudes of local officials who work for metropolitan-level governments (those with a population of one million or more). I look at the impact of local economic market needs on local attitudes towards national immigration policy through the lens of intergovernmental relations and Lipsky’s concept of bureaucratic discretion. Comparing two cases drawn from local governments in South Korea with dissimilar economic bases but similar levels of local autonomy, I find that economic needs at the local level are addressed by local approaches to immigration policy. Contrary to expectations, the cases illustrate the relative importance of fiscal autonomy and a new understanding for political autonomy. These cases illustrate the need for caution when applying political and institutional theory within new contexts and offer new variables for future investigations of local autonomy.

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Discounting Immigrant Families: Neoliberalism and the Framing of Canadian Immigration Policy Change: A Literature Review

10.32920/ryerson.14636169.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jesse Root ◽

Erika Gates-Gasse ◽

John Shields ◽

Harald Bauder

Keyword(s):

Literature Review ◽

Conceptual Framework ◽

Policy Change ◽

Immigration Policy ◽

Immigrant Families ◽

Partnership Development ◽

Social Sciences And Humanities ◽

Real Effects ◽

The Social ◽

Canadian Immigration

Abstract This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework to assist in understanding how the immigrant family is impacted by recent changes to immigration policy in Canada. We contend that neoliberalism, broadly defined, is a helpful lens through which to comprehend some of the specific policies as well as discursive outcomes which have real effects on immigrant families. Based on our findings from an in-depth literature review, our goal is to identify and summarize the recent changes to the Canadian policy environment and to develop a critical conceptual framework through which to understand policy change in relation to families and immigrants. Key Words: families, neoliberalism, policy change, social policy, multiculturalism, gender, race, neoconservatism Acknowledgements The research for this paper was supported by a Partnership Development Grant titled “Integration Trajectories of Immigrant Families” by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Immigration and Federalism in Canada: beyond Quebec Exceptionalism?

Perspectives on Federalism ◽

10.1515/pof-2017-0020 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. E-56-E-84

Author(s):

Davide Strazzari

Keyword(s):

Federal Government ◽

Policy Change ◽

Immigration Policy ◽

Central Government ◽

The Other ◽

Political Pressure ◽

Discretionary Choices ◽

Canadian Provinces ◽

Delegation Of Powers

Abstract The paper focuses on Canadian Provinces’ role in migrant selection. After an asymmetric approach, that benefited only Quebec, the federal government granted devolutionary powers in migrant selection to the other Provinces as well, moving towards de facto asymmetry. This process has proved to be successful over the years, but recently the federal government has reacted, recentralizing some aspects of immigration policy. This does not apply to Quebec. This policy change may suggest that, although immigration federalism may be grounded on reasons other than the need to accommodate linguistic or ethnic claims, it remains the case that the former are “weaker” than the latter, and are more subject to pressure from the central government. This is also confirmed by looking at the mechanisms through which intergovernmental agreements have been translated into law. Unlike the Quebec case, immigration’s devolution in relation to the other Provinces has occurred through administrative delegation of powers from the federal government. This permits the federal government to exercise some form of political pressure in order to realign the Provinces’ discretionary choices.

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