The meaning of Canadian citizenship in light of dual citizenship and multiculturalism in Canada

With multiculturalism informing policy formation related to immigration and settlement in Canada, dual citizenship is accepted. Many have argued that dual citizenship is problematic when it creates dual, and often times, competing loyalties, interests, and priorities; while others argue that dual citizenship is actually a positive development that is consistent with the Canadian culture of acceptance, tolerance and multiculturalism. This MRP will examine the connection between multiculturalism, the legality of dual and multiple citizenship in Canada and their effect on the meaning of Canadian citizenship for naturalized Canadian citizens holding dual or multiple citizenships.

The meaning of Canadian citizenship in light of dual citizenship and multiculturalism in Canada

With multiculturalism informing policy formation related to immigration and settlement in Canada, dual citizenship is accepted. Many have argued that dual citizenship is problematic when it creates dual, and often times, competing loyalties, interests, and priorities; while others argue that dual citizenship is actually a positive development that is consistent with the Canadian culture of acceptance, tolerance and multiculturalism. This MRP will examine the connection between multiculturalism, the legality of dual and multiple citizenship in Canada and their effect on the meaning of Canadian citizenship for naturalized Canadian citizens holding dual or multiple citizenships.

"In Its Own Image" : Fashioning the Canadian Multicultural Mirage in Food Production, Consumption, and Equality

With bucolic imaginings, it is commonplace to lament the social and physical distance that separates us from the production of our food. In a dystopic distanciation, food becomes a static product--commodified, fetishized, and objectified--while our relationship to it, increasingly antagonistic. Indeed, food provides a unique aperture into the 'malaises of modernity' (Taylor 1991) when 'simple' questions in fact reveal complex dynamics, processes, and symptoms covering a range of questions: From what is our food made? From where? And by whom? In highlighting the dialectic of the selective of producers, the unrestricted mobility of commodities and capital, and the immobility of land, this paper draws linkages between food, labour and migration through an analysis of their ordering principles that affront the 'privilege' of Canadian citizenship, the rights it confers, and the responsibilities it demands. For the study of immigration and settlement in Canada or more globally, Canada's active role in shaping the life conditions of the migrants it receives, these lines of inquiry cannot be ignored.

Canadian citizenship in the imagined future

Citizenship, encompassing the related issues of identity and equality, is impacted by multiple factors and is constantly transforming. It follows then that what we define as citizenship today will be different in the future. Working on the principle of Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1997) that language precedes reality, this study uses a unique combination of personal, academic and professional knowledge and experience of the 2004 cohort of the part-time graduate students enrolled in the Immigrationa and Settlement Studies program at Ryerson University, Toronto to construct a vision of Canadian citizenship in the imagined future, and recommend ways of achieving it. The participants highlighted political participation and education as the two key strategies to attain a vision of an inclusive Canada.

"In Its Own Image" : Fashioning the Canadian Multicultural Mirage in Food Production, Consumption, and Equality

With bucolic imaginings, it is commonplace to lament the social and physical distance that separates us from the production of our food. In a dystopic distanciation, food becomes a static product--commodified, fetishized, and objectified--while our relationship to it, increasingly antagonistic. Indeed, food provides a unique aperture into the 'malaises of modernity' (Taylor 1991) when 'simple' questions in fact reveal complex dynamics, processes, and symptoms covering a range of questions: From what is our food made? From where? And by whom? In highlighting the dialectic of the selective of producers, the unrestricted mobility of commodities and capital, and the immobility of land, this paper draws linkages between food, labour and migration through an analysis of their ordering principles that affront the 'privilege' of Canadian citizenship, the rights it confers, and the responsibilities it demands. For the study of immigration and settlement in Canada or more globally, Canada's active role in shaping the life conditions of the migrants it receives, these lines of inquiry cannot be ignored.

Canadian citizenship in the imagined future

Citizenship, encompassing the related issues of identity and equality, is impacted by multiple factors and is constantly transforming. It follows then that what we define as citizenship today will be different in the future. Working on the principle of Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1997) that language precedes reality, this study uses a unique combination of personal, academic and professional knowledge and experience of the 2004 cohort of the part-time graduate students enrolled in the Immigrationa and Settlement Studies program at Ryerson University, Toronto to construct a vision of Canadian citizenship in the imagined future, and recommend ways of achieving it. The participants highlighted political participation and education as the two key strategies to attain a vision of an inclusive Canada.

Canadian citizenship in evolution: exploring six Canadian citizenship guidebooks from 1946-2012

Six educational guidebooks on the rights and responsibilities of Canadian citizenship for new immigrants have existed for approximately six decades, arriving alongside the first Citizenship Act in 1947. These guidebooks have been circulated by the Canadian government in the hopes of educating immigrants unfamiliar with Canadian culture and democracy as adopted from Great Britain. By understanding democratic theory and its relationship to citizenship education, this paper explores four themes (how various governments have viewed the terms and conditions of becoming a citizen, the “vision” of Canada presented in the various guides, the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, and what the guidebooks imply about social inclusion and the integration of new Canadians) within each successive guidebook in order to analyse how different governments over the years have prepared newcomers for citizenship in Canada, and what constitutes successful integration. By exploring the various themes of each guidebook, this paper finds that government-sponsored citizenship guidebooks are products of both domestic and international socio-political atmospheres, whose goal is to present to newcomers citizenship education, as well as a vision of Canada that reflects partisan attitudes toward various public policies.

Strengthening Canadian citizenship: but how and for whose benefit? The rise and fall of (Bill) C24, or towards a hierarchized Canadian citizenship

While Statistics Canada evidences immigration to be a key driver of Canada’s population growth, unwelcoming immigration settlement policies and Canadian citizenship legislation combine to impede recent immigrants’ integration. Above all, citizenship policy plays a pivotal role in easing newcomers’ integration into the host polity by transforming them into citizens. Through naturalization, immigrants acquire legal citizenship; their substantive citizenship makes them enjoy rights and exercise responsibilities embedded in, and defined by citizenship policy. This paper argues that, by institutionalizing a conditional citizenship for new immigrants, recent changes to the Canadian citizenship regime brought by C-24 in June 2014 then repealed by C-6 in June 2017, not only weaken but jeopardize both legal and substantive citizenship of dual Canadian citizens and, consequently, hinder their successful integration into the Canadian polity. This study concludes that the lived experiences of recent immigrants mark a distinction between new Canadians’/visible minorities’ alientity and mainstream Canadian identity.

Strengthening Canadian citizenship: but how and for whose benefit? The rise and fall of (Bill) C24, or towards a hierarchized Canadian citizenship

While Statistics Canada evidences immigration to be a key driver of Canada’s population growth, unwelcoming immigration settlement policies and Canadian citizenship legislation combine to impede recent immigrants’ integration. Above all, citizenship policy plays a pivotal role in easing newcomers’ integration into the host polity by transforming them into citizens. Through naturalization, immigrants acquire legal citizenship; their substantive citizenship makes them enjoy rights and exercise responsibilities embedded in, and defined by citizenship policy. This paper argues that, by institutionalizing a conditional citizenship for new immigrants, recent changes to the Canadian citizenship regime brought by C-24 in June 2014 then repealed by C-6 in June 2017, not only weaken but jeopardize both legal and substantive citizenship of dual Canadian citizens and, consequently, hinder their successful integration into the Canadian polity. This study concludes that the lived experiences of recent immigrants mark a distinction between new Canadians’/visible minorities’ alientity and mainstream Canadian identity.

Canadian citizenship in evolution: exploring six Canadian citizenship guidebooks from 1946-2012

Six educational guidebooks on the rights and responsibilities of Canadian citizenship for new immigrants have existed for approximately six decades, arriving alongside the first Citizenship Act in 1947. These guidebooks have been circulated by the Canadian government in the hopes of educating immigrants unfamiliar with Canadian culture and democracy as adopted from Great Britain. By understanding democratic theory and its relationship to citizenship education, this paper explores four themes (how various governments have viewed the terms and conditions of becoming a citizen, the “vision” of Canada presented in the various guides, the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, and what the guidebooks imply about social inclusion and the integration of new Canadians) within each successive guidebook in order to analyse how different governments over the years have prepared newcomers for citizenship in Canada, and what constitutes successful integration. By exploring the various themes of each guidebook, this paper finds that government-sponsored citizenship guidebooks are products of both domestic and international socio-political atmospheres, whose goal is to present to newcomers citizenship education, as well as a vision of Canada that reflects partisan attitudes toward various public policies.