Individual and Structural Barriers to Citizenship Acquisition

Keith Banting, Michael Donnelly, Marc Helbling, Andrea Lawlor, Rahsaan Maxwell, Angela X. Ocampo, Mireille Paquet, Margaret Peters, Richard Traunmüller, Paul Vierus and Conrad Ziller

This publication is based on the proceedings of the workshop, “Public Views of Immigration and Diversity: Causes and Consequences for Policy,” held at the Centre for Migration Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, May 17-18, 2022.

WPS 2023/5

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At a glance

Questions about immigration – how many should be allowed to come, who should be allowed to come, and on what terms – cut to the core of what political communities are about. In democratic societies, political elites mobilize public sentiment to gain office, and they depend on public support to stay there and, ultimately, make policy. In what follows, we present, in condensed form, the findings of a May 2022 workshop generously supported by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. For this workshop, titled, “Public Views of Immigration and Diversity: Causes and Consequences for Policy,” we assembled a group of leading scholars of public opinion to present cutting-edge work describing what people in modern, immigrant-receiving countries think about immigrants and immigration, why they think it, and how knowing the answers to these questions shapes the policy-making process. In addition, we asked these scholars to reflect on how their work, considered holistically, informs broader relationships between researchers, media, the punditocracy, and the political class.

Atieh Razavi Yekta, Suzanne Huot, and Heather O’Brien

WPS 2023/3

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Abstract

Emerging Canadian data indicate that immigrants are more likely to participate in the platform economy compared to Canadian-born people. We conducted an instrumental case study with Persian Instagram creators in Metro Vancouver, Canada, to understand their motivations for and experiences of engaging in this type of gig work. Platform work, also known as gig work, refers to paid work organized around “gigs” (i.e., projects or tasks), and is facilitated through digital platforms that workers engage in on a term-limited basis without being formally employed by a particular organization. Methods included content analysis of Instagram policies and community guidelines and in-depth interviews with five Persian Instagram creators. Data collection is ongoing. Preliminary findings reveal how creators navigate the influence of Instagram algorithms through crafting an authentic online persona, deploying consistent content creation strategies, and empowering self-continuity as they experience occupational transitions following migration. Building on these findings, we develop a discussion that enriches our understanding of how these immigrant creators turned engagement metrics into strategies to grow, sustain, and build a career in Canada through Instagram.

KEYWORDS: immigration; platform economy; gig work; Instagram; creators; algorithms; Persian community, qualitative research

Anne-Cécile Delaisse & Gaoheng Zhang

WPS 2023/1

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Abstract

International students’ engagement with different cultures has received increased scholarly attention. The literature tends to either celebrate students’ cosmopolitanism and transnationalism or highlight their difficulties “adapting” in their receiving countries. In the former case, cultural differences tend to be considered irrelevant, whereas in the latter case, cultural differences are taken for granted and foregrounded as central to students’ experiences. In this paper, we examine students’ own perceptions and engagement with their sending and receiving countries’ cultures through the notion of distance, which is gleaned from mobilities studies. We draw from 20 online, in-depth interviews with Vietnamese international students based in Vancouver and Paris. Our analysis highlights how students construct or deconstruct notions of distance between Vietnam and their receiving countries, and also between themselves and each of these countries (i.e., their sending and receiving countries). First, we examine how students cultivate a sense of cultural proximity to their (geographically distant) countries of destination, through their predeparture engagement with these countries’ language or media. Second, we address students’ rapport with French and Canadian societies while residing in those countries, highlighting how ethno-racial diversity in the receiving contexts shapes students’ perceptions of distance at various levels as well as their strategies to address these perceived distances. Finally, we discuss students’ sense of proximity to or distance from Vietnamese culture while studying in France and Canada and how these constructions can be related to a specific form of cosmopolitanism. We argue that the notion of distance helps foster a nuanced and critical understanding of international students’ mobilities, transculturality, and cosmopolitanism.

KEYWORDS: International education, cosmopolitanism, mobilities, transculturality, transnationalism