Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T22:24:37.003Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Expendables: Community Organizations and Governance Dynamics in the Canadian Settlement Sector

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2013

Nicholas Acheson  and
Rachel Laforest
Nicholas Acheson*
Affiliation:
University of Ulster
Rachel Laforest*
Affiliation:
Queen's University
*
Nicholas Acheson, School of Criminology Politics and Social Policy, University of Ulster, Shore Road, Newtownabbey, BT327 0QB, Northern Ireland UK
Rachel Laforest, School of Policy Studies, Queen's University, 138 Union, Sutherland Hall, Kingston ON, K7L 3N6
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Abstract. An emerging pattern of governance in contemporary liberal democratic welfare states is a move away from interest group representation and a public sphere organized around demands for extensions of rights to something much more constrained. This article asks how such a profound shift in representation has occurred through governance spaces that are co-constructed by community organizations. It examines the case of Canadian immigrant settlement where beliefs about citizen representation, the role of the state and the nature of the public sphere have undergone profound change, leaving immigrant organizations as either marginal players or fully incorporated in state sanctioned immigrant service provision. Drawing on documentary evidence and interviews with immigrant organizations and public officials in Ottawa, it shows how immigrant organizations have actively interpreted their interests in the light of this changing web of beliefs to co-construct a new policy regime that favours organizational interests over citizen participation.

Résumé. Au cours des dernières décennies, une des tendance de gouvernance qui se desssine dans la plupart des États providence est que l'espace de représentation politique et de la défense des droits collectifs est devenu de plus en plus restraint. Cet article examine comment ce changement a pris forme dans des espaces de gouvernance qui sont de plus en plus marqués par une interaction dynamique de coconstruction des politiques publiques. L'analyse est basée sur une étude de cas d'organismes communautaires oeuvrant dans le domaine de l'intégration des immigrants dans la ville d'Ottawa. L'analyse de documents et les entrevues qualitatives révèlent que les organismes ont stratégiquement redéfinis leurs intérêts en matière de représentation politique et ont contribué à la coconstruction d'un nouveau régime de gouvernance qui privilégie les intérêts organisationnels au-dessus de la participation citoyenne.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 597 - 616
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abu-Laban, Yasmeen and Gabriel, Christina. 2002. Selling Diversity: Immigration, Multi-culturalism, Employment Equity, and Globalization. Peterborough: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Abu-Laban, Yasmeen and Stasiulis, Daiva. 1992. “Ethnic Pluralism under Siege: Popular and Partisan Opposition to Multiculturalism.” Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de Politiques 18: 365–86.Google Scholar
Agranoff, Robert. 2006. “Insider Collaborative Networks: Ten Lessons for Public Managers.” Public Administration Review 66(1): 56–65.Google Scholar
Amin, Nuzhat. 1987. A Preliminary History of Settlement Work in Ontario 1900-Present. Ministry of Citizenship. Available at http://www.ceris.metropolis.net/Virtual%20Library/other/amim1.html (January 13, 2013).Google Scholar
Banting, Keith and Kymlicka, Will. 2010. “Canadian Multiculturalism: Global Anxieties and Local Debates.” British Journal of Canadian Studies 23: 43–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bevir, Mark. 2010. Democratic Governance. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bevir, Mark and Rhodes, Rod A.W.. 2010. The State as Cultural Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloemraad, Irene. 2006. Becoming a Citizen: Incorporating Immigrants and Refugees in the United States and Canada. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Brugué, Quim and Gallego, Raquel. 2003. “A democratic public administration? Developments in public participation and innovations in community governance.” Public Management Review 5(3): 425–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carmel, Emma and Harlock, Jenny. 2008. “Instituting the ‘third sector’ as a governable terrain: Partnership, procurement and performance in the UK.” Policy and Politics 36: 155–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crouch, Colin. 2005. Capitalist Diversity and Change: Recombinant Governance and Institutional Entrepreneurs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Crouch, Colin. 2007. “Institutional change and globalization.” Socio-Economic Review 5: 527–67.Google Scholar
Daly, Mary. 2003. “Governance and Social Policy.” Journal of Social Policy 32: 113–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Jonathan. 2011. Challenging Governance Theory: From Networks to Hegemony. Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Day, Richard. 2000. Multiculturalism and the History of Canadian Diversity. Toronto ON: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Evans, Bryan, Richmond, Ted and Shields, John. 2005. “Structuring Neoliberal Governance: The Nonprofit Sector, Emerging New Modes of Control and Marketization of Service Delivery.” Policy and Society 24(1): 73–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunold, Christian. 2001. “Corporatism, pluralism, and democracy: Toward a deliberative theory of bureaucratic accountability.” Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration 14: 151–67.Google Scholar
Jenson, Jane. 2004. Catching up to reality: Building the Case for a New Social Model. Ottawa: Canadian Policy Research Networks.Google Scholar
Jenson, Jane and Phillips, Susan D.. 1996. “Regime Shift: New Citizenship Practices in Canada.” International Journal of Canadian Studies 14: 11–36.Google Scholar
Kendall, Jeremy, ed. 2009. Handbook of Third Sector Policy in Europe: Multi-Level Processes and Organized Civil Society, Cheltenham UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Laforest, Rachel. 2012. “Rerouting Political Representation: Canada's social infrastructure crisis.” British Journal of Canadian Studies 25(2): 181–98.Google Scholar
Leah, Ronnie. 1989. “Linking the Struggles: Racism, Feminism and the Union Movement.” In Race, Class, Gender: Bonds and Barriers, ed. Vorst, J., Gupta, T. Das, Gonick, C., Leah, R., Lennon, A., Muszynski, A., Ng, R., Silva, E., Steedman, M., Transken, S. and Wilkinson, D.. Winnipeg: Between the Lines.Google Scholar
Levasseur, Karine. 2012. “In the name of charity: Institutional support and resistance for redefining the meaning of charity in Canada.” Canadian Public Administration 55(2): 181–202.Google Scholar
Lister, Ruth. 2010. “The Age of Responsibility: Social Policy and Citizenship in the Early 21st Century.” In Social Policy Review 23, ed. Holden, C., Kilkey, M. and Ramia, G.. Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Mahon, Rianne. 1977. “Canadian Public Policy: The Unequal Structure of Representation.” In The Canadian State: Political Economy and Political Power, ed. Panitch, L.. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
March, James G. and Olsen, Johan P.. 1989. Rediscovering Institutions. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
March, James G. and Olsen, Johan P.. 2006. “Elaborating the ‘New Institutionalism.’” In The Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions, ed. Rhodes, R.A.W., Bindman, S.A. and Rockman, Bert A.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McAndrew, Marie, Helly, Denise, Tessier, Caroline and Young, Judy. 2008. “From Heritage Languages to Institutional Change: An Analysis of the Nature of Organizations and Projects Funded by the Canadian Multiculturalism Program (1983–2002).” Canadian Ethnic Studies 40(3): 149–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moran, Mayo and Phillips, Jim. 2001. “Charity and the Income Tax Act: The Supreme Court Speaks.” In Between State and the Economy: Essays on Charities Law and Policy in Canada, ed. Phillips, Jim, Chapman, Bruce and Stevens, David. Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Newman, Janet. 2005. “Introduction.” In Remaking Governance: Peoples, Politics and the Public Sphere, ed. Newman, J.. Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Newman, Janet. 2007. “Governance as Cultural Practice: Texts, Talk and the Struggle for Meaning.” In Governance, Consumer and Citizens: Agency and Resistance on Contemporary Politics, ed. Bevir, Mark and Trentmann, Frank. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Pal, Leslie A. 1993. Interests of State: The Politics of Language, Multiculturalism and Feminism in Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Phillips, Susan D. 2012. “Dual Restructuring: Civil Society and the Welfare State in Canada 1985 to 2005.” British Journal of Canadian Studies 25(2): 161–80.Google Scholar
Phillips, Susan D. and Smith, Steve Rathgeb, eds. 2011. Governance and Regulation in the Third Sector: International Perspectives. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhodes, Rod A.W. 2007. “Understanding Governance Ten Years On.” Organization Studies 28: 1243–64.Google Scholar
Richmond, Ted and Shields, John. 2004. Third Sector Restructuring and the New Contracting Regime: The Case of Immigrant Serving Agencies in Ontario. CERIS Policy Matters, no. 3. Toronto: Joint Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement.Google Scholar
Richmond, Ted and Shields, John. 2005. “NGO–Government Relations and Immigrant Services: Contradictions and Challenges.” Journal of International Migration and Integration 6 (3-4): 513–26.Google Scholar
Sadiq, Kareem. 2004. The Two-Tier Settlement System: A Review of Current Newcomer Settlement Services in Canada. CERIS Working Paper no. 34. Toronto: Joint Centre for Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement.Google Scholar
Scott, K., Tsoukalas, S., Roberts, P. and Lasby, D.. 2006. The Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector in Ontario: Regional; Highlights of the National Survey of Nonprofit and Voluntary Organizations. Toronto: Imagine CanadaGoogle Scholar
Smith, Miriam. 2005. A Civil Society? Collective Actors in Canadian Political Life. Peterborough ON: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Stasiulis, Daiva, Hughes, Christine, and Amery, Zainab. 2011. “From Government to Multilevel Governance of Immigrant Settlement in Ontario's City-Regions.” In Immigrant Settlement Policy in Canadian Municipalities, eds. Tolley, Erin and Young, Robert. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada. 2006. Profile of Census Divisions and Subdivisions. Census. Ottawa-Carleton Regional Municipality.Google Scholar
Statistics Canada. 2010. Projections of the Diversity of the Canadian Population. Catalogue no. 91-551-X, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Streeck, Wolgang and Thelen, Kathleen, eds. 2005. Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thelen, Kathleen. 2003. “How Institutions Evolve: Insights from Comparative Historical Analysis.” In Comparative–Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences, ed. Mahoney, James and Rueschemeyer, Dietrich. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wayland, Sarah. 2006. Unsettled: Legal and Policy Barriers for Newcomers to Canada. Joint Initiative of Community Foundations of Canada and the Law Commission of Canada.Google Scholar
White, Deena. 2012. “Interest Representation and Organisation in Civil Society: Ontario and Quebec Compared.” British Journal of Canadian Studies 25(2): 199–229.Google Scholar