Turnstile Immigration - Multiculturalism, Social Order, and Social Justice in Canada

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Turnstile Immigration

Multiculturalism, Social Order, and Social Justice in Canada

By: Lorne Foster

Turnstile Immigration addresses a variety of issues affecting present and future immigration policy: designer immigration; queue-jumping and quasi-residency; asylum-shopping and family-class echo; the contemporary Convention Refugee System and the Humanitarian and Compassionate Review System. The author also looks at the impact of immigration on the future multiculturalism in Canada and seeks to initiate and contribute to public dialogue in Canada on this important issue.

ISBN 978-1-55077-097-1
Edition First
Year 1998
Page Count 280

$ 26.95

Description

Foster argues that immigration should be a means for building and strengthening Canadian society and promoting social justice. However, at crucial junctures the underlying principles of "social order" and "social justice" conflict in such a way as to render the immigration system virtually inept.

Canadian immigration today has become a bureaucratic system that has little to do with nation-building principles and a lot to do with red tape. He calls this halting procession of humanity Turnstile Immigration — where select persons gain entry to the promised land only slowly and one by one.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • Introduction
1. Notes from the Front
  • The New Delhi Shuffle
  • Little Tribes and Big Tribes
  • The Buffalo Blunder
  • Role Conflict and the Equilibrium of Society
2. Turnstile Bureaucrats
  • The Frontline Immigration Officer
  • The Unofficial Job Description
  • The Frontline Versus the Hardline in Immigration
  • Frontline Immigration and the Blase Attitude
  • Frontline Immigration and Conventional Wisdom
  • Frontline Immigration and Insider Knowledge
  • Lawyers and Consultants on The Frontline
  • The Exercise of Discretionary Power by the Bureaucratic Elite
  • The Frontline Immigration Officer's Good-Guy-Bad-Guy Equation
  • Immigration as a Machine of Retribution and a Cash Cow
3. A Skilled Society Versus A Learning Society
  • Selective Immigration in Historical Context
  • Biology Versus Life-Chances in Canadian Immigration
  • Universal Access and the Recognition of a Common Humanity: The Case of Convention Refugees
  • Comprehensive Long-Term Immigration Planning and the Revitalization Motif
4. The Cult of the Expert
  • The Structure of Immigration Bureaucracy
  • The Philosophy of Management
  • Anglophone and Francophone Agenda in Immigration
5. The Macro-Myth of Immigration and Economic Prosperity
  • Immigration Research Literature
  • The Parallel between Capital Migration and People Migration
6. Ignus Faatus: Economic and Non-Economic Immigration
  • The Great Awakening of 1986
  • Bureaucratic Strategies for Containing Public Sentiment
7. The Immigration System as an Enabling Technology
  • The Blueprint for a Renewed Economy
  • Designer Immigration and Technological Flux
8. Democratizing the Administration of Immigration
  • Reinventing the Bureaucrat
  • Reinventing Government and Capitalism
  • Enhanced Interaction and Informed Public Consensus
  • Public Participation and Public Accountability
  • Endnotes
  • References
  • Index

About the Author

Lorne Foster
York University

Lorne Foster holds a PhD in sociology from York University and currently works as a research consultant and writer in Toronto.