29/04/2021 – Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism: Immigration Bureaucrats and Policymaking in Postwar Canada.

Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism shows how state agents’ perceptions and judgments about the admissibility of individuals – in socioeconomic, racial, and moral terms – influenced the creation of formal admissions criteria for skilled workers and family immigrants that continue to shape immigration to Canada. A qualitative content analysis of archival documents, conducted through the theoretical lens of a cultural sociology of immigration policy, reveals that bureaucrats’ interpretations of immigration files generated selection criteria emphasizing not just economic utility, but also middle-class traits and values such as wealth accumulation, educational attainment, entrepreneurial spirit, resourcefulness, and a strong work ethic. By making “middle-class multiculturalism” a demographic reality and basis of nation-building in Canada, these state actors created a much-admired approach to managing racial diversity that has generated significant social inequalities for immigrants and Canadian-born alike. 

About the speaker 

Jennifer Elrick holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto and joined the Department of Sociology at McGill University as Assistant Professor in 2016. Her research explores how states define their populations, e.g. through statistical classifications and immigration policy, and the forms of social stratification that emerge as a result. Her most recent work focuses on immigration policy and policymaking in Canada and Germany and is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC). 

For more information and the link to the meeting please click here.