The Development of Dual Loyalties: Immigrants’ Integration to Canadian Regional Dynamics
By Antoine Bilodeau, Concordia University Stephen White, University of Regina Neil Nevitte, University of Toronto

Values have become a prominent part of the political discussion of immigration in many parts of the world and may become so in Canada. We can surmise, then, that the political values of immigrants to Canada will become an important part of Canada’s future political culture. What impacts can we expect immigration to have on Canadian political culture and more specifically on regional dynamics in the country?

Drawing on data from the 1993–2006 Canadian Election Studies, the authors of this recently published study explore how immigrants adjust to the prevailing regional political norms in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Do newcomers adopt the political orientations that resemble those of their native-born provincial counterparts? The results suggest that immigrants, especially newer waves from non-traditional source countries, tend to develop political views that are more federally oriented than the local populations in their province. This tendency is most pronounced in Quebec where groups of immigrants from both traditional and non-traditional source countries internalize political grievances and norms less powerfully than their counterparts in other provinces.

Regionalism and immigration are two central features of Canada’s political system. This article contributes to the literature as a rare exploration of the relationship between these two social realities

Complete document