2018 Prix francophone de l’ACSP

Winner: Mireille Paquet (Concordia University)

La fédéralisation de l’immigration au Canada, Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2016.

Photo: Mireille Paquet

Excerpt from jury report: This book analyses the transformations of immigration policies and the central role of the provincial governments in this process. The governance of immigration is not just the result of the will of the federal government but the result of the work of the provinces. This area of public policy makes it possible to understand the transformations of federalism more generally. Based on large-scale desk research and more than 71 semi-structured interviews with key figures, she compares programs in 10 Canadian provinces. The provincialization of immigration serves to illustrate tangible changes within the federal system. Besides illustrating the elements of asymmetry, this study upsets a number of conventional ideas and thus modifies our understanding of how the federal system has evolved. In terms of theory, the author belongs to the tradition of historic institutionalism and process tracing, showing how the federalization of immigration and integration policies in Canada and the provinces has come about. This study is part of a well defined research tradition in political science and comparative policy but also belongs to the comparative tradition in Canadian politics. It is a very important contribution to Canadian policy and comparative politics but also to public policy.