The intersection of immigration and family in Canada

This dissertation studies the complex relationship between family and migration processes. The overarching question that drives this research project is: How do family dynamics, migration adaptation processes, and policy mediate the immigrant integration process? Specifically, I focus on three instances of the intersection of immigration and family in Canada. First, I study differences in living arrangements by entry status over the first four years of arrival to shed light on the relationship between immigrant family dynamics, adaptation processes and selection policy. Second, I study the role of living arrangements on life satisfaction – an indicator of social integration – as recent immigrants go through processes of adaptation. Finally, I study ethnic differences in interpartnering – an indicator of and mechanism for integration – among Latin American immigrants, a population that has increased considerably in recent years.First, I study differences in living arrangements by entry status over the first four years of arrival to shed light on the relationship between immigrant family dynamics, adaptation processes and selection policy using data from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC). Explanations for doubling-up − coresidence with extended kin and non-kin − among immigrants center on life-course events, culture, and economic need. Empirical evidence on how entry status influences the duration of being doubled-up remains limited. Findings suggest that using a linear effect of time since arrival to measure the migration process without considering variations by entry status is misleading. Second, I study the role of living arrangements on life satisfaction – an indicator of social integration – as recent immigrants go through processes of adaptation. As in the first paper, I use LSIC and cross-sectional and longitudinal logistic regression models. Findings here provide evidence that social and economic integration make a significant contribution to immigrant life satisfaction, while co-residents and living arrangements have a small influence on satisfaction shortly after arrival, and over time. Finally, using the 2006 Canadian Census, I study ethnic differences in interpartnering – an indicator of and mechanism for integration – among Latin American immigrants, examining their unions with co-nationals, non-conational foreign-born, and non-conational Canadian-born. The analysis evaluates the contribution of social exchange theory, demographic accounts, and theories of immigrant integration. Evidence from multinomial logit regressions shows that differences in exogamy between immigrants from these four countries are more prominent for men than women for both types of interpartnering, and the most pronounced country differences in interpartnering are for partnerships with non-conational foreign-born. Findings further show differences in the explanatory factors by type of partnering. The contributions of this dissertation are threefold. At the empirical level, this dissertation offers the first evaluation using nationally representative Canadian data of the outcomes under study. At the methodological level, the use of longitudinal data and fixed-effects models contributes to the understanding of the migrant adaptation process. These models account for entry status, personality, ethnicity, cultural values, and norms that are difficult to measure in quantitative studies, and that may be related to selectivity processes in family dynamics. Finally, it makes a theoretical contribution to the immigrant integration literature by showing that socialization processes and modes of incorporation do not explain interpartnering with non-conational foreign-born, demonstrates the need for a better understanding of immigrant ethnic boundaries, and shows a non-homogenous effect of time since arrival by entry status.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.