Middle Class Nation-building through Immigration? (2022)
September 21–23, 2022
About the Conference
From Nicolas Sarkozy to Donald Trump, many Western leaders have expressed envy of Canada’s market-driven immigration policy, which, in the words of the former French President privileges immigration “chosen” not “endured” immigration. Striving to reboot its economy hard-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Canadian government further boosts immigration levels, specifically highly skilled economic immigration. This workshop will situate Canada’s ethnically heterogeneous middle-class nation-building in a comparative perspective. Indeed, many UN member states have tabled legislation that emulate the Canadian example of facilitating the influx of ethnoculturally diverse upper middle-class immigrants. These political decisions come at a time of unprecedented opposition by native populations in North America and Europe to what they see as the dismantling of their social and cultural citizenship rights by alleged global elites and unwanted migrants.
This workshop addresses the opportunities, challenges, and shortfalls of ethnically diverse middle-class nation-building against the backdrop of increasing divisions along the lines of class, culture, and status in receiving societies who also happen to be liberal democracies. Panellists provide answers to the following questions: Is there such as thing as middle-class nation-building through immigration? If so, a) how is its current version different from past editions and b) what are potential national/regional variations? Furthermore, what are the normative, political, and empirical prospects and pitfalls of this new logic of remodelling membership in the polity?
Wednesday, September 21
Room 212, Harvard Faculty Club, 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge
5:00 Welcome reception
6:00 Dinner
Thursday, September 22
Room 205, Harvard Faculty Club 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge
8:45–9:00 Coffee, pastries, fruit
9:00–10:00 Opening remarks
- Michèle Lamont, Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies, Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies
- Elke Winter, Professor of Sociology, University of Ottawa and William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies, Harvard University
The Race for Talent and its Discontents
10:00–11:00 Session I
Immigration to Build the Nation, Not to Transform it. Preferences in Immigrants’ National Origin and Social Classes in Quebec
- Antoine Bilodeau, Concordia University and Audrey Gagnon, University of Oslo
- Chair: Oliver Schmidtke, University of Victoria
- Discussants: Giovanni Matera, Harvard University, and Mathieu Lizotte, University of Ottawa
11:00–11:15 Coffee Break
11:15–12:15 Session II
Race for Talent: Immigrants, Refugees and the Tenacity of a Discourse on Skills in Canada
- Yasmeen Abu-Laban, University of Alberta
- Chair: Benjamin Zyla, University of Ottawa
- Discussants: Mary Waters, Harvard University, and George Borjas, Harvard University
12:15–1:30 Lunch, Room 212
1:30–2:30 Session III
Bound by Time: Temporary Migration Schemes in Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates
- David Cook-Martin, University of Colorado, Boulder
- Chair: Antoine Bilodeau, Concordia University
- Discussant: Jackie Bhabha, Harvard University
Migration and Neoliberalism
2:30–3:30 Session IV
Skillful and Classless? Immigration, Nation, and Class from a Transnational Perspective
- Magdalena Nowicka, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
- Chair: Efe Peker, University of Ottawa
- Discussant: Natasha Warikoo, Tufts University
3:30–4:00 Coffee Break
4:00–5:00 Session V
The New Nation-building Nationalism: From Liberal to Neoliberal
- Christian Joppke, University of Bern
- Chair: Yasmeen Abu-Laban, University of Alberta
- Discussant: Peter A. Hall, Harvard University
Friday, September 23
Room 205, Harvard Faculty Club 20 Quincy Street, Cambridge
8:45–9:00 Coffee, pastries, fruit
Social Inequality and Polarizations
9:00–10:00 Session VI
Confronting or Incorporating Middle-class Nation-building through Immigration and Multiculturalism: Right-wing Parties in the Pan-Canadian Context
- Efe Peker, University of Ottawa and Elke Winter, University of Ottawa
- Chair: Magdalena Nowicka, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
10:00–11:00 Session VII
Migration as a Political Wedge Issue: Germany's Centre-right and Right Wing Parties between Anti-Immigrant Nativism, Economic Nationalism, and Marketization
- Oliver Schmidtke, University of Victoria
- Chair: Audrey Gagnon, University of Oslo
- Discussants: Lorenza Antonucci, Harvard University, and Georg Menz, Old Dominion University
11:00–11:15 Coffee Break
11:15–12:15 Wider Perspectives, Concluding Thoughts, SI Agenda
- Chair: Elke Winter, University of Ottawa