Special Event

Immigration and Citizenship Policies in Canada and France: a “Civic Turn”?

Respect for the “Values of the Republic” as a Prerequisite for Immigrant Integration in France

Myriam Hachimi Alaoui, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Le Havre Normandie, IDEES-Le Havre (UMR 6266 IDEES – CNRS), French Collaborative Institute on Migration (CI Migration)
Janie Pélabay, FNSP Research Fellow at Sciences Po, Centre for Political Research (CEVIPOF), CNRS (UMR 7048)

The Dark Side of Canada’s Naturalization Regime: Failing the Most Vulnerable?

Delphine Nakache, Associate Professor of Law, University of Ottawa
Elke Winter, William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies, Harvard University, and Professor of Sociology, University of Ottawa

Chair: Yossi Harpaz, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Tel-Aviv University

Discussant: Saskia Bonjour, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, University of Amsterdam

Workshop co-sponsored by the Fonds France-Canada pour la Recherche, Ministère de lʼEnseignement supérieur, de la Recherche et de lʼInnovation, République française

Myriam Hachimi Alaoui is Associate Professor at the University Le Havre Normandie and at IDEES-Le Havre (UMR 6266 IDEES – CNRS), French Collaborative Institute on Migration (CI Migration). with a specialization in sociology of citizenship, immigration and nationality. Her current research focuses on the sense of national belonging in France and French overseas (Mayotte) that she investigates from both an institutional and biographical approach. Her articles on these topics appear in a series of edited volumes and journals such as Ethnologie française (2018), Politix (2016), Canadian Journal of Women and the Law (2012). She is also the author of a monograph on Algerian refugees in France and Canada in the 1990’s, entitled Les chemins de l’exil (2007).

Saskia Bonjour is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. She teaches mostly in the field of gender & politics and intersectionality. Her research focuses on the politics of migration and citizenship in Europe. She is especially interested in family migration, civic integration, gender and migration, and Europeanisation. Through her study of the politics and policies of migration and citizenship, Saskia Bonjour explores how political actors define identities and communities, i.e. how they distinguish between ‘us’ and ‘them’. Her research is about how these actors define criteria of membership as well as the rights and resources which flow from different degrees of membership and deservingness, and thus what it means to belong. Recent publications include the Routledge Handbook of the Politics of Migration in Europe, co-edited with Agnieszka Weinar and Lyubov Zhyznomirska, as well as a special issue on Migration and Social Class, co-edited with Sébastien Chauvin and published in International Migration.

Yossi Harpaz is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Tel-Aviv University. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Weatherhead Center, Harvard University. Harpaz has earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from Princeton University. His research interests include citizenship, globalization, international migration, national identity, and social theory. His first book, Citizenship 2.0: Dual Nationality as a Global Asset, was published in 2019 by Princeton University Press. The book examines the global consequences of states’ increasing toleration of dual citizenship. It argues that the proliferation of dual citizenship creates opportunities for individuals from less developed countries to strategically acquire a second nationality, which they use as a premium passport, insurance policy, or even status symbol. Harpaz's research has also been published in the International Migration Review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and other journals and edited volumes.

Delphine Nakache is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa (Faculty of Law, Common Law section). She teaches courses in the areas of public international law, immigration and refugee law, and human rights law. She has researched and published on issues related to the human rights and security-based implications of migration, citizenship and refugee laws and policies, both in Europe and Canada. Her main focus is on issues surrounding the protection of migrant workers, asylum seekers and non-status migrants, and on barriers to citizenship for disadvantaged immigrants. She is currently working (with co-author Le Bouthillier) on an English version of her book on citizenship law in Canada (2016), which is expected to be published in 2020. For more on her projects and publications, see: https://commonlaw.uottawa.ca/en/people/nakache-delphine

Janie Pélabay is FNSP tenured Research Fellow at Sciences Po, Centre for Political Research (CEVIPOF), CNRS (UMR 7048). In the field of political philosophy, she investigates the theoretical and practical challenges posed by pluralism to liberal democracy, and the contemporary debates on state neutrality, multiculturalism and patriotism. Her current research focuses on the political uses of “shared values” in public discourses and policies related to civic education, immigration, European integration. Her recent publications include an article on citizenship revocation (co-authored with R. Sénac) in Citizenship Studies (2019) and a paper on communitarian equality in International Social Science Journal (2017) as well as a number of chapters on the French politics of common values in volumes edited by Presses de Sciences Po.

Elke Winter is this year’s William Lyon Mackenzie King Chair in Canadian Studies at the WCFIA. She is also a Full Professor of Sociology at the University of Ottawa where she co-chairs the research cluster on Migration, Ethnic Pluralism and Citizenship at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Citizenship and Minorities. Professor Winter’s most recent book Us, Them, and Others: Pluralism and National Identity in Diverse Societies(University of Toronto Press, 2011) was awarded the Canadian Sociological Association’s John Porter Tradition of Excellence Prize.The book draws on Canada to examine the interests and ideas that propel a national majority to integrate a positively connoted conception of ethnic diversity into its collective imaginary. Professor Winter’s current research examines how expressions of citizenship – access, loss, and claims – reproduce the nation as an ethnically/racially and economically defined status group.