Working site on citizenship and multiculturalism issues.
2013/09/04 Leave a comment
For those who have not seen this, my promo sheet for my forthcoming book. Given the vagaries of pdf on WordPress, requires an additional click.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_jsOUAY72bycnJWQzdMUHRocFk/edit?usp=sharing
2013/09/04 Leave a comment
While a sound administrative measure, one that has the convenience of reducing the numbers that tell a terrible story of the government’s handling of citizenship, it does not address the fundamental administrative and processing challenges of the citizenship program, reflecting chronic under management across a number of years and governments.
Australia processes 60 percent of its citizenship applications within 60 days, Canada is over 2 years. Speaks for itself, after all, from a service perspective, the government also has to take citizenship processing seriously, not just the applicants.
Federal government to reduce citizenship backlog by slashing dormant applications.
2013/09/01 Leave a comment
As mine is mentioned, thought I should post.
2013/08/31 Leave a comment
A good reading list for those interested.
Flophouse Citizenship and International Migration Reading List Updated.
2013/08/22 Leave a comment
For my American readers interested in the process US Senator Cruz has to go through to renounce his Canadian citizenship, this article will be helpful. And yes, it takes time, not just a speech or statement.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz may have to wait 8 months to stop being Canadian – The Globe and Mail.
2013/08/21 Leave a comment
In what can only be seen as playing to xenophobic tendencies, inspriré à la française, the Parti Québecois’s leaked proposal for a Charter of Quebec Values, that would exclude any government employee in any function (e.g., hospitals, schools, garbage collection, the list is endless) from wearing any religious sign. Laicisme extrème.
Rather than addressing the political reality of Quebec feelings of vulnerability through the more nuanced approach of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission’s laïcité ouverte (see Rapport Bouchard-Taylor – Pourquoi la laïcité ouverte ? | Le Devoir) , where the only those government posts where government neutrality must be explicit (e.g., law enforcement, judges, President of the Assemblée national), the PQ went for an exclusionary, divisive approach.
Encouragingly, whether it was a trial balloon, all opposition parties in the Assemblée nationale have spoken against it as have many Quebec commentators (in English Canada, when we poll people about comfort level with religious signs, discomfort increases with the degree of religiosity expressed, but people have largely come to terms with this as part of living in a diverse society). Expect of course that other views will also come out, as is normal in any public debate, and we shall see whether the PQ succeeds in making this a wedge issue.
And of course, no such law would survive challenge under any human rights legislation in Quebec or Canada, not to mention the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Lots written on this and a selection of articles below for those interested.
Charte des valeurs québécoises – Une fuite mal reçue | Le Devoir.
Opinion Quebec’s Putinesque idea to ban religious garb from public workplaces – Globe and Mail
L’interdiction des symboles religieux serait une erreur, selon Charles Taylor, La Presse
Turbans, hijabs, kippas face restrictions in Quebec, Macleans
2013/08/21 Leave a comment
A good discussion of birthright citizenship by Victoria Ferauge that captures some of the issues, as well as questioning the philosophical basis for birthright citizenship.
As always with these kinds of policy discussions – and they are needed and valuable – is that they need to be weighed against the practical impact of changes, particularly for immigration-based countries where birthright citizenship has traditionally been the most simple approach.
But as many have noted, beyond “birth tourism” concerns, the nature of citizenship is changing as people have increasingly complex lives and identities, and governments need to reflect on these changes and implications.
The Franco-American Flophouse: Ted Cruz: Birthright Citizenship is Not Voluntary.
2013/08/19 2 Comments
Just finished the final edits – substantive, copy and formatting. On track for September 16 release. Good feeling, now on to pre-production and marketing.
2013/08/13 Leave a comment
Robert Sibley of The Citizen on birth tourism. As per my earlier post (‘Birth tourists’ believed to be using Canada’s citizenship laws as back door into the West | National Post), while the CIC consultations earlier this year were helpful in clarifying the nature of the problem, and suggesting that it was more widespread among more communities, it was not ‘hard’ evidence with ‘hard’ numbers. It was rather ‘informed anecdote’ without the due diligence of applying more rigorous statistical analysis based on medicare billing and other records.
It may be adequate to give the government cover to change Canadian legislation – and there is, in today’s globalized world, a case to be made. However, CIC has not managed well previous policy and program changes, with the result that the number of Canadians granted citizenship fell 37 percent in 2012 (from an average of 172,000 during 2007-11 to 113,000 in 2012), and the waiting period increased to 25 months (Australia’s is 6 months). And like all changes, the linkages between citizenship and related federal and provincial policies (e.g., vital stats) require detailed attention to get the balance right between improved citizenship integrity (needed) and efficient service to Canadians.
So a note of caution to Sibley and others: current implementation problems in citizenship can undermine the policy rationale.
2013/08/13 Leave a comment
A very good, reflective TED talk, by Pico Ayer (thanks to The Franco-American Flophouse), on where one comes from and our increasingly fluid identities. For the many of us who draw our identity from a variety of different places, cultures and experiences, it captures how our notion of time and space has changed, and how we have to build our own sense of who we are, and the stillness to appreciate it.
A contrast to the citizenship ‘boxes’ that governments, for understandable reasons, have to put us into.
Click image for book purchase
