Sarah Virginia Wayland Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School Advisory Committee: Professor Ted Robert Gurr, Chairman/Advisor © Copyright by Abstract/Preface/Dedication/Acknowledgements/Table of Contents/List of Figures Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Appendix/Bibliography ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: IMMIGRANTS INTO CITIZENS: POLITICAL MOBILIZATION IN FRANCE AND CANADA Sarah Virginia Wayland, Doctor of Philosophy, 1995 Dissertation directed by: Ted Robert Gurr, Professor of Government and Politics University of Maryland College Park The significant postwar migration of ethnoracial minorities from lesser developed countries to industrial democracies has profound political implications. In addition to challenges posed to the nation-state ideal in terms of citizenship and diversity, this migration poses challenges to those immigrant minorities who want to exercise political voice, often without citizenship. Using two case countries, Canada and France, this dissertation uses a social movements framework to examine how immigrants and their descendants meet this challenge. For each country, three collective action efforts of the 1980s involving immigrants and their descendants were considered. The issues are not immigration questions but rather integration questions affecting the roles minorities assume in larger society. In France, the cases are the movement for foreigners' voting rights in local elections, mobilization against proposed reform of the French Nationality Code, and the "Muslim headscarf affair." The Canadian cases were activism for more police accountability in Metropolitan Toronto, mobilization for employment equity legislation in Ontario, and demands for more culturally-sensitive social services. Most political activity was organized through voluntary associations -- either communally-based or inter-ethnic -- and included direct protest such as marches or even violence. For each issue, I examined the evolution of the debate, collective action taken, and the outcomes. Information was gathered through interviews and archival research in Paris and Toronto. On a more theoretical level, this research explores what types of issues engender mobilization and under what circumstances collective action is likely to be successful. This comparative inquiry indicates that minority mobilization is shaped, indeed constrained, by political opportunity structures (POS) in the country of settlement. Of particular relevance to minority action are cultural components of POS, including (1) the dominant model of minority incorporation, ranging from assimilation to cultural pluralism; (2) the settlement country's understanding and definition of citizenship; and (3) the historical importance of immigration to national development. In addition, state-society relations -- especially the distinction between strong and weak state traditions -- are considered. The findings of this research indicate that political culture is indeed a determinant of mobilization demands and outcomes, a correlation which is especially evident in France, a strong state. PREFACE In between the embryonic stages of this dissertation research and its completion, momentous changes have occurred in the international system. With the accelerating process of global integration and the end of the Cold War, increasing attention is being paid to conflicts that have little to do with the forces of communism. The conflicts of the 1990s instead center on identity issues, namely differences of ethnicity, religion, and race. Transnational migration is both a cause and a consequence of these conflicts. Neither the migration nor the conflicts are new, but, as we face the close of the twentieth century, their salience has become such that they can no longer be ignored. Though in industrialized democracies these conflicts are rarely of the life-threatening magnitudes seen in developing states, the arrival of millions of immigrants from the far corners of the earth poses serious challenges to receiving societies. These challenges include how to maintain national identity despite increasing pluralism, how to ensure the participation and representation of ethnoracial minorities in democratic states, and -- most seriously -- how to prevent the deterioration of ethnic and race relations in times of economic hardship and uncertainty about the future. That these challenges must be successfully met is imperative because, even as Western European and North American states struggle to secure their borders, migration continues unabated. Immigrants and their descendants must be incorporated into existing social fabrics, even if doing so requires some alteration. If this dissertation contributes in a small way to our understanding of how immigrants and ethnoracial minorities can best negotiate their own incorporation into their settlement societies, it will have been worth the effort. My own interest in migration issues dates to the spring of 1987, when I took a semester abroad to live in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. My first time overseas, I was struck by the similarities of the situation of Muslim North Africans in France with that of African-Americans in the United States. I was intrigued by this variant of ethnic conflict on a personal level, and gradually came back to this interest several years later in graduate school when I uncovered the rapidly growing literature on transnational migration. This area of study ties together many of my interests, including human rights, ethnic and race relations, the gap between the industrialized world and lesser developed countries, social movements, the social implications of politics, and the changing dimensions of international relations and of national security. I continue to be fascinated by these subjects and amazed that until recently they have received so little attention by political scientists. With the increased media and scholarly attention given to protracted communal conflicts around the world, this appears to be changing. DEDICATION To my parents, David and Virginia Wayland, whose own passions for social justice have served as an inspiration ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people who have made this dissertation possible, first and foremost the interviewees who gave generously of their time, often when they had little time to give. (For those who refused to return phone calls, I have less sympathy.) Without the cooperation and candor of persons from immigrant associations, community organizations, and government agencies, this study would have suffered greatly. Their participation lies at the heart of this research. This project never would have occurred had I not received financial assistance to live abroad. A pre-dissertation fellowship from the Institute for European Studies at Columbia University (1990) and a Fulbright award (1992-93) allowed me to conduct research in Paris. A Canadian Studies graduate student fellowship from the Canadian government (1992) and, most recently, the "Loukidelis Charity Fund" provided funds for research in Toronto. There are a number of professors and researchers who helped to shape the direction of this research. In Paris, I owe particular thanks to Catherine Wihtol de Wenden, Patrick Weil, and Pierre Favre. The resourceful staff at CIEMI and REMISIS, Christine Pelloquin in particular, also deserve mention. In Toronto, Ted Richmond of OCASI helped me to grasp the complexities of social service provision in Ontario. At the University of Maryland, I thank my dissertation committee for wading through this large document without complaint. I am especially grateful to Mark Miller, who commuted from the University of Delaware for my defense so that I could make use of his immigration expertise. His own dissertation research on the political activism of foreign workers in France, Germany, and Switzerland served as the original inspiration for my own research. The person who most influenced and supported my research agenda has of course been my advisor, Ted Gurr. I was first motivated to undertake this research while enrolled in his graduate seminar on civil conflict in 1989. Although at that time I was in the master's program at Maryland, his seminar opened up a whole new field of interest to me and ultimately led me to stay at Maryland to complete my Ph.D. His encouragement and guidance inspired me to apply for -- and receive -- funding to study the political situation of immigrants in France the following summer. Since that preliminary research, Ted Gurr has helped me to modify research plans numerous times, never failing to support my research and its (potential) importance. His gentle guidance and his abilities as a teacher and a scholar provide a model that any graduate student would be honored to emulate. I owe other intellectual and emotional debts to a number of friends. To name only a few, Beth Blake, Sara Hodges, and David Blatt have been real sources of peer support. In addition to regular e-mail correspondance, Beth helped me to cope with the administrative hassles of being a long-distance graduate student and has helped me to cope in general. Sara was always armed with encouraging words and a perky wit, and David empathized on the trials of dissertation research in France. If all students of social movements were as entertaining as David, I should be quite content. I am also grateful to the Maryland graduate students who participated in the Conflict Working Group of 1991-92 where I was first able to present and refine my research ideas. Finally, I thank John Loukidelis who has encouraged me through the entire process of dissertation research and writing. His tenacious support of my abilities has been a source of courage. I made his acquaintance in the same months when I was beginning to think about this research, and in the meantime we were married. Some projects take longer than others...
TABLE OF CONTENTS Section CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER TWO: MIGRATION, THE NATION-STATE, AND NATIONAL IDENTITY STRUCTURES
CHAPTER THREE: THE FRENCH REPUBLICAN TRADITION
CHAPTER FOUR: THE CANADIAN "MOSAIC"
CHAPTER FIVE: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES AND MOBILIZATION IN FRANCE AND CANADA
CHAPTER SIX: MOBILIZATION AND ITS OUTCOMES IN FRANCE
CHAPTER SEVEN: MOBILIZATION AND ITS OUTCOMES IN CANADA
CHAPTER EIGHT: TOWARDS A THEORY OF MINORITY MOBILIZATION
APPENDIX: IMMIGRANT, ETHNORACIAL MINORITY, AND SOLIDARITY ORGANIZATIONS INTERVIEWED
Number 2. NATIONAL IDENTITY STRUCTURES 3. MOBILIZATION OUTCOMES, BASED ON POS COMPONENTS Abstract/Preface/Dedication/Acknowledgements/Table of Contents/List of Figures Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Appendix/Bibliography
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