Migrant and Immigrant Families in Canada: State Coercion and Legal Control in the Formation of Ethnic Families

The central question addressed in this paper is how are immigrant families formed in Canada? This paper suggests that the ‘immigrant family’ is not a fixed, unchanging and primordial attribute of ethnic culture. The forms that foreign-born families have taken in Canada reflect a complex intersection of subjective intentions of migrant groups and structural constraints stemming from the labour market, immigration policy and racism. The state, through its role in regulating the manner in which the boundaries of the nation are to be breached, plays a fundamental role not only in selecting certain groups of immigrants but also in constituting certain forms of familial relationships.