What is it about?
Common wisdom suggests that businesses have an influence on governments when choosing the levels of immigration. It is challenging to measure such an influence, however, let alone reaching conclusions regarding the success of lobbying efforts undertaken by private actors. To overcome such problems, this paper makes use of detailed lobbying data released by the government of Canada, covering the period between 1996 and 2011. I rely on time-series analysis to examine whether changes in the intensity in lobbying efforts by corporations on the topic of immigration are followed by a response in terms of the levels of temporary and permanent immigrants admitted to Canada. The findings suggest that corporate lobbying has had an influence on temporary immigration, but not permanent immigration.
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Why is it important?
The paper shows that increased transparency in the disclosure of lobbying activities has allowed researchers to examine the effects of lobbying empirically. The findings also help to understand the nature of immigration policy in Canada. Whereas permanent immigration is designed with long-term policy objectives in mind, temporary immigration offers more flexibility to address specific industry needs.
Perspectives
The topic of temporary immigration made the headlines in Canada after the publication of this paper, demonstrating the social relevance of its topic and giving additional credence to its findings. In 2014, for instance, the government imposed a moratorium on aspects of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program that came under public scrutiny (for an overview, see https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/temporary-foreign-workers-everything-you-need-to-know/article18363279/). At the heart of the controversy was the reliance on temporary immigration by Canadian businesses.
Ludovic Rheault
University of Toronto
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Corporate Lobbying and Immigration Policies in Canada, Canadian Journal of Political Science, August 2013, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0008423913000644.
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