Canada's Super Visa Program: Opportunities, Challenges and Social Justice Implications.

LI, IVY; GURUGE, SEPALI; LEE, CHARLOTTE

Canada implemented its Super Visa initiative in 2011 to facilitate family reunification of parents and grandparents with their immigrant children and grandchildren. We conducted a qualitative study in Toronto with Chinese immigrants and their parents to explore their experiences with the Super Visa program. Our findings reveal that the program is helpful for family reunification, especially for those whose regular visitor visa applications are unsuccessful. However, the Super Visa is still a visitor visa, and at the time of the study, parents were required to leave after two years. We found that the temporary status of their parents did not promote a sense of belonging among immigrants in Canada, and instead reinforced their feeling of being treated as a "foreigner." Our findings also debunked misconceptions that older parents are non-contributors and a burden to Canadian society. We argue the policy change to a Super Visa for parents and grandparents is rooted in the state's neoliberal governmentality, grounded in market norms and mechanisms. The present neoliberal immigration regime remains structurally raced, gendered and classed, although in more implicit forms. Our findings indicate that social justice concerns extend beyond direct social distribution, and can be integrated into immigration policy design, formation and enforcement.

CANADA; TORONTO (Ont.); GRANDPARENTS; FAMILY reunification; SOCIAL justice; CHILDREN of immigrants; IMMIGRANT children; GRANDPARENT-grandchild relationships

Studies in Social Justice, 2023, Vol 17, Issue 3, p477

1911-4788

Academic Journal

10.26522/ssj.v17i3.3648