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Research shows that the longer immigrants have been in their settlement country, the more likely they are to vote. This study examines whether when immigrants arrived, rather than how long they have resided, is the critical determinant of their electoral participation. Using Canadian data covering a 45‐year time span, this study demonstrates that the apparent relationship between immigrants' length of residence and their propensity to vote in elections is a result of the enduring influence of the historical period in which immigrants arrived in Canada. The results have implications for how researchers interpret immigrant adaptation to new political settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a context of backlash against diversity in many countries, we know little about how ethnic minorities respond politically when they personally experience discrimination. Moving beyond the study of electoral participation, this research investigates whether experiences of discrimination push ethnic minorities toward an alternate political pathway for those who feel sidelined by the political community: protest activity. The study also examines whether the context of discrimination (i.e. public or private sphere) has different consequences for protest participation, and whether intragroup contact enhances the effects of discrimination on protest participation. Relying on a survey of 1647 respondents from racialized backgrounds in Canada, our findings indicate that discriminatory experiences increase participation in protest activities irrespective of its context, and that the positive relationship between discriminatory experiences and protest activity is stronger among respondents with greater intragroup contact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well documented that the strength of national attachment relates to attitudes toward ethnocultural diversity, and that the direction of the relationship varies across national contexts. Yet, little attention has been given to the fact that attachments may not be expressed solely at the national level. In federal and multinational states, individuals can express attachment to the country and to its territorial units. This study investigates the relationship between (national and provincial) attachments and attitudes toward ethnocultural diversity in the Canadian federation. Our findings indicate that stronger attachments to Canada lead to more positive attitudes toward ethnocultural diversity in all provinces. They also demonstrate that provincial attachments relate to attitudes toward ethnocultural diversity both in a minority nation provincial context (Quebec) and in other provinces (Alberta and Saskatchewan), but that the direction of this relationship can be of opposite direction than that for attachment to Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigrants' sense of belonging to their host communities is viewed as a core condition for their successful inclusion, but there is no consensus on which attributes of belonging are most relevant to understanding inclusion, nor is there agreement on how the sense of belonging ought to be measured empirically. This study examines how two related but independent dimensions of belonging help to better understand the political inclusion of visible minority immigrants in Canada. More specifically, it examines the role of feeling attached (immigrants' feeling toward the host community) and the role of feeling accepted (immigrants' sense of how their host communities feel about them). We assess the relationship between attachment, acceptance and political inclusion for both first‐ and second‐generation visible minority Canadians; the results suggest there is analytical value in utilising separate measures of attachment and acceptance: political inclusion is more likely when both are stronger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generalised trust promotes social interactions and may well be a crucial component of immigrant integration. Recent immigrants in particular are likely to be viewed by themselves and others as ‘outsiders’ who are unfamiliar with the expectations and norms that structure day-to-day social interactions in the host country. This study relies on a unique combination of three sources of data all derived fromWorld Values Surveysto examine levels of trust, and its sources, among newcomers in one country with a large immigrant population, Canada. The evidence indicates that recent immigrants to Canada make a clear distinction between trust in other people in general, and trust in Canadians in particular: the former is grounded in pre-migration cultural influences, while the latter is grounded in immigrants’ experiences in the new host country. Moreover, the evidence suggests trust in Canadians is a crucial component of immigrant integration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In an influential 2002 study, John Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse make the provocative argument that high numbers of Americans seek "stealth democracy," that is, processes that discover the will of the people without requiring substantial citizen effort. This article applies the concept in a Canadian province and argues that the stealth democracy measure represents an ambiguous amalgam of attitudes that are only loosely related to one another, and which do not appear to represent a single, underlying concept. We draw on 2011 Saskatchewan Election Study data and find that Saskatchewan responses to the stealth democracy items generally parallel the responses gathered in previous studies conducted in the United States, Finland, Britain, and Australia. We move beyond these studies by examining the components of the stealth democracy index. We conclude by suggesting that the concept of stealth democracy be rebuilt to better distinguish among attitudes toward democracy, politics, and governing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the factors that lie behind Canada's success at earning the support of its newcomers. It examines the extent to which feelings towards Canada are grounded in immigrants' experiences in the host country, predispositions inherited from their lives prior to migration, and their comparative assessments of the host country and the country of origin. The findings indicate that although feelings towards Canada are partly shaped by post-migration factors, immigrants also interpret experiences in their new host country through the lens of their pre-migration experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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The transformations in recent patterns of immigration have the potential to reshape the trajectory of Canada's regional political dynamics. Drawing on data from the 1993-2006 Canadian Election Studies, this analysis explores how immigrants adjust to the prevailing regional political norms in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Do newcomers adopt the political orientations (feelings towards Canada and their province, confidence in provincial and federal governments, perceptions about how the province is treated by the federal government and support for the Liberal party! that resemble those of their native-born provincial counterparts? The results suggest that immigrants, especially newer waves from non-traditional source countries, tend to develop orientations that are more federally oriented than the local populations in their province. This tendency is most pronounced in Quebec where both groups of immigrants from traditional and non-traditional source countries internalize political grievances and norms less efficiently than their counterparts in other provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the state of parliamentary democracy in Canada. Levels of citizen participation in the state; Role of the failed constitutional changes in the late 1980s and early 1990s in altering the traditional party system; Reactions of the government to citizens either turning out or demanding change; Parliamentary and democratic reform at both the subnational and national levels.