“Efficient” Immigrant Selection: Québec State Legitimacy and the Mobility Migratory Paradigm
In 2016, the Québec government passed the first complete overhaul of its Immigration Act since 1968. This article presents an exploratory analysis of the consideration in committee of Bill 77 at the National Assembly. Bill 77 later became the 2016 Québec Immigration Act. In dialogue with Hélène Pellerin’s work, this article considers whether the mobility migratory paradigm was visible in the speeches of elected officials involved in the parliamentary work around Bill 77. The qualitative analysis demonstrates that principles stemming from the mobility migratory paradigm are indeed influential in Québec immigration policy. In particular, this article documents the rising importance of the theme of “efficient immigration selection” in parliamentary debates and discusses how it might respond to new needs for the legitimization of government actors in the management of immigration in Québec.