Abstract

This research offers a genealogical analysis of the concept of integration as it exists---and has existed over the last 36 years---within the Quebec government's immigration discourse. Methodologically, this analysis generally restricts itself to exacting a conceptual critique of integration and identifying the problems surrounding and embedded within the term at that level. This investigation adopts a two-pronged approach, it first outlines the nuances and complexities that constitute l'identitaire québécois' state of play and the relationship it shares with the concept, ethic and goal of integration . Second, this genealogy assesses the discursive body of integration as it has emerged, mutated and persisted in Quebec's immigration discourse. Of particular interest is locating how and where integration fits into Quebec's salient antinomy with respect to its cultural identity: namely the negotiation between a preservation of identity(s) and an openness to difference. By dint of a thorough Foucauldian genealogy of integration's emergence ( Entstehung ) along with its descent ( Herkunft ) within the Annual Reports issued (by various immigration ministries) between 1968-2004, this work deconstructs and problematizes integration as both an ethical and formative approach to immigration practice. After having thoroughly curated the concept of integration via its limitations and complications, this research posits that integration is not the most apposite of concepts. In fact, I argue that Quebec's immigration practice and services might be better served by working under an ethic of coordination.