On October 22–23, 2008, the ‘Managing Immigration and Diversity in Quebec and Canada Forum’ took place in Barcelona, Spain. This two-day symposium, founded and directed by Dr. Dan Rodriguez-Garcia, a professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and a member of the Migration Research Group (GRM), brought together 15 internationally renowned Canadian experts to examine and discuss crucial matters such as Government Jurisdiction over Immigration and Diversity; Management of Immigration Flows; Immigration and the Labour Market; Linguistic Policies; Citizenship, Settlement, and Socio-cultural Integration; and Partnerships and Knowledge Transfer between Government, Civil Society, and Universities. The objectives of the Forum were to promote and facilitate the interchange of ideas between European and Canadian networks, to help bridge the research-policy divide, and to produce information that could specifically be applied to the betterment of immigration and diversity management policies in Catalonia, Spain.

The Forum has exceeded the expectations of the organizers. It has been a success in terms of participation outcomes (more than 200 people in attendance) and in terms of encouraging dialogue between scholars and government representatives (including ministers of immigration from different autonomous regions in Spain: Catalonia, the Basque Country, the Valencian Community, Madrid, and Andalusia). In addition, through taking into account the experiences of Canada as a whole and of Quebec in particular, the Forum has had an important political impact, accomplishing a reorientation in several aspects of immigration policy in Catalonia, such as: the desire to establish new initiatives for hiring immigrant workers and for managing immigration flows (e.g., urging a reclamation of the power of autonomous regions to gain access to data on national immigration flows and to determine manageable flows to particular regions; asserting the need to move from a temporary to a permanent immigration policy; advocating for a point system policy that frames entry to the country and the workforce on a long-term basis rather than as a short-term first contract); the favouring and promotion of family reunification; and the push to develop better structures for fostering partnerships and knowledge transfer between government, civil society, and universities in Catalonia.

Click here to see the news on the media related with the Forum.