1 A PAN-CANADIAN SETTLEMENT VOICE: CONSTRAINTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Each year, more than 200,000 persons arrive in Canada seeking to make a new home here. They form part of a growing transnational flow of individuals, goods, services, information, and ideas that characterize a globalized world. Canada needs these newcomers and has a strong interest in ensuring their settlement, including labour market integration, access to education, and civic participation. Newcomers also bring with them new perspectives on governance and social issues. As they move to claim social and political citizenship in Canada, thereby placing their own demands on the system, they challenge the nature of existing institutions and policies. Under conditions of globalization, governance occurs at various levels, in the economic marketplace and in society, within states and transnationally. Power is fragmented and reconstituted in many different centres. In Canada, a three-tier structure of federal, provincial, and municipal governments may be inadequate for meeting the complexities of contemporary immigration. Similarly, existing nongovernmental voices on issues of immigration and settlement may lack the resources to master these complexities