Discourse Analysis on News Media Coverage on Changes to Canada's Family Reunification Program

Background and Purpose:  Family reunification is an integral component of immigration policies in Canada, USA and Europe as it can facilitate immigrant families’ well-being, settlement and integration. Yet, allowing older family members (e.g. parents and grandparents) to access immigration has become a hotly-debated issue in contemporary immigration debates. For instance, notable changes have been made to Canada’s family reunification program that generally limit older adults’ (aged 65+) permanent migration in favour of temporary visits. Critics note that such policy changes devalue older immigrants’ valuable contributions to their families and assume them as a burden on state resources.
Little social work research attention has been given to the impact of these policy changes on immigrant families and how these policies are circulated through the media to influence public opinion about older immigrants. This study fills this knowledge gap.

Methods: A range of news media coverage (e.g. articles, op-ed pieces and commentaries) was systematically searched in Canada’s three largest English newspapers: 1) The Toronto Star 2) The National Post and 3) The Globe & Mail. Articles were included if they were published in English, covered the policy changes to Canada's family reunification program since 2011 and made reference to immigrant families and/or older adults. Informed by critical views on language and discourse including van Dijk (1982) and van Leeuwin (2008), data analysis involved coding for themes using data and theory-driven codes facilitated with HyperResearch qualitative software.

Findings: Thirty-one newspaper articles embodying three major themes/discourses were identified. One major discourse was the media’s active and uncritical role in confirming the state’s narrative that the policy changes are meant to be systemic overhauls and improvements. A second discourse constructed older immigrants’ identities as ‘unproductive’ to the economy and a ‘burden’ on the health care system. This discourse is strengthened by an erasure or minimal recognition of older immigrants’ meaningful contributions to the family including care for grandchildren and emotional support provided to other family members. A third discourse revealed a process of commodifying immigrant families’ emotions in which their continued separation is discounted in favour of reporting on their failure to successfully navigate systemic hurdles such as complex applications, quotas and lotteries.

Conclusions and Implications: This study indicates that within media discourses, older immigrants’ identities are constructed within a complex milieu of previously circulating media discourses in which old age is equated with dependency/lowered productivity and immigrant status is paralleled with criminality and being an outsider. Findings suggest that these problematic discourses require social workers to develop advocacy efforts and practice approaches which ensure older immigrants’ wellbeing, access to citizenship rights and acceptance within the nation-state.