ABSTRACT
International population movements have been a key feature of globalization. With the rapid economic restructuring of recent years, most urban centres in advanced economies have been transformed by a significant level of global migration (Castles and Miller 2003). Migrants arrive through different means and under different administrative categories, depending on the purposes and conditions of their travel. They include people working in unskilled jobs, asylum seekers, highly skilled workers, entrepreneurs, students and tourists. For most immigrant-accepting countries, the four latter groups have been considered more welcome as sources of labour and innovation – and, of course, consumer spending – and have therefore been favoured with friendlier migration policies. This has been the case in Canada too. Since the mid-1980s, the numbers of ‘economic-class immigrants’, foreign students and tourists have grown significantly in major Canadian cities.
