Negotiating Places of Incorporation: Comparing the Practices of Community Development Organisations in Immigration and Incorporation

Abstract

Negotiations over immigration in place involve interactions and encounters of immigrant and non-immigrant actors, organisations and institutions. This study analyses the role of community development organisations in these negotiations and compares organisations in Winnipeg, Canada, Providence, the USA, and Copenhagen, Denmark, through two relational frameworks—incorporation and relational urban comparatives. In these three cases, state resources influenced organisational structures, and state narratives acted as ‘focusing events’ shaping the content of organisational work. Organisations with the greatest resources and capacity to negotiate were least accountable to residents and least connected to their experiences. Variety within and between cases provides suggestions for strengthened practice with regard to immigration, settlement and membership. These include the importance of—and possibility for—creating deeper organisational democracy, enabling organisations to include the cultural skills of immigrant residents, gaining wider support within the community and providing opportunities for immigrant residents to engage directly with state actors. Results suggest the importance of being attentive to the variety of means through which organisations engage with the state, including the potential influence of cooperative strategies and a mistranslation of neoliberalising narratives, where community development actors emphasise and promote ideals around public welfare in work with immigrant residents.