Explaining immigration casework in federal Members of Parliament's district offices in Canada

In Canada, a majority of federal constituency offices deal primarily with immigration files. The few qualitative studies on the subject show that the resources dedicated to these files and the type of work carried out on the immigration files handled vary between offices, thus contributing to disparities in service between federal electoral districts. How can such variation be explained? Based on the quantitative analysis of unpublished administrative data, this article first highlights the diversity of files handled by constituency offices, as well as the types of intervention carried out by constituency assistants. It then aims to explain the variations in case processing according to the type of case and the volume of requests handled. Studies of constituents' files received and processed at constituency office level have argued that the political ideology, gender and ethnicity of the deputy as well as the demographics of the constituency are explanatory factors. This analysis shows that in the case of immigration files, constituency demography is the most important factor, while the MP's political affiliation plays a very limited role. These results shed new light on the factors involved in the processing of immigration cases at constituency level, and add nuance to previous, mainly qualitative analyses. Our results also contribute to understanding the work of constituency offices for constituents, which appears to be far less partisan than in other countries where similar offices exist. Au Canada, une majorit & eacute; de bureaux de circonscription f & eacute;d & eacute;rale traite principalement des dossiers d'immigration. Les quelques & eacute;tudes qualitatives portant sur le sujet montrent que les ressources d & eacute;di & eacute;es & agrave; ces dossiers et le type de travail effectu & eacute; sur les dossiers d'immigration trait & eacute;s varient entre les bureaux, contribuant ainsi & agrave; des disparit & eacute;s de services entre les circonscriptions & eacute;lectorales f & eacute;d & eacute;rales. Comment expliquer une telle variation? En s'appuyant sur l'analyse quantitative de donn & eacute;es administratives in & eacute;dites, cet article met d'abord en & eacute;vidence la diversit & eacute; des dossiers trait & eacute;s par les bureaux de circonscription ainsi que les types d'intervention effectu & eacute;s par les adjoints de circonscription. Ensuite, il vise & agrave; expliquer les variations du traitement des dossiers en fonction du type de dossier et du volume des demandes trait & eacute;. Les & eacute;tudes sur les dossiers de commettants re & ccedil;us et trait & eacute;s au niveau des bureaux de circonscription ont soutenu que l'id & eacute;ologie politique, le genre et l'ethnicit & eacute; du d & eacute;put & eacute; ainsi que la d & eacute;mographie de la circonscription sont des facteurs explicatifs. Cette analyse montre que dans le cas des dossiers d'immigration, la d & eacute;mographie de la circonscription est le facteur le plus important, tandis que l'appartenance politique du d & eacute;put & eacute; joue un r & ocirc;le tr & egrave;s limit & eacute;. Ces r & eacute;sultats apportent un nouvel & eacute;clairage sur les facteurs du traitement des dossiers d'immigration au niveau des circonscriptions et nuancent les analyses ant & eacute;rieures, principalement qualitatives. Nos r & eacute;sultats contribuent & eacute;galement & agrave; la compr & eacute;hension du travail des bureaux de circonscription pour les commettants, qui semble & ecirc;tre bien moins partisan que dans d'autres pays o & ugrave; des bureaux semblables existent.