The Contentious Politics of Resettlement Programs: Evidence from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Abstract

Labelling resettlement programs as voluntary suggests that they cause little contention and are devoid of coercion. But is this representation accurate? Drawing on unpublished government documents and media reports, we provide a detailed case study of the Community Relocation Policy (CRP) of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) from 2009 to the present. We show that CRP has been fraught with contention due to the nature of the voting process and the slow and uncertain nature of the community-oriented consultative process. This article highlights the ways in which coercion has emerged from within the very communities considering resettlement, in addition to any coercion that might come from government officials.