The initiation of social welfare constructed a particular imaginary of the national public. At its inception in 1927, the Canadian pension included both a (British) citizenship requirement and a residency requirement that precluded the portability of the pension, should the pension recipient move outside of Canada. Over the course of the twentieth century, parliamentary debates succeeded in incrementally rolling back both requirements, reimagining the community of Canadian belonging not through citizenship but instead through contributions to economic development conducive to neoliberal imaginings of the nation. A residency requirement for receipt of the pension, however, remains in effect for the social and universal pensions, the Guaranteed Income Supplement and Old Age Security, which are the most significant measures in preventing poverty among older Canadians. As the author examines among the Ghanaian diaspora in Canada, poorer Canadians face greater restrictions on pension portability and their mobility than higher-wage earners, resulting in fraught and complicated strategies to support their well-being. The residency restrictions on the universal and social pensions generate inequalities among poorer Canadians, particularly racialized immigrant women, and promote a reliance on kin care and support among older adults.
Cati Coe (2026) studied this question.