(WPO10) Temporary Labour, Permanent Struggles: Migrant Workers in a Conditionality Conundrum

Significant research has highlighted intersectional vulnerabilities in low-paid, low-skilled temporary workers; however, medium and high-skilled (and paid) temporary foreign workers also face exploitation through labour conditions and cyclical permit renewal. When compounded with race, gender, ethnicity, and class, temporary work permits heighten intersectional vulnerabilities, impacting both labour conditions and migration trajectories of temporary workers. This session aims to shed light on the overlooked area of medium and high-skilled work, examining the persistence of exclusionary policies within Canada’s migration programs. Papers presented delve into how exploitation and vulnerability transcend skill levels and persist within Canada’s various migration programs. Tags: Migration and Immigration, Work And Professions

Organizers: Sarah Vanderveer, York University, Monisha Poojary, York University; Chairs: Sarah Vanderveer, York University, Monisha Poojary, York University

Presentations

Sarah Vanderveer, York University

Reinventing Nero's Thumb: Immigrant Vulnerability and The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot Program

Im/migration conditionality has a long, complicated, and problematic history in Canada, including: the construction of vulnerability through institutional and exclusionary racist policies and practices (Paquette et al., 2017; Razack, 2002; Sharma, 2006; Stasilus ,1997; Thobani, 2000, 2007; Treitler, 2015), precarious employment conditions (Fuller and Vosko, 2008), and insecure residency status (Goldring et al., 2009; Goldring and Landolt, 2013; Landolt and Goldring, 2016; Preston et al., 2014; Vosko et al., 2009). Historically founded in ideologies of inclusion/exclusion drawn along racialized and ethnic lines, discriminatory immigration policies and processes are often perceived as historical artifacts. However, internalized, and institutionalized biases are reproduced in policy construction and application, sustaining social stratification and relational power dynamics through policy restrictions. These processes combine with stratified and exclusionary immigration policies, wherein insecure residency, and conditional immigration status, renders im/migrant workers particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Despite Canada’s self-characterization as an inclusive, multicultural nation that claims to centre diversity through immigration, ‘race-neutral’ policy combines with gradations of temporariness and insecure residency status to formalize and obscure categorically differential treatment along lines that parallel the overtly racist policies of the past. This paper explores the historical legacies of racist immigration policies and the correlation with impermanent residency. It discusses how these policies have changed over time, yet continue to be re/created, disguised by the discursive packaging of ‘race neutrality’, community development, multiculturalism, and meritocracy; a new configuration is the Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot program (RNIP). Located in twelve rural communities across Canada, the RNIP focuses on supplying skilled foreign workers to small, rural areas through a community-involved settlement process (Government of Canada, Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot: about the pilot, n.d.). This program is incentivized as a potential pathway to permanent residency, and so has significant prospects for attracting skilled, predominantly mid to high wage, workers to rural communities. To be considered, applicants must meet skilled worker, language, education, and financial requirements, find work with an eligible employer in the respective community, and meet community-specific eligibility requirements. To be recommended for permanent residency, applicants must prove both their economic benefit to the employer, and internalized commitment to the community. This ties applicants to their employer and the community, limiting employment and residence mobility, and producing power relations that render the applicant vulnerable to discrimination and exploitation by their employer and community committee members. Migration to rural communities through the RNIP is incentivized by the possibility of permanent residence, a potential pathway towards citizenship, and the inclusion of a community-based committee has the potential to provide a network and support for immigrants as they engage in practices of settlement. However, the decision-making power held by the community committee centres committee subjectivity as a key determinant. It holds a partiality that has the power to re/produce differential treatment and conceptions of difference based on race, gender, and ethnicity (Wright, 2000); a power that re/produces structural violence and sociopolitical liminality (Clisby, 2020). The role, power, and potential impacts of implicit biases are problematic as formal dis/approval is informed by subjective beliefs and potential biases that determine whether an applicant can prove they belong, impacting the potential for securing residency, and increasing the possibilities of discrimination, exploitation, and permanent temporariness. This paper focuses on the theoretical and policy analysis, maps characteristics of key historical immigration policies, related historical legacies, and feedback loops that re/create discrimination and immigrant vulnerability in seemingly neutral modernizations of immigration policy. These foci address key themes of the conference, including the unequal social impacts of policies and practices, policy adaptions that enable ongoing exploitive and discriminatory practices, and makes recommendations to mitigate some potentialities of exploitation and discrimination.

Monisha Poojary, York University

Beyond the Numbers: Assessing the Settlement Trajectory of Highly Skilled Immigrants in Ontario's Rural Landscape

Canada’s rural regions have experienced a decline in population rates over decades. Yet, recent regional-based immigration programs such as the AIP and RNIP have aimed to address such shortages within participating regions. While the AIP focuses on attracting applicants based on an employer-centric model, the RNIP uses a community-centred approach that focuses on attracting applicants that are most likely to remain in the region by focusing on factors like number of family/friends living in the region, previous experience living or working in the region or a similar small-mid town region. These immigration programs have been considered a success with population sizes within some of Canada’s rural region experiencing an increase after years of declining rates. Nonetheless the long term impacts of such immigration programs on these particular regions has yet to be seen. While programs like the RNIP adopt a merit-based approach to selecting applicants based on factors like education, financial status, skills and occupation level, it remains to be seen whether these regions will have the infrastructure and opportunities in place to sustain this new population. Using data from the 2021 census, this explores the settlement experiences of highly skilled immigrants in five rural regions in Ontario that have participated in the RNIP program (North Bay, Sudbury, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay). By looking at factors like labour force status, housing, and financial status, this paper seeks to examine whether such highly skilled immigrants are able to achieve financial stability or whether lack of infrastructure and poor resources means these individuals will undergo processes of deskilling. In doing so, this paper calls to attention the importance of sustainable growth initiatives that aim to address the growing need for immigration in small to mid-size regions while also addressing these infrastructure issues that can sometimes create barriers to long term settlement. 

Thuva Navaratnam, York University

Perpetual Temporariness through Migration Programs: The Construction of the Perfect Neoliberal Worker - The Female Migrant Worker

This study delves deep into the intricate dynamics of neoliberalism, migration, and social reproduction, with a specific focus on the exploitation faced by female migrant domestic workers. The research primarily highlights the plight of racialized women from the global South, who find themselves at the receiving end of exploitation orchestrated by states in the global North, particularly Canada. Employing a Marxist political economy analysis, the study expands the theory of primitive accumulation to introduce the concept of “expansion by expulsion”, a kinetic model that elucidates how the violent processes inherent in capitalism persist in modern times, notably within the framework of neoliberalism, detrimentally affecting migrant workers by constraining them to a state of perpetual temporariness. In the realm of neoliberalism, an unprecedented level of expulsion and expansion takes place, rendering migrant workers—predominantly racialized women—as surplus labour to meet the reproduction needs of the global North. The research explores the phenomenon of “double expulsion”, where women from the global North are expelled from their homes in the form of unpaid reproductive transport labour, while women from the global South, in addition to their own social reproduction, are expelled to fulfill the social reproductive needs of the women from the global North. This process serves as a striking example of the feminization of international migration in the neoliberal era. The study delves further into the role of nationalism, borders, and othering through categorization, such as citizen or migrant worker. It underscores how policies, including Canada’s Non-Immigrant Employment Authorization Program (NIEAP) and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP), position migrant workers as surplus and disposable entities, perpetuating a state of extreme precarity through perpetual temporariness. Within the neoliberal capitalist economy, migrant workers’ rights deliberately face limitations, transforming them into transient servants. This system efficiently serves capital by offloading social reproduction and maintaining a continuous supply of surplus labour. Simultaneously, through remittances, states in the global South, such as Mexico and the Philippines, also offload reproduction. However, this reliance on exporting labour to the global North places the global South in a disadvantageous and exploitable position, perpetuated by strategic policies implemented by the global North. Over the past quarter century, globalization and neoliberal policies have triggered significant shifts in welfare states worldwide. Robust welfare states in the global North have given way to privatization and free-market frameworks, while the global South has witnessed the fragmentation of social protection efforts. This shift has resulted in the privatization of reproduction, with female migrant labour contributing to the perpetuation of traditional gender roles and the never-ending spiral of reliance on the state for social policy. In conclusion, this research underscores the paradox of the feminization of the workforce within the context of neoliberalism, constraining migrant workers to a state of perpetual temporariness. Female migrant domestic workers, often racialized and invisible, embody the perfect neoliberal worker, concealing the gaps in state provisioning essential for the daily and generational maintenance of societies. The study emphatically calls for a critical examination of neoliberal policies and their impact on the most marginalized, advocating for a more equitable and just approach to migration and social reproduction.