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Temporary workers come to Canada under the auspices of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, and specifically, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). They are unfree in the sense that they are unable to circulate within the labour market due to legal constraints. This article contextualizes Canada's TFWP within the global political economy in terms of flexible labour, racialization and genderization. Temporary workers are flexible; they provide "j ust- in- time" labour to meet what are perceived to be shortages of workers in the labour market. While this labour is flexible from the point of view of the employer, it is "precarious" from the vantage point of the worker. Employers use the TFWP to have direct power over who immigrates to Canada, slowly eroding the goals of meritocratic fairness that have supported Canadian purported efforts to make (im)migration an impartial process. Although global political economy is a good starting point for framing temporary labour in Canada, it is not sufficient. Since Confederation, Canada has always had some type of temporary worker process. The ideal of creating a British settler community was Canada's original nation-building goal, but the reality was that the Canadian capitalist class preferred temporary workers for agricultural and industrial work, infrastructure and railway construction, and domestic work; Asian and Southern and Eastern European males filled many of these positions. In railway construction and mining, for example, there were racialized labour segments with distinct groups of workers: "Whites" in higher paid and "safe" occupations, and "foreigners" who were in lower-paid and dangerous jobs (Vosko 2000) - the latter group often being hired as temporary workers. There is also a long history in Canada of foreign domestic workers serving middle- and upper-class families dating back to the late 180Os and early 1900s. Formally, under the strict logic of the immigration legislation that vows to bring to Canada the "best and the brightest" (or the very skilled), the "unskilled" workers should not be allowed to stay in Canada. However, as the work of researchers at Brandon University points out, after six months, many temporary workers arriving in Manitoba who labour in unskilled or semi-skilled occupations apply to the Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). In this sense, temporary migrants become "transitional" foreign workers (Annis 2008, Bucklaschuk 2008). Unfree labour becomes both a vehicle for a probationary period for migrants and for a new style of immigration that is driven by employers rather than the state, allowing for unsupervised racial, geographical, or gender bias.
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Study of housing for Mexican migrant workers in the Okanagan Valley under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program. Concludes that the workforce is "captive" (i.e., lacking basic rights) to its employer, including for accommodation.
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Recent demographic projections based on Statistics Canada data indicate that persons designated as belonging to a visible minority group will comprise 20 per cent of the Canadian population by 2017. In Canada's major cities, the proportion of persons classified as visible minority is expected to exceed 50 per cent. What is race, and how should racism be studied sociologically? What differences exist in patterns of structural incorporation within and among ethno-racial groups in Canada? What factors influence upward social mobility? Are Canadian institutions capable of meeting the needs of the country's increasingly diverse ethno-racial population? These are some of the questions that this volume addresses. This collection of original articles identifies future research directions for racism in Canada based on important changes taking place in the country. It also offers the basis for a more complete understanding of racism and social change in Canada.
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Bill 6, the government of Alberta’s contentious farm workers’ safety legislation, sparked public debate as no other legislation has done in recent years. The Enhanced Protection for Farm and Ranch Workers Act provides a right to work safely and a compensation system for those killed or injured at work, similar to other provinces. In nine essays, contributors to Farm Workers in Western Canada place this legislation in context. They look at the origins, work conditions, and precarious lives of farm workers in terms of larger historical forces such as colonialism, land rights, and racism. They also examine how the rights and privileges of farm workers, including seasonal and temporary foreign workers, conflict with those of their employers, and reveal the barriers many face by being excluded from most statutory employment laws, sometimes in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. -- Publisher's description. Contents: Capitalist farms, vulnerable workers / Bob Barneston -- The personal experiences of an Alberta farm worker and activist / Darlene A. Dunlop with Shirley A. McDonald -- Georgic themes and myths of entitlement in the life writing of prairie settlers / Shirley A. McDonald -- Cows, meat, people / Michael J. Broadway -- A temporary program for permanent gains? / Jill Bucklaschuk -- Working away / Zane Hamm -- Farming the Constitution / Jennifer Koshan, Gianna Argento, Delna Contractor, Brynna Hambly (Takasugi), Paul Kennett, C.F. Andrew Lau, J. Graham Martinelli, Robin C. McIntyre, Nelson Medeiros, Heidi Rolfe, and Kay Elizabeth Turner -- BC-Grown / Kerry Preibisch -- Labouring in the "four-season paradise" / Patricia Tomic and Ricardo Trumper.
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