Full bibliography

The Transformative Potential of Casework: Analyzing the Political Subjectivation of Migrant Workers at the Immigrant Workers Center

Resource type
Author/contributor
Title
The Transformative Potential of Casework: Analyzing the Political Subjectivation of Migrant Workers at the Immigrant Workers Center
Abstract
Canada’s immigration policy has undergone a major shift in recent decades, from an approach centered on permanent immigration to a system increasingly focused on temporary migration. Temporary migrants face highly unequal power relations in the workplace, making them particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. Drawing on fieldwork at the Immigrant Workers Center (IWC), a Quebec-based activist organization, this paper examines how migrant workers come to engage in political action despite this adverse context, and how they experience such action. The analysis is informed by the concept of political subjectivation, defined as the process by which individuals contest their subordinate position within a political order and seek to redefine it on more egalitarian terms. I argue that migrant workers’ political subjectivation is supported by the IWC’s participatory and collective approach to casework. In workers centers, casework refers to the practice of providing individual assistance to workers. While it is often described as an individualized and depoliticized approach to social change, my research shows how the practice of casework at the IWC fosters individual and collective transformations conducive to political subjectivation. Thus, it contributes to recent literature on radical approaches to casework and literature at the intersection of social movement and popular education scholarship.
Publication
Social Movement Studies
Pages
1-16
Date
2025
Language
English
ISSN
1474-2837
Accessed
9/25/25, 1:09 PM
Citation
Etienne, A. (2025). The Transformative Potential of Casework: Analyzing the Political Subjectivation of Migrant Workers at the Immigrant Workers Center. Social Movement Studies, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2025.2563727