Unfree Labour? Struggles of Migrant and Immigrant Workers in Canada

Description

Over the past decade, Canada has experienced considerable growth in labour migration. Moreover, temporary labour migration has replaced permanent immigration as the primary means by which people enter Canada. Utilizing the rhetoric of maintaining competitiveness, Canadian employers and the state have ushered in an era of neoliberal migration alongside an agenda of austerity flowing from capitalist crisis. Labour markets have been restructured to render labour more flexible and precarious, and in Canada as in other high-income capitalist labour markets, employers are relying on migrant and immigrant workers as “unfree labour.” This book explores labour migration to Canada and how public policies of temporary and guest worker programs function in the global context of work and capitalist restructuring. Contributors are directly engaged with the issues emerging from the influx of temporary foreign workers and Canada’s “creeping economic apartheid.” Introduction: Struggling against Unfree Labour by Aziz Choudry and Adrian A. Smith Producing and Contesting “Unfree Labour” through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program by Mark Thomas Migrant Live-In Caregivers: Control, Consensus, and Resistance in the Workplace and the Community by Jah-Hon Koo and Jill Hanley “Systemic Discrimination” in the Canadian Context: Live-in Domestic Care, Employment Equity, and the Challenge of Unfree Labour Markets by Abigail B. Bakan Globalizing “Immobile” Worksites: Fast Food under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program by Geraldina Polanco Struggling against History: Migrant Farmworker Organizing in British Columbia by Adriana Paz Ramirez and Jennifer Jihye Chun The Case for Unemployment Insurance Benefits for Migrant Agricultural Workers in Canada by Chris Ramsaroop Critical Questions: Building Worker Power and a Vision of Organizing in Ontario by Deena Ladd and Sonia Singh A Jeepney Ride to Tunisia—From There to Here, Organizing Temporary Foreign Workers by Joey Calugay, Loïc Malhaire, and Eric Shragge Organizers in Dialogue by Joey Calugay, Jill Hanley, Mostafa Henaway, Deena Ladd, Marco Luciano, Adriana Paz Ramirez, Chris Ramsaroop, Eric Shragge, Sonia Singh, and Christopher Sorio Unfree Labour, Social Reproduction, and Political Community in Contemporary Capitalism by Sedef Arat-Koç