Labour, population, and precarity: temporary foreign workers transition to permanent residency in rural Manitoba

Abstract

Analyzing accounts of what 53 migrant workers experienced after their arrival in rural Manitoba, Canada, this article addresses the tensions created by their employer’s evolving labour recruitment strategy, which has depended on Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Programme and the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Programme. The article underscores the ways in which immigration policy connects to the interests of states and capital in the creation and reproduction of workers in specific labour markets.

Keywords:

• Employer-driven immigration
• “Manitoba Model”
• provincial nominee programme
• rural migration
• Temporary Foreign Worker Programme

Notes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Bonafacio, “Live-in Caregivers in Canada,” 145; Choudry and Smith, Unfree Labour, 16; Papademetriou and Sumption, Rethinking Points Systems and Employer-selected Immigration; Polanco, “Consent behind the Counter,” 1336.

2 Economic Social Development Canada, 2018.

3 Bakan and Stasiulis, Not One of the Family, 24; Fudge and MacPhail, “The Temporary Foreign Worker Program in Canada,” 845; Nakache and Kinoshita; “The Canadian Temporary Foreign Work Program,” 7; Lenard and Straehle, Legislated Inequality, 15; Sharma, “The Difference that Borders Make,” 30.

4 Choudry and Smith, Unfree Labour?, 17.

5 Goldring, “Temporary Foreign Worker Programs,” 51.

6 In October 2014, the Liberal federal government under Justin Trudeau announced significant changes to Canada’s decades old Live-in Caregiver program. These include creating new categories and conditions for the granting of permanent residency, and removing the long-standing and controversial requirement that migrant caregivers “live-in” with their employer.

7 Goldring, “Temporary Foreign Worker Programs,” 50.

8 Basok, “Free to be Unfree,” 192.

9 McKay, “Cultivating New Local Futures,” 286; Rodriguez, Migrants for Export, 20; Parreñas, “Migrant Filipina Domestic Workers,” 561; Parreñas, Servants of Globalization, 47; Parreñas, Children of Global Migration, 98.

10 Bello et al., Anti-development State, 39.

11 Asis, Huang, and Yeoh, “When the Light of Home is Abroad,” 199; Barber, “Transnationalism and the Politics of Home,” 41; Coloma et al., Filipinos in Canada, 16; Kelly, “Migration, Transnationalism, and the Spaces of Class Identity,” 154; Tyner, “The Social Construction of Gendered Migration from the Philippines,” 590; Tyner, Made in the Philippines, 20; Tyner, The Philippines, 34; Semyonov and Gorodzeisky, “Labour Migration, Remittances and Household Income,” 46.

12 Aguilar, Jr., Migration Revolution, 7.

13 Tungohan, “Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada,” 237.

14 Interview.

15 Nakache and Kinoshita, “The Canadian Temporary Foreign Worker Program,” 10.

16 Choudry and Smith, Unfree Labour?, 26.

17 Choudry and Smith, Unfree Labour?, 14.

18 Lewis, “Assessing Successes and Challenges in Manitoba’s Provincial Immigrant Nominee Program,” 243.

19 Carter, et al., Evaluation of the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program, 7.

20 Lewis, “A Decade Later,” 245.

21 Carter, Morrish, and Amoyaw, “Lessons Learned from the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program,” 161; Dowding and Razi, “A Call to Action,” 163; Dobrowolsky, “The Intended and Unintended Effects of a New Immigration Strategy,” 111; Pandley and Townsend, “Provincial Nominee Programs,” 604.

22 Government of Manitoba, Manitoba will Expedite Processing of Applications.

23 Carter, Pandey, and Townsend, The ManitobaProvincial Nominee Program, 13; Carter et al., 10; Pandey and Townsend, 605; Ramos and Dobrowolsky, Expanding the Vision, 5.

24 Zell and Marcelino, “Temporary Workers Face Unjust Crackdown.” Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved from https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/temporary-workers-face-unjust-crackdown-298262591.html.

25 Bucklaschuk, Moss, and Annis, “Temporary May Not Always Be Temporary,” 65; Moss, Bucklaschuk and Annis, “Small Places, Big Changes,” 34; Gibson, Bucklaschuk, and Annis, “Fostering a Welcoming Prairie City,” 36.

26 Bucklaschuk, Moss, and Annis, 66.

27 Interview.

28 Polanco, “Consent Behind the Counter,” 1333.

29 Polanco, “Consent Behind the Counter,” 1337.

30 Rodriguez, Migrants for Export, 45.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program.

Notes on contributors

Catherine Bryan

Catherine Bryan teaches in the School of Social Work at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.