Family Reunification as an Earned Right: A Framing Analysis of Migrant Workers’ Pathways to Neoliberal Multicultural Citizenship in Canada

ABSTRACT

This article examines how the right to sponsor family members’ immigration is framed by migrant caregivers in relation to Canadian legislation and political rhetoric. We focus on official immigration policy and political rhetoric between 2014–2018, a period when Canada imposed stringent language and education requirements on migrant workers seeking permanent residence. By examining how political rhetoric frames migrant caregivers as not earning “enough” to migrate with their families, we illustrate how lawmakers promote tolerance for differential inclusion within multicultural discourse. Migrant caregivers, the majority of whom originate in the Philippines, similarly employ market-based values to position themselves as deserving the right to sponsor their family members’ immigration. They also draw upon traditional ethics of reciprocal obligation, however, to frame their relationship to Canadian employers and the state in ways that reconstruct the terms of multicultural citizenship in Canada.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Nicholas Keung, “Immigration Backlog Keeps Live-in Caregivers from Their Families Back Home,” Toronto Star (July 2017), available online at: https://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2017/07/20/immigration-backlog-keeps-live-in-caregivers-from-their-families-back-home.html.

² Ibid.

³ Judith Ramirez, “Good Enough to Stay,” Currents 1:4 (1983/1984), pp. 16–20.

⁴ Keung, “Immigration Backlog Keeps Live-in Caregivers from Their Families Back Home.”

⁵ Ahmed Hussen, Twitter Post (February 6, 2018), 1:56 PM, available online at: https://twitter.com/HonAhmedHussen/status/960950404245835777.

⁶ We thank Drs. Ethel Tungohan and Seded Arat-Koç for their astute feedback on an earlier version of this paper.

⁷ Yasmeen Abu-Laban and Christina Gabriel, Selling Diversity: Immigration, Multiculturalism, Employment Equity, and Globalization (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2002); Irene Bloemraad, Anna Korteweg, and Gökçe Yurdakul, “Citizenship and Immigration: Multiculturalism, Assimilation, and Challenges to the Nation-State,” Annual Review of Sociology 34 (2008), pp. 153–79.

⁸ Nicolas P. De Genova, “Working the Boundaries: Race, Space and ‘Illegality,’” in Mexican Chicago (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005); Sandro Mezzadra and Brett Neilson, Border as Method: Or, the Multiplication of Labor (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013).

⁹ Daiva Stasiulis and Abigail B. Bakan, “Negotiating Citizenship: The Case of Foreign Domestic Workers in Canada,” Feminist Review 57:1 (1997), p. 118.

¹⁰ Tanya Basok, “Constructing Grassroots Citizenship for Non-Citizens,” Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice 20 (2008), pp. 265–72.

¹¹ Ethel Tungohan et al., “After the Live-In Caregiver Program: Filipina Caregivers’ Experiences of Graduated and Uneven Citizenship,” Canadian Ethnic Studies 471 (2015), pp. 87–105.

¹² Ibid; Abigail B. Bakan and Daiva Stasiulis, Negotiating Citizenship: Migrant Women in Canada and the Global System (Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

¹³ Tanya Basok, “Post-National Citizenship, Social Exclusion and Migrants Rights: Mexican Seasonal Workers in Canada,” Citizenship Studies 8:1 (2004), pp. 47–64.

¹⁴ Abu-Laban and Gabriel, Selling Diversity; Linda Bosniak, “Citizenship Denationalized,” Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 7:2 (2000), pp. 447–510; Tanya Das Gupta and Franca Iacovetta, “Whose Canada is it? Immigrant Women, Women of Color and Feminist Critiques of ‘Multiculturalism,’” Atlantis 24:2 (2000), pp. 1–4; Nandita Sharma, Home Economics: Nationalism and the Making of “Migrant Workers” in Canada (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2006).

¹⁵ Eve Haque, Multiculturalism Within a Bilingual Framework: Language, Race, and Belonging in Canada (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2012).

¹⁶ Will Kymlicka, Finding Our Way (Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 185.

¹⁷ Bloemraad, Korteweg, and Yurdakul, “Citizenship and Immigration: Multiculturalism, Assimilation, and Challenges to the Nation-State”; Kymlicka, Finding Our Way.

¹⁸ Sunera Thobani, Exalted Subjects: Studies in the Making of Race and Nation in Canada (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2007); According to Thobani, after a century of admitting immigrants from Europe as the “preferred race” the share of European immigrants has dropped steadily from 75% in 1971 to less than 25% in 2011. In the 2016 Census, 21% of the Canadian population was foreign-born, with over 75% originating in Asia (60%; including the Middle East) or Africa (13.4%). Statistics Canada, “150 Years of Immigration,” Statistics Canada (2016), available online at: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/pub/11-630-x/11-630-x2016006-eng.pdf?st=RrfpIlVo.

¹⁹ Jane Ku et al.,  “‘Canadian Experience’ Discourse and Anti-Racialism in a ‘Post-Racial’ Society,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 42:2 (2019), pp. 291–310.

²⁰ Abu-Laban and Gabriel, Selling Diversity.

²¹ Bessma Momani and Jillian Stirk, Diversity Dividend: Canada’s Global Advantage (Waterloo, ON: Center for International Governance Innovation, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, 2017).

²² Luca Mavelli, “Citizenship for Sale and the Neoliberal Political Economy of Belonging,” International Studies Quarterly 62:3 (2018), pp. 482–93.

²³ Megan Gaucher, A Family Matter: Citizenship, Conjugal Relationships, and Canadian Immigration Policy (Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 2018); James Walsh, “From Nations of Immigrants to States of Transience: Temporary Migration in Canada and Australia,” International Sociology 29:6 (2014), pp. 584–606.

²⁴ Sarah Grayce Marsden, Precarious Migrants and the Law in Canada (Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 2018).

²⁵ Jeffrey G. Reitz, “Selecting Immigrants for the Short Term: Is It Smart in the Long Run?” Policy Options (July-August 2010), p. 4., available online at: http://www.utoronto.ca/ethnicstudies/Reitz2010IRPP.pdf.

²⁶ Jessie Root, Erika Gates-Gasse and John Shields, Discounting Immigrant Families: Neoliberalism and the Framing of Canadian Immigration Policy Change (Toronto, ON: Ryerson Center for Immigration & Settlement (RCIS), Ryerson University, 2014).

²⁷ Sharma, Home Economics; Luin Goldring, Carolina Bernstein, and Judth Bernhard, “Institutionalizing Precarious Migratory Status in Canada,” Citizenship Studies 13:3 (2010), pp. 239–65.

²⁸ Bosniak, “Citizenship Denationalized”; Pura Velasco, “Filipino Migrant Workers Amidst Globalization,” Canadian Woman Studies 21:4 (2002), p. 131; Bridget Anderson, “Mobilizing Migrants, Making Citizens: Migrant Domestic Workers as Political Agents,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33:1 (2010), pp. 60–74; Ethel Tungohan, “Spectres of (In)visibility: Filipina/o Labour, Culture, and Youth in Canada,” Roland Sintos Coloma, BonnieS. McElhinny, Lisa M. Davidson, John Paul Catungal, and Ethel Tungohan (eds), in Disturbing Invisibility: Filipinos in Canada, (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2012); Rhachel Salazar Parreñas, “Transgressing the Nation-State: The Partial Citizenship and ‘Imagined (Global) Community’ of Migrant Filipina Domestic Workers,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 26:4 (2001), pp. 1129–1154.

²⁹ Sedef Arat-Koç, “Neo-liberalism, State Restructuring and Immigration: Changes in Canadian Policies in the 1990s,” Journal of Canadian Studies 34:2 (1999), pp. 31–56.

³⁰ Maria Kontos, “Negotiating the Social Citizenship Rights of Migrant Domestic Workers: The Right to Family Reunification and a Family Life in Policies and Debates,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 39:3 (2013), p. 412.

³¹ Sunera Thobani, “Closing the Nation’s Doors to Immigrant Women: Restructuring of Canadian Immigration Policy,” Atlantis 24:2 (2000), p. 17

³² Ibid.

³³ Ku et al., “‘Canadian Experience’ Discourse and Anti-Racialism in a ‘Post-Racial’ Society.”

³⁴ Walsh, “From Nations of Immigrants to States of Transience,” p. 588.

³⁵ A closed work permit limits the permit holder to work for a designated employer for a stated time period whereas an open work permit allows the permit holder to work for any employer in Canada within the stated time period (with some restrictions for work with children). Most migrant caregivers have completed a four-year degree in the Philippines prior to entering Canada. This degree is assessed as equivalent to only two-years of higher education in a Canadian college or university.

³⁶ Sedef Arat-Koç, Caregivers Break the Silence: Participatory Action Research on the Abuse and Violence, Including the Impact of Family Separation, Experienced by Women in the Live-in-Caregiver Program, Ed. Fely O. Villasin (Toronto, ON: Intercede, 2001).

³⁷ Caregivers Action Center, et al., Permanent Status on Landing: Real Reform for Caregivers (Toronto, CA: Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, 2018).

³⁸ Most migrant caregivers have completed a four-year degree in the Philippines prior to entering Canada. This degree, however, is assessed as equivalent to only two years of higher education in a Canadian college or university.

³⁹ Rupaleem Bhuyan, et al., “Responding to the Structural Violence of Migrant Domestic Work: Insights from Participatory Action Research with Migrant Caregivers in Canada,” Journal of Family Violence 33:8 (2018), pp. 613–627.

⁴⁰ Keung, “Immigration Backlog Keeps Live-in Caregivers from Their Families Back Home.”

⁴¹ Bhuyan et al., “Responding to the Structural Violence of Migrant Domestic Work.”

⁴² Nicholas Keung, “Foreign Caregivers Say Changes Aimed at Helping Them Realize Their Immigration Dreams Come With a Costly Catch,” The Star (July 2019), available online at: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/07/09/foreign-caregivers-say-changes-aimed-at-helping-them-realize-their-immigration-dreams-come-with-a-costly-catch.html.

⁴³ This study received oversight from a Research Advisory Committee (RAC) comprised of migrant caregivers, front-line service providers, legal advocates, and immigrant community leaders. RAC members were involved in all stages of the research, from clarification of the research goals and research design; development of recruitment materials and interview questions; data transcription, translation, and analysis; and dissemination of the findings through community consultations, academic presentations, policy briefs and academic manuscripts.

⁴⁴ Caitlin Cahill, David A. Quijada Cerecer, and Matte Bradley, “‘Dreaming of …’: Reflections on Participatory Action Research as a Feminist Praxis of Critical Hope,” Affilia 25:4 (2010), pp. 406–16.

⁴⁵ Rupaleem Bhuyan et al., “Responding to the Structural Violence of Migrant Domestic Work: Insights from Participatory Action Research with Migrant Caregivers in Canada,” Journal of Family Violence 33 (2018), pp. 613–627, available online https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-018-9988-x

⁴⁶ Darren Cosgrove, Catherine S. Kramer, Sarah Mountz, and Eunwoo Lee, “The Role of Identity in Motivating and Shaping the Experiences of Social Work Participatory Action Research Scholars,” Affilia (Advanced online, 2020); For a full discussion of participatory methodology, see Rupaleem Bhuyan et al., “Responding to the Structural Violence of Migrant Domestic Work.”

⁴⁷ Merlijn van Hulst and Dvora Yanow, “From Policy ‘Frames’ to ‘Framing’: Theorizing a More Dynamic, Political Approach,” American Review of Public Administration 46:1 (2016), p. 96.

⁴⁸ Li Nguyen and Kerry McCallum, “Critical Metaphor Analysis from a Communication Perspective: A Case Study of Australian News Media Discourse on Immigration and Asylum Seekers” (Paper presented at the Australian and New Zealand Communications Association (ANZCA) conference, Queenstown, NZ, July 2015).

⁴⁹ Paul A. Chilton, Security Metaphors: Cold War Discourse from Containment to Common House (New York, NY: Peter Lang 1996), p. 154.

⁵⁰ During the study period, from 2016 to 2018, two Liberal members of parliament served as the IRCC minister (formerly Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada): John McCallum (2014–2015) and Ahmed Hussen (2015 to 2018). While these individuals have different histories within Canadian politics, our analysis focuses on how ministerial discourse represents the Liberal government’s values and interests.

⁵¹ Mikhail M. Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, (Trans.) Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist, (ed.) Michael Holquist (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1981).

⁵² Norman Fairclough, Discourse and Social Change (Cambridge, MA: Polity Press, 1993).

⁵³ On a closed permit, a migrant worker is authorized to work only for the employer listed on their permit. A change in employer for any reason, requires the migrant to apply for a new work permit under the new employer. This process can take up to eight months, which is significant given that migrant caregivers only have a four-year period to complete twenty-four-month work requirement. An open work permit allows the migrant to work for any employer in accordance with the type of work outlined in the permit.

⁵⁴ Rupaleem Bhuyan et al., “Responding to the Structural Violence of Migrant Domestic Work.”

⁵⁵ Richard W. Brislin, “Back-translation for Cross-Cultural Research,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 1 (1970), pp. 185–216.

⁵⁶ Teresita Rungduin et al., “The Filipino Character Strength of Utang Na Loob: Exploring Contextual Associations with Gratitude,” International Journal of Research Studies in Psychology 5:1 (2016), pp. 13–23.

⁵⁷ Robert J. Morais, “Dealing with Scarce Resources: Reciprocity in Alternative Form and Ritual,” Philippine Sociological Review 28:1/4 (1980), pp. 73–80.

⁵⁸ Lynne Cameron and Robert Maslen,Metaphor Analysis: Research Practice in Applied Linguistics, Social Sciences and the Humanities (London, UK: Equinox Publishing, 2010); as cited in Nguyen and McCallum, “Critical Metaphor Analysis from a Communication Perspective”.

⁵⁹ Norman Fairclough and Ruth Wodak, “Critical Discourse Analysis,” (ed.) Teun A. van Dijk, in Discourse Studies. A Multidisciplinary Introduction, (London, UK: Sage, 1997).

⁶⁰ Dvora Yanow, Conducting Interpretive Policy Analysis. Qualitative Research Methods Series, Vol. 47 (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2000); van Hulst and Yanow, “From Policy ‘Frames’ to ‘Framing.’”

⁶¹ Government of Canada, Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, c. 27, available online at: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/PDF/Statute/I/I-2.5.pdf.

⁶² Ibid.

⁶³ Ibid, section 12(1).

⁶⁴ Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration (2018), available online at: https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ircc/migration/ircc/english/pdf/pub/annual-report-2018.pdf.

⁶⁵ Government of Canada, Can My Family Come to Canada With Me if I am a Live-in Caregiver (January 2020), available online at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=241&top=28;

⁶⁶ Government of Canada, Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, c. 27, division 1, section 5(5).

⁶⁷ Tanya Titchkosky, “‘To Pee or Not to Pee?’ Ordinary Talk About Extrodinary Exclusions in a University Environment,” Canadian Journal of Sociology 33:1 (2008), pp. 37–60.

⁶⁸ Ayelet Shachar, “The Race for Talent: Highly Skilled Migrants and Competative Immigration Regimes,” New York University Law Review 81 (2006), pp. 148–206.

⁶⁹ Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, “Speaking Notes for Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship at a News Conference to Announce Changes to the Parents and Grandparents Program” (Surrey, BC, August 2018), available online at: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2018/08/speaking-notes-for-ahmed-hussen-minister-of-immigration-refugees-and-citizenship-at-a-news-conference-to-announce-changes-to-the-parents-and-grandp.html.

⁷⁰ Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, “Speaking Notes for John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship at a Luncheon Hosted by the Canadian Club of Ottawa” (Ottawa, ON, June 2016), available online at: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2016/06/speaking-notes-for-john-mccallum-minister-of-immigration-refugees-and-citizenship-at-a-luncheon-hosted-by-the-canadian-club-of-ottawa.html.

⁷¹ David Tilson, Cutting the Queue: Reducing Canada’s Immigration Backlogs and Wait Times (Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada, 2012).

⁷² Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, “Speaking Notes for Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship” (Ottawa, ON, December 2017), available online at: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees citizenship/news/2017/12/speaking_notes_forahmedhussenministerofimmigrationrefugeesandcit.html.

⁷³ Agnes, focus group interview, Toronto, 2016.

⁷⁴ Ibid., emphasis added.

⁷⁵ Government of Canada, Canadian Multiculturalism Act, R.S.C. 1985. C.24, section 3.2, available online at: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-18.7/page-1.html.

⁷⁶ Elena Prokopenko and Feng Hou, How Temporary Were Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers? (Ottawa, CA: Statistics Canada, 2018).

⁷⁷ The Liberal government returned the age limit to 22 after a short period where the Conservative government reduce the qualifying age for dependent children to 18 years.

⁷⁸ Li-Anne, focus group interview, Toronto, 2016.

⁷⁹ Lucy, focus group interview, Toronto, 2016.

⁸⁰ Carol, focus group interview, Toronto, 2016.

⁸¹ Rungduin et al., “The Filipino Character Strength of Utang Na Loob.”

⁸² Mary. R. Hollnsteiner, “Reciprocity in the Lowland Philippines,” Philippine Studies, 9:3 (1961), pp. 387–413.

⁸³ Morais, “Dealing with Scarce Resources,” pp. 73–80.

⁸⁴ Merle R. Kataoka-Yahiro, Clementina Ceria, and Marian Yoder, “Grandparent Caregiving Role in Filipino American Families,” Journal of Cultural Diversity 11:3 (2004), pp. 110–17.

⁸⁵ Cecilia Tacoli, “International Migration and the Restructuring of Gender Asymmetries: Continuity and Change among Filipino Migrants in Rome,” The International Migration Review 33:3 (1999), pp. 658–82.

⁸⁶ Stasiulis and Bakan, “Negotiating Citizenship.”

⁸⁷ Basok, “Constructing Grassroots Citizenship for Non-Citizens.”

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Science and HumanitiesResearch Council of Canada.

Notes on contributors

Rupaleem Bhuyan

Rupaleem Bhuyan is an Associate Professor of Social work at the University of Toronto. Her research examines how immigration policies produce systemic inequality for racialized immigrants and different forms of gender-based violence. She works in collaboration with migrant communities who organize collective action to promote transformative change.

Kate Yoon

Kate Yoon is a graduate student in Political Theory at the University of Oxford. Her research primarily concerns the history and philosophy of democratic citizenship. She is also interested in feminist theory.

Lorraine Valmadrid

Lorraine Valmadrid is a research coordinator with the Migrant Mothers Project who completed her Masters in Social Work at the University of Toronto. Originally from the Philippines, she is involved in community-based research currently with a focus on access to education and community development.