Liberating Migrant Labour: Probing “New” Forms of International Mobility in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, and the US
Discussant(s): Dalia Gesauldi-Fecteau (University of Montreal)
This panel explores continuities and changes in the evolution of programs fostering international migration for employment on a temporary basis across Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the US. Panelists investigate the conditions and outcomes of “new” international mobility programs alongside traditional temporary labour migration programs in the context of settler states whose immigration regimes have been shaped historically by various axes of social difference (gender, age, nationality, etc.) between migrants and settlers. While early immigration policies of the countries of focus promoted permanent settlement, such countries have also long relied upon temporary labour migration schemes to meet employer demands. Historically, prominent guest- or migrant-worker programs in these contexts have been characterized by depressed wages, poor working conditions, and limited access to rights, entitlements, and protections -- a dynamic shaped by colonial legacies and, in turn, racializing processes. Yet, the first quarter of the twenty-first century marked an apparent shift toward international mobility programs (IMPs) (i.e., issuing temporary work permits to postsecondary students and recent graduates, spouses of educational migrants and skilled workers, working holiday makers, and intercompany transferees). In this context, the growth of IMPs, oft typified by open work permits and assumedly more meaningful opportunities for permanent settlement, and justified typically on the basis of economic benefits to national economies (not sure), began to outpace (in some contexts) the expansion of traditional migrant work programs associated with exploitation more explicitly. In an evolving policy environment, participants in this special session use administrative and national survey data to generate profiles of migration and mobility subprograms—such as post-study permits, spousal accompaniment permits, intra-corporate transfers, and youth mobility arrangements—in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the US, to document the changing number and composition of workers they attract (i.e., considering country of origin, gender, age) and the occupations and sectors in which workers are employed. Collectively, the six papers comprising this panel seek to advance knowledge about the nature of these programs towards identifying policy circulation and mirroring in different national contexts and its effects.
Presentations of the Special Session
Privileged guestworkers and settlers-in-the-making: Differential Inclusion and Precarity in Model International Mobility Programs in Canada
Leah F. Vosko1, Seulsam Lee1, Cynthia Spring2
1York University, 2TYork University
This paper explores new directions and continuities in temporary labour migration to Canada in the 21st century through a comprehensive profile of the International Mobility Program (IMP). This program facilitates work permits for a wide range of migrants, including working holidaymakers, inter-company transferees, spouses of skilled workers and students, and recently graduated international students. We compare the IMP to Canada’s longstanding Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). Conceptualizing the contemporary (im)migration policy framework, which sorts participants in ways that contribute to gradations of temporariness (Rajkumar et al 2012) and inclusion (Portes 1997; Casas-Cortes et al. 2015), as a product of settler colonial logics, we illustrate through quantitative data analysis, that so-called mobility programs perpetuate precarity – or the simultaneous experience of labour market insecurity and insecurity of presence – among many work permit holders. We argue that this trend, which is shaped by longstanding yet increasingly complex processes of racialization, is likely to be amplified in Canada’s evolving (im)migration policy context.
Employer Characteristics, Temporary Permits, and Settler-Colonial Labour Dynamics in Canada
Rupa Banerjee1, Cynthia Spring2
1Toronto Metropolitan University, 2York University
This paper investigates employers’ use of temporary foreign workers through the International Mobility Program (IMP), with a particular focus on the relationship between employer-side characteristics and the employment of IMP permit holders. Leveraging administrative data, the study investigates correlations between firm-level attributes—including industry sector, firm size, geographic location, profitability, and participation in international trade activities such as import/export—and the utilization of IMP permits. Additionally, the research explores the diversity of permits issued under the program, such as those for intra-company transferees, working holidaymakers, and post-graduate work permit holders, to uncover patterns in employer preferences and practices. The study interrogates how the IMP perpetuates labour market hierarchies and reinforces systemic exclusions linked to racialization and the temporariness of migration status. By situating these practices within the broader immigration policy context, the research critically examines how settler-colonial logics manifest in contemporary labour market structures.
De Facto Low-skilled Migration Programs and Labour Market Segmentation in Australia
Joanne Flavel1, Adelaide Chiang1, Stephen Clibborn2, Chris Wright2
1University of Adelaide, 2University of Sydney
The Australian government have long maintained the pretence that its migration program is a high-skilled one. However, it has relied increasingly upon de facto low skilled visas not part of the dedicated skilled migration program, but which provide temporary visa holders with some form of work rights. Drawing upon descriptive analyses of data from the 2016 and 2021 Australia Census and Temporary Entrants Integrated Dataset, we find employment conditions are poorer for people on temporary bridging visas, student visas and working holiday visas. A much higher percentage of people with these visa types are not in the labour force, are employed in occupations that are generally lower paid and are employed in industries with poorer job conditions. Drawing on theories of labour market segmentation, we argue that de facto low skilled visas have contributed to segmented labour markets in industries where temporary migrant workers are concentrated.
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