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Report/Press release

The Migrant Worker as Racialized Commodity: Exploitation and Resistance in Canadian Guest Worker Programs

Date

2007

Authors

Peter H. Sawchuk and Arlo Kempf

Abstract

Entering the 21st century, Guest Worker programs, defined as temporary migrant labour systems, are poised to explode within all industrial-capitalist countries. This paper outlines the basis for examining work and learning relations associated with these programs evolving from a transnational, labour market infrastructure in the Americas with special attention to Canada. After tracing the long, historical trajectory of emergence, this paper argues that the complex political, economic, cultural, and resultant developmental dynamics of Canadian Guest Worker program’s unique developmental dynamics. These effects are seen to be shaped by race, class and citizenship relations, the learning that infuses their reproduction, intensification and contestation.

Series title

CSSE 2008 papers

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Economic sectors

Agriculture and horticulture workers, Natural resources, agriculture and related production occupations - general, and Other

Content types

Policy analysis

Target groups

Researchers

Geographical focuses

Canada, Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, British Columbia, Other provinces, Federal, and Nova Scotia

Spheres of activity

Cultural and ethnic studies, Economics, Political science, and Sociology

Languages

English