Soma Chatterjee, a professor in the School of Social work, has published a new book that she will be discussing at a series of upcoming events. Her book, Skills to Build the Nation: Immigrant Labour Market and Canadian Nationalism (University of Toronto Press, 2025), explores how ideas of skill and training shaped immigrant integration practices in post-liberalization Canada. Chatterjee argues that integration of skilled immigrants has increasingly become contingent on performing an elusive – and often assimilatory – form of “Canadianness” despite Canada’s reliance on their expertise.
Across three events, Chatterjee will introduce the book’s core arguments, share insights from her archival research, and engage students, scholars and community members in discussion.
Narratives of Movement: Centering Migrant Women's Voices in Research and Resistance
Graduate Student Symposium
Friday, Feb. 27
Kaneff Tower Room 626
As part of the larger, day-long Graduate Student Symposium, Chatterjee will deliver a hands-on workshop titled, From Thesis to Book: A Practical Guide for Emerging Scholars, drawing from her forthcoming book Skills to Build the Nation: Immigrant Labour Market and Canadian Nationalism. This session offers an accessible, demystifying look at how graduate students and early career researchers can transform a thesis into a publishable monograph.
Learn more and register for the day using the events calendar.
Book Talk
Monday, March 9 from 5 to 7 p.m.
Nexus Lounge, 12th floor, OISE, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON
In this talk, Chatterjee will discuss the intellectual foundations of her book, which originated as her doctoral thesis at OISE. She challenges the widespread assumption that skilled immigrants’ labour market integration is simply a public policy problem solvable through training or remedial solutions. Drawing from her archival research on the federal skilled labour policies between 1967 and 2016, she argues that persistent de-skilling of international trained professionals serves to uphold a productive gap between immigrants’ legal status and their substantive membership in Canadian society.
The session will be chaired by Dr. Kiran Mirchandani, Professor, Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
Learn more and register using the events calendar.
Book launch
Thursday, March 12 from 7 to 9 p.m.
Another Story Bookshop, 315 Roncesvalles Ave, Toronto, ON
The public launch of Skills to Build the Nation will bring Chatterjee in conversation with York University faculty members Shirin Shahrokni, assistant professor of sociology; Lalaie Ameeriar, associate professor of anthropology; and Ethel Tungohan, associate professor of politics. Refreshments will be served. This event is endorsed by the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, the York Centre for Asian Research and the Global Labour Research Centre.