AP/SOSC 3200 3.00

Legal Regulation Of Migrant Workers: Constructed Insecurity And Worker Resistance

This course examines the legal regulation of transnational migrant workers in Canada, with an emphasis on the experiences of low-waged migrant workers from the global south. Drawing on international human rights law, federal and provincial immigration laws and public policies, the course examines the construction of insecurity for workers throughout their labour migration cycle. The course aims to provide a firm foundation from which to analyze current issues and policy debates regarding migrant workers in Canada. It explores the history of temporary labour migration in Canada and the growth of Canada’s current temporary foreign worker programs. It examines the experience of migrant workers in a transnational context including issues such as globalization, labour export policies, transnational worker recruitment, social impacts arising from the global separation of productive and reproductive spheres, the gendered and racialized impacts on temporary labour migration programs, and migrant workers’ experience of an erosion of their social and economic rights in Canada. The course also examines issues relating to worker resistance through domestic and transnational worker organizing.