Understanding Temporary Labour Migration through a Settler Colonial Lens: A Critical Analysis of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and International Education Strategy
The relationship between differential inclusion of workers migrating for employment internationally and the dispossession and assimilation of Indigenous people and lands is a growing area of study within critical migration studies. Less attention has been paid, however, to how (im)migration policie...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Brock University
2025-08-01
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| Series: | Studies in Social Justice |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/article/view/4983 |
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| author | Cynthia Spring Nisha Toomey Andrea Noack Leah F. Vosko |
| author_facet | Cynthia Spring Nisha Toomey Andrea Noack Leah F. Vosko |
| author_sort | Cynthia Spring |
| collection | DOAJ |
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The relationship between differential inclusion of workers migrating for employment internationally and the dispossession and assimilation of Indigenous people and lands is a growing area of study within critical migration studies. Less attention has been paid, however, to how (im)migration policies that foster migrant worker precariousness also extend settler colonial practices. Scholars situated in the transdisciplinary fields of Black Studies and Indigenous Studies have long theorized nation-state building as exclusionary to Black and Indigenous life, and reliant on limited mobilities and dispossession of Black and Indigenous peoples. Bridging this scholarship with critical migration studies, in this article we explore how policies regulating international migration for employment to Canada on temporary bases reflect and sustain the settler-colonial context in which they operate. We outline three logics of settler colonialism that underpin policies governing temporary migration for employment to Canada: (1) the racialized hierarchization of life and knowledge; (2) the reliance on technologies of governing, which foster unequal administrative burdens; and (3) the disruption of people’s relationships to land and livelihoods. Analyzing Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and International Education Strategy, we illustrate how migration policies reinforce and replicate settler colonial practices.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d5effe7bdb834ae095be0774278c384f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1911-4788 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-08-01 |
| publisher | Brock University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Studies in Social Justice |
| spelling | doaj-art-d5effe7bdb834ae095be0774278c384f2025-08-20T03:40:33ZengBrock UniversityStudies in Social Justice1911-47882025-08-0119210.26522/ssj.v19i2.4983Understanding Temporary Labour Migration through a Settler Colonial Lens: A Critical Analysis of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and International Education StrategyCynthia Spring0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4514-066XNisha Toomey1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9130-2017Andrea Noack2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2087-5093Leah F. Voskohttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5506-7742York UniversityYork UniversityToronto Metropolitan University The relationship between differential inclusion of workers migrating for employment internationally and the dispossession and assimilation of Indigenous people and lands is a growing area of study within critical migration studies. Less attention has been paid, however, to how (im)migration policies that foster migrant worker precariousness also extend settler colonial practices. Scholars situated in the transdisciplinary fields of Black Studies and Indigenous Studies have long theorized nation-state building as exclusionary to Black and Indigenous life, and reliant on limited mobilities and dispossession of Black and Indigenous peoples. Bridging this scholarship with critical migration studies, in this article we explore how policies regulating international migration for employment to Canada on temporary bases reflect and sustain the settler-colonial context in which they operate. We outline three logics of settler colonialism that underpin policies governing temporary migration for employment to Canada: (1) the racialized hierarchization of life and knowledge; (2) the reliance on technologies of governing, which foster unequal administrative burdens; and (3) the disruption of people’s relationships to land and livelihoods. Analyzing Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and International Education Strategy, we illustrate how migration policies reinforce and replicate settler colonial practices. https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/article/view/4983temporary labour migrationsettler colonialismBlack StudiesIndigenous Studiesinternational students |
| spellingShingle | Cynthia Spring Nisha Toomey Andrea Noack Leah F. Vosko Understanding Temporary Labour Migration through a Settler Colonial Lens: A Critical Analysis of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and International Education Strategy Studies in Social Justice temporary labour migration settler colonialism Black Studies Indigenous Studies international students |
| title | Understanding Temporary Labour Migration through a Settler Colonial Lens: A Critical Analysis of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and International Education Strategy |
| title_full | Understanding Temporary Labour Migration through a Settler Colonial Lens: A Critical Analysis of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and International Education Strategy |
| title_fullStr | Understanding Temporary Labour Migration through a Settler Colonial Lens: A Critical Analysis of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and International Education Strategy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Understanding Temporary Labour Migration through a Settler Colonial Lens: A Critical Analysis of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and International Education Strategy |
| title_short | Understanding Temporary Labour Migration through a Settler Colonial Lens: A Critical Analysis of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program and International Education Strategy |
| title_sort | understanding temporary labour migration through a settler colonial lens a critical analysis of canada s seasonal agricultural worker program and international education strategy |
| topic | temporary labour migration settler colonialism Black Studies Indigenous Studies international students |
| url | https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/SSJ/article/view/4983 |
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