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- Title
The Construction of Migrant Work and Workers by Alberta Legislators, 2000-2011.
- Authors
FOSTER, JASON; BARNETSON, BOB
- Abstract
This paper uses narrative analysis to explore how Alberta government Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) "constructed" migrant work and migrant workers in legislature and media statements between 2000 and 2011. Government MLAs asserted that migrant work (1) was economically necessary and (2) posed no threat to Canadian workers. Government MLAs also asserted that international migrant workers (3) had questionable occupational, linguistic or cultural skills and (4) caused negative social and economic impacts in Canada. Taken individually, these narratives appear contradictory, casting migrant work as good but migrant workers as bad. Viewed together, these narratives comprise an effort to dehumanize temporary and permanent international migrant workers. This (sometimes racialized) "othering" of migrant workers justifies migrant workers' partial citizenship and suppresses criticism of their poor treatment.
- Subjects
CANADA; FOREIGN workers; IMMIGRANT policy; LABOR supply; ALBERTA politics &; government, 1971-; EMPLOYMENT policy (Economic theory); LEGISLATORS
- Publication
Canadian Ethnic Studies, 2015, Vol 47, Issue 1, p107
- ISSN
0008-3496
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1353/ces.2015.0009