Resisting permanent impermanence: Performances of subordination and resistance, and the possibility of a migrant workers-led movement in Canada

In the recent years Canadian immigration policies have shifted from a model of permanent immigration and settlement to one of ‘permanent impermanence’ as Temporary Workers Programs (TWPs) have greatly expanded in a short period of time.  Though TWP’s are not a new phenomenon, today Canada accepts more low-skilled workers to work on a temporary basis than permanent immigrants with full citizenship rights. The Canadian state has touted TWPs as successful economic policy that addresses alleged labour shortages, as well as a humane and just migration scheme that matches prospective workers with employers. The recent expansion of  TWPs has brought to light numerous cases of abuse and exploitation faced by migrant workers across Canada. In defining these abuses as exceptions, the Canadian state and its provincial counterparts have strategically engaged in piecemeal responses to these abuses by limited legislative reforms or by emphasizing that migrant workers enjoy equal entitlements and legal protections similar to Canadians. However, with the expansion of such programs, also several avenues have widened to raise awareness of the litany of violations faced by migrant workers such unsafe working conditions with little to no protection equipment, exclusion from some schemes of labour legislation, lack of access to health care and very low wages for hard and dangerous jobs. This paper will focus on 1) the performances of subordination and resistance that migrant farmworkers under TWP’s simultaneously engage in order to secure participation in the (temporary worker) program while not giving up completely their agency to resist labour exploitation, 2) community grassroots efforts to organize and to counteract the official narratives of the so called ‘success’ of TWPs programs and the exploitation faced by migrant workers, and 3)  the barriers and challenges involved in organizing an ‘unfree’ and temporary labour force, and in developing a transnational migrant workers-led movement.