Living with Compromised Legal Status: Irregular Temporary Foreign Workers in Alberta and the Importance of Imagining, Strategizing, and Inter-Provincial Legal Consciousness
Abstract
This article discusses how the migrants with no or irregular migration status engaged in various strategies to survive while they were going through uncertain legal status in Alberta, Canada. This article shows that often the compromised legal status happens because of immigration policy developments and other factors outside of temporary foreign workers’ control. Nevertheless, although participants of this study recount experiencing high amounts of stress because of their situations, the role played by cognitive processes, which include imagining, strategizing, and what I call “inter-provincial legal consciousness”, allowed them to deal with this experience and reclaim agency over their lives. These processes allowed them to build communities and networks of support and to imagine potential life paths in other provinces through other provinces’ provincial nominee programmes.
Notes
Location
Edmonton, Alberta
Key recommendations
NA
Key populations
Three Filipino migrants with either no status or with compromised paperwork to support their status (see p. 1)
Key findings
The migrants with no or irregular migration status engaged in various strategies to survive while they were going through uncertain legal status. Although the situations of the three participants varied to some extent, community support was crucial for the survival of all of them.
Gaps identified
The author’s discussion gaps is mostly about how immigration policies impact temporary worker. Specifically, the author makes a reference to the Four Year in-Four Year Out rule that impacted the lives of their research participants until this rule was eliminated by the Canadian government
Community organizations
NA
Integration timeline
At what point during the integration process the study was conducted?
NA
Open-access – No