Social citizenship in an age of temporary flows: migrant workers in British Columbia’s immigrant settlement sector

This study examines the lack of adequate support systems available to a growing number of “temporary” newcomers in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Over the past decade, Canada has consolidated significant changes to its immigration program, resulting in a sharp increase in the number of migrants classified as temporary. While Canada has an institutionalized system for supporting newcomers through its immigrant settlement sector, the majority of those with temporary status (including “low-skill” temporary foreign workers) are considered short-term residents and hence denied access to public settlement services and related social rights. However, given pressing needs, many settlement agencies and frontline workers continue to respond to the needs of temporary foreign workers, leading to degenerating working conditions for those in this sector. Empirically this illustrates the inadequacy of welfare models under changing migration flows, the impacts of neoliberal restructuring, and changing conditions of inequality at the nexus of work, migration and social citizenship.