Home Economics : Nationalism and the Making of ‘Migrant Workers’ in Canada

## HOME ECONOMICS: NATIONALISM AND THE MAKING OF 'MIGRANT WORKERS' IN CANADA A massive shift has taken place in Canadian immigration since the 1970s: the majority of migrants no longer enter as permanent residents but as temporary migrant workers. In Home Economics, Nandita Sharma shows how Canadian policies on citizenship and immigration contribute to the entrenchment of a system of apartheid where those categorized as 'migrant workers' live, work, pay taxes, and sometimes die in Canada, but are subjected to a legal regime that renders them perennial outsiders in relation to Canadian society. Sharma argues that it is the acceptance of nationalist formulations of 'home' -informed by racialized and gendered social relations -that contribute to the neoliberal restructuring of the labour market in Canada. She exposes the ideological character of Canadian border control practices that work not to prevent people from getting in but rather to restrict their rights within Canada. Home Economics is an urgent and much-needed reminder that in today's world of growing displacement and unprecedented levels of international migration, society must pay careful attention to how nationalist ideologies construct 'homelands' that essentially leave the vast majority of the world's migrant peoples homeless. This study would not have been possible to carry out without the assistance of a very large group of people. This project began as a PhD dissertation and, as such, I would like to thank the members of my supervisory committee, Roxana Ng, Kari Dehli, Sedef Arat-Koc, Kirin Mirchandani, and Robert Miles, for the tremendous help they provided me. I would also like to acknowledge Dorothy E. Smith, whose body of work is a major influence on my own. Courses taken with her during my time at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education helped me to rethink the importance of asking how the world is actually organized. A doctoral fellowship and a post-doctoral fellowship granted by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada were crucial supports for this project and I would like to thank them as well. I also am indebted to

A massive shift has taken place in Canadian immigration policy since the 1970s: the majority of migrants no longer enter as permanent residents but as temporary migrant workers. In Home Economics, Nandita Sharma shows how Canadian policies on citizenship and immigration contribute to the entrenchment of a system of apartheid where those categorized as ‘migrant workers’ live, work, pay taxes and sometimes die in Canada but are subordinated to a legal regime that renders them as perennial outsiders to nationalized Canadian society.

In calling for a ‘no borders’ policy in Canada, Sharma argues that it is the acceptance of nationalist formulations of ‘home’ informed by racialized and gendered relations that contribute to the neo-liberal restructuring of the labour market in Canada. She exposes the ideological character of Canadian border control policies which, rather than preventing people from getting in, actually work to restrict their rights once within Canada. Home Economics is an urgent and much-needed reminder that in today’s world of growing displacement and unprecedented levels of international migration, society must pay careful attention to how nationalist ideologies construct ‘homelands’ that essentially leave the vast majority of the world’s migrant peoples homeless.

Contents 7 Tables and Figures 9 Acknowledgments 11 Foreword 13 1. Home(lessness) and the Naturalization of ‘Difference’ 17 2. Globalization and the Story of National Sovereignty 47 3. Imagined States: The Ideology of ‘National Society’ 69 4. Canadian Parliamentary Discourse and the Making of ‘Migrant Workers’ 90 5. Canada’s Non-Immigrant Employment Authorization Program (NIEAP): The Social Organization of Unfreedom for ‘Migrant Workers’ 120 6. Rejecting Global Apartheid: An Essay on the Refusal of ‘Difference’ 155 Notes 185 References 197 Index 219 "A massive shift has taken place in Canadian immigration since the 1970s : the majority of migrants no longer enter as permanent residents but as temporary migrant workers. In Home Economics, Nandita Sharma shows how Canadian policies on citizenship and immigration contribute to the entrenchment of a system of apartheid where those categorized as 'migrant workers' live, work, pay taxes, and sometimes die in Canada, but are subjected to a legal regime that renders them perennial outsiders in relation to Canadian society."--Résumé de l'éditeur