Temporariness and the production of policy categories in Canada

Since the late-2000s, Canada has admitted an increasing number of foreign workers with various temporary work permits to meet local labour shortages and growing labour market demands. The rise of temporary migrants has accompanied with a policy shift, from one-step to two-step immigration, to facilitate the retention of former temporary foreign workers and international graduates who had obtained Canadian work experience and credentials. Imposing specific regulations, the policies have created a relatively privileged class of high-skilled workers who have more labour rights and transition pathways than their low-skilled counterparts. Using the analytical framework of regulated and flexible temporariness, this paper examines how unequal regulations are applied to govern the labour market participation and transition of these two groups of migrant workers. Based on secondary sources, the analysis assesses how different notions of temporariness are produced within the Canadian temporary migration programme and the two-step immigration model. This paper also contributes to shedding light on how the pandemic crisis has influenced the emerging debates on temporariness and the recent policy responses.