Temporary Migration and Family Violence: How Perpetrators Weaponise Borders

This paper explores the implications of domestic and family violence occurring across borders, specifically the utilisation of border crossings to exert control and enact violence. While gendered violence can and does occur in border-crossing journeys, this paper focuses more specifically on how domestic and family violence extends across national borders and how violence (or the threat of violence and deportation) can manifest across multiple countries when women are temporary visa holders. This paper illuminates the way in which migration systems play a significant role in temporary migrant experiences of domestic and family violence. Drawing on a study of 300 temporary migrants and their experiences of domestic and family violence, I argue that perpetrators effectively weaponise the migration system to threaten, coerce and control women in different ways, most often with impunity. I also argue that we cannot focus on perpetrators and the individual alone—that we need to build on the border criminology scholarship that highlights the need to focus on systemic harm in the context of domestic and family violence and identify how the migration regime contributes to gendered violence.

Australia's guestworkers? A discussion of the rights of New Zealand citizens to enter, reside and work in Australia

<p>New Zealanders and Australians have enjoyed free movement across the Tasman since early European settlement of both countries. They have been able to live and work in either country for indeterminate periods, and up until recently, enjoyed many of the same benefits as permanents residents of their respective countries. However from 2001 the Australian government has cut back the entitlements of New Zealanders in Australia to welfare and other benefits. This paper explores the legal position of New Zealanders in Australia and the reasons behind the Australian government’s moves. It will argue that New Zealanders who do not meet the usual permanent residence criteria are effectively being used as temporary migrant labour in Australia. Even where they make Australia their long-term home they have no access to an alternative path to residence and citizenship. Excluded from the franchise, they are in a position of “civic marginalization” in which they have no direct influence over policies such as the 2001 changes to social welfare. The paper will conclude by considering briefly whether a human rights approach could provide a mechanism for these “Ozkiwis” to address differential treatment that has arisen as a result of their civic marginalisation.</p>

Australia's guestworkers? A discussion of the rights of New Zealand citizens to enter, reside and work in Australia

<p>New Zealanders and Australians have enjoyed free movement across the Tasman since early European settlement of both countries. They have been able to live and work in either country for indeterminate periods, and up until recently, enjoyed many of the same benefits as permanents residents of their respective countries. However from 2001 the Australian government has cut back the entitlements of New Zealanders in Australia to welfare and other benefits. This paper explores the legal position of New Zealanders in Australia and the reasons behind the Australian government’s moves. It will argue that New Zealanders who do not meet the usual permanent residence criteria are effectively being used as temporary migrant labour in Australia. Even where they make Australia their long-term home they have no access to an alternative path to residence and citizenship. Excluded from the franchise, they are in a position of “civic marginalization” in which they have no direct influence over policies such as the 2001 changes to social welfare. The paper will conclude by considering briefly whether a human rights approach could provide a mechanism for these “Ozkiwis” to address differential treatment that has arisen as a result of their civic marginalisation.</p>

New Vulnerabilities for Migrants and Refugees in State Responses to the Global Pandemic, COVID-19

This article examines the global pandemic, COVID-19, through the lens of responses to vulnerable migrants, asking what state responses mean for the future of human rights values and for humanitarian interventions. The responses of the Australian state are developed as a case study of actions and policies directed at refugees and temporary migrant workers through the COVID-19 pandemic. The theoretical framing of the article draws on racial capitalism to argue that the developments manifest during the ‘crisis times’ of COVID-19 are in large part a continuity of the exclusionary politics of bordering practices at the heart of neoliberal capitalism. The article proposes that a rethinking of foundational theoretical and methodological approaches in the social sciences are needed to reflect contemporary changes in justice claims, claims that increasingly recognize the multi-species nature of existential threats to all life.

Photography and the Concept of Return: A Personal View

As a photographer of the immigrant experience, the yearning for return to a homeland has been a central theme of my research. In this paper, I explore both my personal and collective experience of displacement and uprooting (Not Paved with Gold), the annual return to Canada of temporary migrant farm workers from Mexico and the Caribbean (Harvest Pilgrims), and the metaphorical return of Italian immigrants to a spiritual homeland through the annual re-enactment of the Via Crucis on the streets of Toronto’s Little Italy (Ritual). The paper poses the question of whether the immigrant, having abandoned his homeland, can truly return to it.

“It’s better I’m dead”: oppression and suicidal ideation

Purpose Anecdotal accounts of suicide among temporary low-wage migrant workers in the UAE are numerous, but unofficial and qualitative accounts remain unexplored. This study aims to examine how the socio-environmental context can lead some low-wage migrants, irrespective of their nationality or culture, to contemplate suicide for the first time after arriving in the host country. Design/methodology/approach The findings draw from ten months of qualitative fieldwork (2015–2016) and in-depth interviews conducted with 44 temporary migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, earning in the lowest wage bracket in Dubai. The study used a non-probabilistic, purposive sampling approach to select participants. Three criteria drove eligibility: participants had to reside in the UAE, be non-national and earn Dh1500 (US$408) or less a month. Otherwise, diversity was sought in regard to nationality, occupation and employer. Findings Eight (18%) of the 44 study participants interviewed admitted to engaging in suicidal thoughts for the first time after arriving in the UAE. The findings suggest that for low-wage migrants working in certain socio-environmental contexts, the religious, gendered or other cultural or group characteristics or patterns that may be predictors of suicide in migrants’ country of origin may become secondary or possibly even irrelevant when one is forced to survive under conditions that by most objective standards would be deemed not only oppressive but extremely exploitative and abusive. Originality/value This study contributes to understandings of how the emotional and psychological well-being of temporary foreign low-wage migrant workers can be impacted by the socio-environmental context of the host country. It is a first step in understanding the intimate thoughts of low-wage migrant workers on the topic of suicidality, furthering our understanding of suicidal ideation and the factors that can contribute to it.

Documenting China's Garment Industry: Wang Bing's Portrayal of Migrant Workers' Suspended Lives within the Contract Labour System

This essay examines two films by the Chinese documentary filmmaker Wang Bing about temporary migrant workers in small, privately owned garment workshops in Zhejiang Province, China: Bitter Money (Ku Qian; 2016) and 15 Hours (Shi Wu Xiao Shi; 2017). Wang's films portray Chinese garment workers' lived experiences of "suspension," as defined by Biao Xiang in this issue, in unique cinematic ways. Social sciences have paid close attention to the experiences of migrant workers, but art documentaries use audiovisual and aesthetic means to explore their everyday reality, producing what D. MacDougall calls distinctive "affective knowledge." Wang's films are usually categorized as part of the Sixth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, known for capturing social issues through observational methods. In this essay, I identify Wang's works with the aesthetics of "slow cinema" and a global documentary trend in the visual arts as theorized by T. J. Demos in The Migrant Image. Based on close observation coupled with empathetic insight, Wang develops his own subjective method to portray people in a transformed and still changing China, where suspension is a common state of being. Ultimately, Wang's films not only make the personal experiences of migrant workers visible and tangible, but also problematize their underlying, collective condition of suspension due to the contract labour system and associated hypermobility. The suspension approach suggests a productive way of bringing documentary art and social sciences into dialogue.

Maintaining the temporary nature of the seasonal agriculture workers program in Canada: a source country analysis

The successful management of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) in Canada for the past 52 years lies with the bilateral agreement of the program’s Memorandum of Understanding. Despite its expansion over the decades, the program does not offer a pathway to permanent residency for migrant farm-workers. The power imbalance in maintaining the ability to grant permanent residence pathways lies mainly with the host country (Canada). However, source country by proxy also appears to play a role in maintaining the temporary nature of the program via managing and policing the SAWP workers. Based on a case study, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and a total of 10 interviews with workers, former workers, former and current civil servants responsible for the program in this country, the Major Research Paper interrogates the roles played by the source country in the continuation of the temporary migrant status and conditions associated with SAWP. . Key words: seasonal agricultural worker program, labour migration, temporary foreign worker, migrant farm worker.

Remaining Competitive In The Global Economy Through Temporary Migrant Labour? One "Short-TGerm" Step Forward And Two "Long-Term" Steps Backward In Canadian Immigration

In the last 10 years, the creation and expansion of the Low Skill Pilot Project (LSPP) has substantially increased the scope of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, ultimately eclipsing permanent immigration into Canada. The consequences, while positive for employers in the short-term, are perverse for Canada’s principles of social justice and equity in the long-term. It is also not clear whether the Project serves Canada’s immigration goals and national interests in the long term. This paper examines the LSPP’s creation and development, and analyzes short and long-term implications for Canadian society and the “Canada brand” of immigration, which refers to Canada’s image as a “destination of choice” for would-be immigrants the world over. This paper draws attention to the dichotomy of labour rights, wages and benefits of skilled and unskilled temporary foreign workers. A juxtaposition of two foreign worker categories within a dual labour segmentation framework illustrates this phenomenon.