Migration and Legal Precarity in the Time of Pandemic: Qualitative Research on the Italian Case

The COVID-19 pandemic has unequally impacted the lives of Italian subjects. The article uses evidence from forty-seven semi-structured interviews with various migrant groups to illuminate how temporalities embedded in Italy’s migration governance shape migrants’ precarious legal status and access to welfare. The authors show that whereas migrants with secure legal status or citizenship have not engaged significantly with Italian bureaucracies, they have no easy access to welfare as it is contingent on their employment and financial status. Migrants with precarious status have been the worst hit by the pandemic’s secondary effects across several fronts. These findings have implications for policy and future research.

Neither Temporary, Nor Permanent: The Precarious Employment Experiences Of Refugee Claimants In Toronto

While Canada’s immigration system is shaped primarily by the nation’s economic needs, refugee claimants’ motivations are, by nature, non-economic. Resultantly, refugee claimants are often portrayed as a drain on Canadian resources. Despite this however, refugee claimants’ employment experiences remain underrepresented in the literature. This study explores the employment experiences of refugee claimants in Toronto, and finds that claimants face distinct and unique barriers stemming from their precarious legal status. Additionally, as neither temporary workers nor permanent citizens, this study finds that refugee claimants perceive employment as an integrative expression of belonging and citizenship. Through the lens of

Neither Temporary, Nor Permanent: The Precarious Employment Experiences Of Refugee Claimants In Toronto

While Canada’s immigration system is shaped primarily by the nation’s economic needs, refugee claimants’ motivations are, by nature, non-economic. Resultantly, refugee claimants are often portrayed as a drain on Canadian resources. Despite this however, refugee claimants’ employment experiences remain underrepresented in the literature. This study explores the employment experiences of refugee claimants in Toronto, and finds that claimants face distinct and unique barriers stemming from their precarious legal status. Additionally, as neither temporary workers nor permanent citizens, this study finds that refugee claimants perceive employment as an integrative expression of belonging and citizenship. Through the lens of

Expanding access to post-secondary education for youth with precarious legal status: a Ryerson University case-study

Access to post-secondary education (PSE) for people with precarious legal status (PLS) is an understudied topic, particularly in the Canadian context, resulting in a substantial gap in the theoretical and practical understanding of the subject and a growing pool of wasted talent and deferred dreams. This paper explores the possibility of expanding access to PSE for students with PLS at Ryerson University, given the university’s unique commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and its intention to be a City Builder. I propose an initiative that would admit academically qualified students into Ryerson, and put in place a tuition equity policy that would honour students’ residency in the province, thus waiving international fees. This paper is structured as a sort of “road-map” that could be utilized by other universities in Ontario interested in undertaking similar initiatives.

Expanding access to post-secondary education for youth with precarious legal status: a Ryerson University case-study

Access to post-secondary education (PSE) for people with precarious legal status (PLS) is an understudied topic, particularly in the Canadian context, resulting in a substantial gap in the theoretical and practical understanding of the subject and a growing pool of wasted talent and deferred dreams. This paper explores the possibility of expanding access to PSE for students with PLS at Ryerson University, given the university’s unique commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and its intention to be a City Builder. I propose an initiative that would admit academically qualified students into Ryerson, and put in place a tuition equity policy that would honour students’ residency in the province, thus waiving international fees. This paper is structured as a sort of “road-map” that could be utilized by other universities in Ontario interested in undertaking similar initiatives.

Living with Precarious Legal Status in Canada: Implications for the Well-Being of Children and Families

Living with Precarious Legal Status in Canada: Implications for the Well-Being of Children and Families

Living with Precarious Legal Status in Canada: Implications for the Well-Being of Children and Families

Living with Precarious Legal Status in Canada: Implications for the Well-Being of Children and Families

Gaining Institutional Permission: Researching Precarious Legal Status in Canada

Gaining Institutional Permission: Researching Precarious Legal Status in Canada

Gaining Institutional Permission: Researching Precarious Legal Status in Canada

Gaining Institutional Permission: Researching Precarious Legal Status in Canada

Encounters of Despair: Street-Level Bureaucrat and Migrant Interactions in Sweden and Switzerland

Encounters between street-level bureaucrats and the so-called “client of the state” – here the migrant individual with precarious legal status – are characterized by great power imbalances. The dependency relationships that emerge out of public administrative encounters need to be understood as spaces of continuous asymmetrical negotiations. Emotions play a crucial role, not only as a translation of how migrants and bureaucrats mutually shape, contest, and reproduce migration control, but also as a strategic component and a tool for negotiation. Supported by ethnographic data from a Swiss Cantonal Migration Office and a Swedish Border Police Unit, collected between 2016 and 2017, I argue that emotions interweave all migrant-bureaucrat interactions. Their analysis discloses not only the emotional labour of migration enforcement, but also how it is translated into bureaucratically enacted practices, which include physical force, vocal exchanges, documents and spatial means, leading to what Walters (2006) coined “political economies of violence” (438).