Migration of Labor and Public Policies Compared: Toward an International Informalization of Work?

Using a critical analysis of Canadian public policies on immigration and employment, we carry out an international comparative study of the socioeconomic impacts of temporary migrant labour on employment regulation and access to labour social rights. On an infra-national level, this study focuses primarily on local impacts of the main temporary migrant worker programs in Canada, wich are examined and referred to as a “grey zone” of work actually in emergence in Canadian work environments. Those environments have always been marked by a labour relations model issued from the New Deal, clearly in rupture with the growing informality specific to this grey zone. We also analyze the impact of temporary labour migration as a key issue in the international division of labour, highlighting the consequences of erosion in the employment relationship and reduced access to social rights. The conclusion raises the issue of the state’s ambivalence in managing migrant inflows and examines implications for the social relationship, given that the phenomenon at issue has heavy local consequences that are as worthy of study as its international scope.