State Strategy for Migration Management: Canada's Two Temporary Foreign Worker Programs, The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program & The Live-in Caregiver Program

Abstract

<p> This study applies an IPE approach to examine the economic conditions, motivations and interests which have driven the Canadian government and two sending countries, Mexico and the Philippines, to accept the terms and conditions of a regulatory framework encouraging short-term labour migration between them. The features of program development which underpin the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) and the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) have not been compared side by side. Nor have the two programs been compared for the relationship that has developed over the years between the Canadian government and the two sending governments of Mexico and the Philippines. The study's core research question asks how the process of regulating cross-border labour migration works and how it is coordinated between two or more governments that form part of a migration system.</p> <p> An important research finding that emerges from the comparison is the categorization of different types of migration systems. I argue that the SAWP and LCP differ in how they are administered because relations between the various actors differ. Furthermore, what defines these relationships is the set of geopolitical and economic interests that each government carries when it negotiates the regulation of cross-border labour migration. Findings suggest that the geopolitical and economic imperative which has driven the SAWP's development is not the same for the LCP.</p>