Gendering Temporariness: Stratified Citizenship and Hierarchies of Skill in Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program

The number of workers admitted to Canada through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) has been increasing over time. By 2012, there were almost twice as many temporary residents as permanent residents in Canada (CIC 2013). With the introduction of the Canadian Experience Class, the Conservative government has prioritized the recruitment of high-skilled workers and facilitated their transition to permanence, while limiting the number of low-skill workers and providing them with no such access to permanence. This study considers evidence from parliamentary committees to prove that the government has consistently chosen to maintain the divide between temporary and permanent citizenship despite agreement among witnesses that all temporary migrant workers should have access to citizenship. The study also shows that the TFWP is based on gendered and racist categorizations of skill which places women and racialized workers in predominantly low-skilled categories, making them less able to access formal citizenship and rights.