Les "mains invisibles": les travailleurs migrants temporaires dans le secteur agro-alimentaire au Québec

(Supervisors: Mariella Pandolfi, Montréal / Jorge Pantaleon, Montréal / Michael Schönhuth, Trier)

Over the last couple of decades, an increasing number of temporary foreign workers have come to Canada. This growth is in large part due to several programs that allow employers to hire temporary foreign workers in different sectors of production. My research focuses on temporary foreign workers in Quebec and will consider the specificity of this provincial program in Canada. I analyze the conditions that give rise to the agency of migrant workers by comparing the ethnographies of agricultural and slaughterhouse workers. Focusing on workers' agency allows me to analyze the regime of control on the mobility of foreign labour that is both spatially and temporally displaced. In order to do so, I examine: (1) the juridical fragmentation of temporary worker programs; (2) the role of diversity in work relationships and in local communities; (3) the forms of resistance or resilience that foreign workers utilize.