Labour Forced

Over the past year, support for immigration has fallen sharply in Canada, as a spike in the number of temporary residents collides with rising housing costs. Debates about the country’s “hosting capacity”— already common in Quebec, where immigration is also frequently tied to the decline of French — have spread from coast to coast to coast. But amid the duelling op‑eds about how many and what kind of newcomers are worth having, it is easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. Why are so many people arriving here in the first place, and who benefits from systems that keep their lives precarious?

Mostafa Henaway’s Essential Work, Disposable Workers provides a structural corrective that situates Canada within an international context of labour mobility and exploitation. A long-time organizer with Montreal’s Immigrant Workers Centre and an academic researcher at Concordia University, Henaway combines local examples with an expansive frame. He begins with...