Access without fear in a Borderland: impacts on frontline service workers

Abstract

This study analyses interviews with frontline service workers employed in agencies in Windsor, Ontario, Canada who work with persons without immigration status. Through these interviews, frontline service workers provided insights into their work with persons without status, including the significant barriers to effective service provision requiring 'covert practices' as part of their work. The interview subjects ultimately conclude that an access without fear (AWF) policy would indeed bolster their efforts to work with persons without status, buttressing claims that an AWF policy can be a useful tool to support the basic needs of persons without status. However, the interviews also raise questions about how the law is understood by frontline service workers and the very real potential that AWF might be yet another unmet promise. Underlying these interviews were also questions of trust and relationship-building that re-emphasise both the need and limitations of policy.