Foot in the door or double-edged sword: the construction of Indian hi-tech immigrants in Canada's Technology Triangle

Abstract

This article investigates the labour market experiences of Indian hi-tech professionals in the Waterloo tech cluster (Ontario), also known as Canada's Technology Triangle. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's theorisations, I show how Indian technology workers, although disadvantaged to some extent by their embodied social attributes and their ‘lack of Canadian experience’, exercise their agency to strategically convert their capitals to enter and progress in the labour market. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with Indian immigrants, technology companies and relevant organisations and immigrant-serving agencies in the Waterloo Region, I argue that the stereotypical association of Indian nationals and technology work contributes to their transnational habitus that yields some advantage in Canada's technology labour markets; a foot in the door. This stereotypical association, however, simultaneously contributes to new forms of oppression and restrictions to labour market entry for Indian nationals seeking to enter occupational sectors other than IT; a double-edged sword.