Migrant Workers as Non-Citizens: The Case against Citizenship as a Social Policy Concept

Abstract

Facilitating the movement of individuals and communities from second-class citizenship to full, participatory citizenship has been a preferred social justice strategy for many on the Left. Indeed, within the Canadian social policy and community development literature, the debate over how to re-energize concepts such as citizenship has raged hotly since the mid-1980s. Citizenship is not, however, an unproblematic or wholly inclusive concept. Numerous authors have argued that concepts like citizenship are highly homogenizing and belie the differences in power and resources that criss-cross imagined communities of common interest.