Temporary Foreign Workers in Québec What Advantages for Skilled Workers?
Most academic research about temporary foreign workers in Canada focuses on workers in low-skilled jobs. Thousands of temporary foreign workers, however, also occupy higher-skilled jobs. Based on 26 qualitative in-depth interviews, this article examines the trajectories and experiences of skilled temporary foreign workers in Québec and analyzes the effects of temporariness. Despite a migration regime that grants this group of workers more rights than to those occupying jobs requiring lower skills, the analysis reveals that skilled temporary workers are subject to precarious migration status and employment. We argue that the temporary aspect of their migration supersedes skill level in shaping precarity. Conceptually, we advance the notion of precarity as regards all temporary workers, regardless of skill level, and call for analyses that look beyond specific programs or the national origins of temporary workers.