Wednesday, 28 January 2026 | 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. EST | Virtually via Zoom
Register here for the Zoom information
This paper examines migrant worker experiences in Atlantic Canada and situates them within Canada’s national temporary labour regime. Drawing on the 2024 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative’s report, Falling Short: Troubles with the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in Nova Scotia, as well as on national scholarship on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, it argues that Atlantic Canada exemplifies dominant regulatory logics relative to migrant labour. Here, despite smaller scale and lower visibility, migrant workers face employer-tied permits, employer-controlled housing, restricted mobility, and limited access to healthcare. The paper contrasts contemporary experiences with that of Caribbean industrial migration to Nova Scotia in the 1920s, highlighting how settlement has been systematically foreclosed, especially to those in low-wage sectors.
This talk will be moderated by Krista Johnston, Associate Professor in Feminist & Gender Studies and Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Claudine Bonner (she/her) is the Canada Research Chair in Racial justice and African Diaspora migration in the Atlantic Region at Mount Allison University and an Associate Professor in Sociology. Her teaching focuses on issues of equity and racial justice. She served as the inaugural Vice Provost of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Acadia University. Her recent publication, The Black Press: A Shadowed Canadian Tradition, is a collection of essays co-edited with Drs. Nina Reid-Maroney and Boulou Ebanda de B bèri. This collection, spanning the period from the 1850s to the early twentieth century, is the first in the field to bring together original historical and Communication Studies research that position pioneering Canadian Black journalists as effective intellectual activists. Her current research explores post-Confederation Caribbean migration to Atlantic Canada.
For those who have pre-registered for WIHIC: please register on Zoom to receive the event details.
For more information: [email protected]
A What is Happening in Canada? Series is made possible by the participation of the Centre for Indigenous and Critical Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University, the Canadian Studies Network, the Laurier Centre for the Study of Canada, the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, and the School of Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent University, with the support of the International Council for Canadian Studies.