The Changing Face of Work in the Context Immigration: Contesting Work Experience on Immigrants in Canada

Canada’s pursuit of a knowledge-based economy shifted focus of its immigration selection practices to education and skills, favouring economic immigrants to augment existing human capital. Despite their invaluable skills, immigrants are stigmatized as social and political constructions, with skin colour as the basis for social marking. Intersectionality illustrates contemporary configurations of global capital that fuel and sustain growing social inequalities, fostering a rethinking of how experiences can be embedded and shaped by the social categories of gender, race, and class. Therefore, this critical literature review applies intersectionality theory to the changing nature of work experiences of immigrant workers. This research reveals a need for an intersectional inclusive space wherein social inequality can be dynamically re-recognized and negotiated so immigrants can achieve social equality at the individual, community, and social level.