Temporary labour migration is on the rise in the developed world. In May 2009, Canada's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration issued a report on the state of temporary and undocumented foreign workers in Canada, making a series of recommendations to ensure that labour needs can be met through temporary foreign workers and that those workers are able to successfully integrate into Canadian society. The report highlights one Canadian immigration program, the Live-in Caregivers Program, which offers migrant workers the opportunity to apply for permanent residency after working 24 months as a live-in child or elder care provider. The authors argue that the report errs in holding up the Live-in Caregivers Program as a model for other temporary foreign worker programs. Although the path to permanent residency is an important provision of the Live-in Caregivers Program, a gendered analysis of the program shows that the women who come to Canada as caregivers continue to face vulnerability and exploitation because of key structures of the program, most importantly the live-in requirement. Until policy reform accounts for the results of such a gendered analysis, the Live-in Caregivers Program does not ensure that caregivers will be able to integrate successfully into Canadian society.
Solicited journal entries are a qualitative research method with a fairly strong tradition in sociological research and particularly in qualitative health research. However, the practices and strengths associated with solicited journal entries have not been explored as frequently or comprehensively as more conventional qualitative research methods, such as interviews. During the COVID-19 pandemic we carried out two online studies employing solicited written journal entries and photos. One study focused on pregnancy and health care experiences during the pandemic and the other on everyday life while working from home due to public health restrictions. Here, we discuss solicited online journal entries as a qualitative method and reflect on the strengths and challenges we encountered, including those related to using the online survey tool LimeSurvey for a qualitative diary-based study. The richness of data and the ability to solicit participants’ contemporaneous reflections over the course of a set length of time, the ability to reach people across time zones and in multiple places, and the ability to adapt prompts in a quickly changing research context are major strengths of online journaling. The level of commitment required by participants, the potential for attrition, the need for literacy and technology access, and the large amount of data from each participant are potential limitations for researchers to consider.
Beyond competitive elections, democratisation should include a transformation of the institutions of state and civil society into spaces that recognise the rights of citizens and allow for their participation. This study explores the question of how Mexican labour unions are transformed into institutions with a commitment to the rights and participation of women workers. Drawing on evidence from five unions, the paper shows that compared to their corporatist counterparts, unions with a ‘democratic ethos’ provide a context within which gender equity rights are more readily recognised. However, recognition of gender equity is primarily dependent on feminist activism and union leadership. The paper argues that women's efforts to transform their unions into spaces that reflect and advocate for gender equity rights are critical to strengthening democratic citizenship in Mexico.
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