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Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Daiva K. Stasiulis and Abigail B. Bakan, Negotiating Citizenship: Migrant Women in Canada and the Global System (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 2005)

NEGOTIATING CITIZENSHIP is an important contribution to the theoretical and empirical literature on citizenship, globalization, migration, labour, identity politics, and intersectionality. The authors reconceptualize citizenship, not primarily as a legal or substantive entity but as a negotiated relationship. The book provides nuanced case studies on migrant women from the West Indies and Philippines, with a specific focus on two forms of care-giving labour in Canada, namely live-in domestic work and hospital-based nursing. As well as offering an analysis of racialized women largely ignored or under-theorized in citizenship studies, one of the strengths of the book is that it is based on primary research involving original survey data and interviews with stakeholders. The main argument is that whereas globalization expresses and exacerbates imperialist hierarchies, nation states are also major culprits in creating and perpetuating 'non-citizens' through ideological and institutionalized forms of sexism, patriarchy, Euro-centrism, Orientalism, racism, and class privilege.

Chapter two provides the substantive theoretical framework that shapes the rest of the text. It identifies the tension between universalistic claims of citizenship made by nation-states and the inequitable working conditions of migrant women imposed by the state; the contradiction between ideals of formal equality and inclusion and the actual material inequality and exclusion of poor women of colour; the privatization, individualization, and familialization of work that emerges as a consequence of economic globalization and neo-liberalism; the racialized nature of the public/private divide; the selective global circulation of human labour; and the racialized policing of state borders, which either governs the rights of women from the Third World or strips undocumented workers of rights. The authors usefully identify these as barriers that non-citizens negotiate in order to determine whether they are potential citizens, citizens on probation subject to technologies of policing, or ineligible as citizens. (11)

The authors also challenge the assumption that migration is always an individual free choice by offering a contextual analysis of why women from the West Indies and the Philippines migrate (chapter three). They link social and economic factors within Third World countries with racialized/gendered labour practices and regulations in Canada and the global economy. These include financial internationalization and the legacies of colonialism. Specifically, these structural forces create poverty, unemployment, underdevelopment, and unsupported urban growth in the Third World. The argument is sharp, pointed, and historicized, especially in identifying that First World states are willing and able to exploit the increased supply of women workers from the Third World. This takes on dimensions of the gendered North/ South divide where women in countries like Canada often spurn domestic work that is much coveted by women from the South. (46)

The book also illuminates various stereotypes about Black and Asian women (rooted in histories of colonial sexism), and how these are instituted by Canadian 'gatekeepers' (chapter four). This analysis not only identifies the gatekeepers (i.e., legislation that imposes rules regarding recruitment and residence restrictions, and private placement agencies), but it also considers the contextual factors and impact of such gate-keeping. For instance, the authors note that the lack of accessible public childcare creates a demand for foreign workers. Later in the book (chapter seven), they address another source of gate-keeping, the legal system. The authors examine the lack of legal responsibility of employers and placement agencies; the regulation of entry of landed immigrants and temporary workers; the constraints in accessing legal channels of recourse; and the uneven and unmonitored discretion of immigration officers. This chapter usefully brings to light judicial cases to show that while courts have been willing to uphold some individual domestic worker rights, systemic problems facing the non-citizen tend to go unresolved.

The detailed analysis of foreign domestic workers (chapter five) and nurses (chapter six) takes on two kinds of comparisons that cut across each other. First, the authors point to the shared experience of non-citizenship that emerges from low wages, dependence on income to send to family members 'back home', exploitation in care-giving duties and household work, and the lack of privacy. At the same time, the authors do not universalize the experiences of differently racialized women. They note that domestic workers from the West Indies are more regularly undocumented, often leading to poorer wages and working conditions than for Filipino women; racialized stereotypes vary (e.g., the Black mammy and the obedient Asian women); there are differing chances in being offered employment (Filipino women tend to be preferred); and various ways of resisting oppression (e.g., Filipino women are explicitly transnational in organizing and Black women tend to mobilize local networks).

The second comparison is between live-in domestic workers and nurses. While both groups of migrant workers are in gendered 'care' occupations and vulnerable to workplace discrimination, the authors demonstrate that foreign nurses often enter with landed immigrant status and therefore have more access to formal rights such as social welfare entitlements and avenues for redress which are mostly deferred or denied to foreign domestic workers. (111) Nonetheless, the barriers to citizenship for nurses of colour continue to be related to discrimination and harassment at work. The significance of these comparisons is that they highlight hierarchies of Otherness and how these serve to operationalize non-citizenship.

The concluding chapter reiterates that far from being fixed or stable, citizenship is always in negotiation. To navigate citizenship, migrant women of colour face gatekeepers both before and after they migrate. This is also an important chapter as it picks up on the theme of oppositional consciousness that is touched upon throughout the book. Here, the authors speak to the ways in which West Indian and Filipino women adopt the face of 'dissident citizenship' by defying the status of victim and engaging in campaigns, alliance-building, legal challenges, and everyday resistance in the place of work.

There are some slippages in the book, including one which likens domestic worker placement to arranged marriage which is (falsely) assumed to be universally oppressive. Moreover, the theoretical and normative arguments would benefit from clarifying: how the idea of negotiated citizenship differs from other theories of citizenship (other than T.H. Marshall, to whom they refer); whether the interactions among gender, racialization, and capitalism are integral to each other or, alternatively, incidental; whether liberalism (and not j u s t neo-liberalism) is inherently flawed and therefore a poor basis to re-conceptualize citizenship; and whether citizenship itself is essentially emancipatory or, alternatively, limited as an idea precisely because it relies on a tension between inclusion and exclusion.

In the end, these concerns do not undermine the contributions and insights of the book (some of which are only briefly examined, e.g., the rise of men seeking work as live-in domestics). Three stand out. First is the idea of the non-citizen, whose status is legalized within the nation-state and beyond. The non-citizen is one who lacks basic citizenship rights including the choice of employer and domicile, access to social entitlements, freedom of mobility, and the ability to grieve workplace discrimination. Central to non-citizenship is gendered racialization and racism. Second, Negotiating Citizenship challenges the popular idea that we are living in an era of transnational citizenship. While the authors emphasize the transnational character of migrants — who aim to maintain citizenship status from their home countries, preserve household structures across borders, are part of a transnational labour force, and share exploited occupational status across the globe (39) — they demonstrate that global citizenship is a reality primarily for those with wealth. Third, the book debunks the myth that Canada is a welcoming multicultural society. While it is relatively less abusive to foreign domestic workers than other countries, its policies institute a permanent threat of deportation, unchecked working conditions, and forced living circumstances. As the authors note, Canada participates in creating and sustaining an "indentured or captive labour force." (48)

Ultimately, this book provides a radical theory of citizenship that is empirically and theoretically rich and informative. Negotiating Citizenship transcends disciplinary boundaries and would appeal to those from such disciplines as sociology, politics and political theory, cultural studies, women's studies, ethnic studies, and economics.


Rita Dhamoon University of Alberta

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