Mobility régimes, middling migration and uncertain desirability: the life course of temporary migrants transitioning to permanent residency in Quebec
Author: Capucine Coustere, capucine.coustere.1@ulaval.ca
Department: Sociology
University: Université Laval, Canada
Supervisor: Charles Fleury
Year of completion: 2024
Language of dissertation: French
Keywords:
Migration regime
, Two-step migration
, Middling migration
, Life course
Areas of Research:
Migration
, Work
, Youth
Abstract
In between transnational elite with an easier access to settlement, and that of ‘low-skilled’ labor migrants, whose border crossings and subsequent access to rights and permanent settlement are more limited, there is a category of migrants who benefit from both facilitated temporary migration and potential access to permanent settlement: middling migrants. These migrants share access to economic and social resources which facilitate voluntary migration partly motivated by non-economic factors, but their privileges and class position are unstable in the migratory context. From the point of view of receiving states, these people are temporarily desirable for their contribution to the economic and educational market, while also being potentially desirable to integrate into the nation permanently. They therefore find themselves in a mobility regime that can be described as “of uncertain desirability”.
This is especially the case in Canada and Quebec, where the sharp rise in temporary migration since the mid-2000s has been accompanied by the introduction of two-stage migration programs – making access to permanent residency conditional on prior temporary experience. To get permanent residency, not only do temporary migrants need to have the 'right' profile, but also the 'right' professional or study experiences during their stay with a temporary residency permit, which constitutes an implicit “desirability test”. This “test” may affect them because temporary residency status is precarious due to its short duration, and limited rights compared to permanent residency and citizenship.
Using the concept of ‘mobility regime’ and the life-course approach, the thesis seeks to examine how the negotiation of a mobility regime of uncertain desirability affects the migratory trajectories of middling migrants in Quebec. It consists of three research articles exploring different dimensions of this issue based on a qualitative longitudinal fieldwork. Twenty-two migrants with recent work experience in the hotel and restaurant industry in Quebec City were interviewed in 2019, 2020 and 2022.
The results show that the regime of uncertain desirability in which these middling migrants find themselves is precarious and exclusionary, due to the temporary permit held and to the process of transition to permanent residency, which involves both provincial and federal procedures. From the migrant's point of view, the process of transition to permanent residency begins even before the start of the administrative process, as they have to adjust their trajectories to the professional or educational experiences required by the selection criteria, within the limits of the temporary residency permit they hold. To be selected, they must also simultaneously manage the temporalities of the transition to permanent residency, of the temporary residence permit held, and the permit to be obtained to maintain legal residency status. In addition, they have to adapt to selection criteria reforms that modify eligible profiles and navigate the complexity of the transition process jointly managed by the provincial and federal governments. However, these migrants negotiate migration regulations with agency to pursue their migration project and aspirations, and it is precisely the encounter between their agency and the restrictive legal context which affects their life course.
