NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: tourism, immigration, wellbeing

Objective(s): To trace, document, assess, and evaluate outcomes for IMPs (International Mobility Program) in the north as well as articulate principles for policy design and envision policy options that are fairer and informed by indigenous perspectives and rights to self-determination.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 6119. The overall project has four main objectives: 1. Trace IMPs (International Mobility Program) policy pathways in three national contexts with particular attention to migration policy development, transfer, and diffusion, connecting these programs as outgrowths of historical efforts designed to attract settlers to these territories without consent of Indigenous peoples. 2. Document and compare patterns and trends in size and composition of IMPs and explore their makeup in terms of age, gender, source country, and identify analogues across national contexts, through meaningful collaboration between government, community, and research partners. 3. Establish criteria for evaluating and proceed with assessing outcomes of IMPs, in comparison to their migrant work-like counterparts, in a way that fosters transnational linkages and engages partners committed to challenging ongoing dispossession of Indigenous territories and resources. 4. Articulate principles for policy design and envision policy options that (a) incorporate transnational perspectives, inclusive of those that move among sending and receiving societies, to establish fairer and more sustainable labour migration pathways and relationships, and (b) build relationships to ensure these principles are informed by Indigenous perspectives and rights to self-determination. Through the case study in Yellowknife, information will be gathered on the following research questions: 1. Which temp permits do migrants currently hold and how did they come to be located at the case study site? Are they open or closed work permits? In which programs are they enrolled? Do the programs in question require an LMIA? How long are these permits? 2. How do workers navigate/learn about programs or attempt to move from one program to another to fulfil the goals of their migration? 3. In what types of work do work do migrants work for pay (industries, occupations, job types) and under what conditions? (i.e., delve into working conditions and workplace interactions, including whether and, in what ways, workplaces are stratified (e.g., along the lines of gender, race, indigeneity, migration, class, age, language)? 4. What racialized burdens operate at the case study sites? How are inequalities produced? 5. What do relations between migrant workers and institutions, employers, local residents, family, kin and other workers look like? 6. How do settlement services/agencies & local orgs at the case study site engage with migrants? What about with policymakers and everyday public policy? 7. What are migrant workers relations with land & place? 8. What is the nature of Indigenous presence in the site and how is the land storied? 9. How are settler nation-states represented and manifest in the case study site? How is appropriation manifest, what is the nature of the performative symbolism of indigeneity? Individual interviews will be conducted with international migrant workers who are part of temporary work programs and involved in the tourism industry in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Migrant workers who are employed in companies providing services such as accommodation and food within Yellowknife, as well as those employed in tour companies operating in and/or close to Yellowknife will be included. Participants will be invited to participate in audio recorded-only, in-depth either virtual or in-person interviews 60-90 minutes in duration. Due to Zoom platform limitations, virtual interviews will also record video but, if participants wish to leave their cameras on, the video recordings will be deleted by researchers immediately following the interview and only the audio recording will be kept. Moreover, participants who do not want to be video recorded will be asked to disable their web camera. During these semi-structured interviews, participants will be asked to respond to interview questions (see attached) about their work and migration history, their experiences of labour market (in)security) and how they responded to violations of rights or lack of protection, if experienced, their future work and migration plans, and their experience of key dynamics of settler and external colonialism (e.g., discrimination related to labour force participation and/or residency status on the basis of axes of social difference identified by the interviewee in question in sending and receiving contexts). Interviews will be conducted in English or other languages as per the respondent's request. If participants wish to be interviewed in a language not spoken by a co-researcher, we will attempt to make arrangements for interpretation. Interpreters will sign a confidentiality agreement prior to their inclusion in the interview. All interviews will be followed by a brief post-interview questionnaire which will be completed by the interviewer to capture basic demographic and employment information (see attached draft worker post-interview questionnaire). Individual interviews with representatives from key informant organizations will also be conducted. These include those involved in settlement sector organizations, language education for migrants, tour operators or employers as well as government officials who may have insight into international migration policy or practice. Participants will be invited to participate in audio recorded-only, in-depth either virtual or in-person interviews 60 minutes in duration. During these semi-structured interviews, participants will be asked to respond to interview questions (see attached) about their organizations’ role in administering/regulating migrant worker programs and rights in the tourism and agricultural sectors and (where applicable) will be encouraged to reflect on their organizations’ administration/regulation/advocacy work for migrant workers I dynamics of settler and external colonialism. Interviews will be conducted in English or French. If participants wish to be interviewed in another language, arrangements will be made to facilitate this. On Methodology and Data Analysis: Given the diversity of IMP subprograms, and their corollary programs under the TFWP, especially in agriculture, under study and the emphasis on internal and external colonialism as well as other axes of social difference, qualitative research is necessary for developing an in-depth analysis of this understudied domain and is thus a critical part of the multi-method approach embraced by this SSHRC PG research team. Individual interviews aim to give participants, drawn from a range of locations, “voice” and have them “tell their stories” (Maynes, Piece, and Laslett, 2008) to gain insight on both the material conditions shaping so-called “mobile” workers’ participation in different IMP subprograms and the degree to which these conditions are impacted by axes of differentiation, including source country, gender, and age. To allow for respondent-driven, yet bounded, discussions, semi-structured interviews will enable participants to use examples of practices, conditions, laws or policies that may limit IMP participants’ mobility. In utilizing this method in her previous research on other groups of IMPs, Vosko (2020, 2022, 2023, forthcoming) found that it serves to not only position participants as knowers, but also invite participants to use their personal experiences of practices and processes assumed to be quotidian (particularly applicable to IMP participants) and/or reflect upon complexities involved in applying and implementing laws and policies (especially relevant when engaging government officials and institutional actors) (Mirchandani et al 2016). For the past year, we have been consulting with various organizations in order to gain knowledge about the context, geography, history and organizational landscape in Yellowknife's tourism sector. We have sought advice on research questions and possible ways in which we can collect information. Our consultations include: 1. Meetings with Julie Lefebvre at the Intercultural Centre. We also attended a meeting via Zoom of representatives from member organizations in Feb 2024. Member organizations include Collège Nordique Francophone (CNF), Fédération franco-ténoise (FFT), CDENTO and NWT Literacy Council. The aim of this exchange was to inform members about the project and ask for advice on design and focus. ICC is an official partner on the grant. 2. Meetings with Brandon Pryce at Hotiì ts’eeda within the Tli?cho Government. 3. Meetings with representatives from CDENTO (François Afane, Both Gaka, Sonia Kouakov). 4. Meeting with Jennifer Phillips, Executive Director, Northwest Territories Chamber of Commerce. 5. Meeting with Marion Perrin, Coordonnatrice du Réseau en immigration francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest (RIFTNO) 6. Meeting with Alan Alex, Asst. Manager/ Lead Regulatory Officer, North Slave Metis Alliance Notes and email exchanges on these meetings are attached. We plan to continue consultation with NWT stakeholders and community organizations in person and via Zoom, including the Tli?cho Government, NWT Me´tis Nation Lands and Resources Manager and the City of Yellowknife Mayor, responding to feedback on our research plans as they develop and are refined. We will also pursue suggested contacts with other NWT stakeholders and community organizations in order to have the widest degree of community engagement possible. During the project, we will continue to engage with our existing NWT stakeholders and community organizations as well as any new contacts that emerge, informing them about our plans and continuing to seek feedback on them. Following the completion of the fieldwork phase of the project, we will remain in contact with NWT stakeholders and community organizations in order to keep them up to date on how our data analysis is proceeding and to inform our plans for research dissemination. After completion of the data analysis and to coincide with publication of research outputs, we will liaise with NWT stakeholders and community organizations for opportunities to engage with them in presentation of our research and to understand which forms of data presentation/sharing may be most useful to them in their work. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: March 11 - December 31, 2025