Lecture #4- Living Precariously: Social Justice for Whom?

Question 1

Migrant workers

Answer 1

• migration cuts across the social determinants of health
• controversy over the use of temporary migrant workers in the Canadian food sector reveals a great deal about the relationship between labour markets and immigration in contemporary global capitalism as well as the charged relationship between “foreigners” and “citizens” in today’s neoliberal governance regimes

Many migrants are:

• very dependant upon their employers
• their work permits are tied to their employer
• required to live on their employer’s premises
• depend upon their employer’s nomination in order to obtain permanent residence

Question 2

What are the social determinants of health?

Answer 2

• age, sex and hereditary factors
• Individual lifestyle factors
• social and community influence
• living and working conditions
• general socio-economic, cultural and environmental conditions

Question 3

Globalism and Neoliberalism

Answer 3

They promote “free” markets for employers at the expense of regulation to protect workers from risk, is destructive to the creation and recreation of cohesive and durable communities and societies

Question 4

Unfree migrant labour

Answer 4

Related to but broader than “forced labour” which revolves around the notions of penalty and coercion
-unfreedom can occur when a worker initially enters freely into an employment situation, but is deceived about the nature and conditions of work and/or is forced to remain in that relationship though coercion

Question 5

Canadian experience

Answer 5

• carries a symbolic meaning in the public’s imagination of Canadian exceptionalism, yet also serves as an employment barrier for skilled immigrants and radicalized minorities
• Canadian experience is often a prerequisite for immigrant employment

Question 6

Post-racialism

Answer 6

• The claim that Western racism has waned over time such that occasional “outbursts” of racism are exceptions to the norm
• proponents of “post racialism” argue that the concept of “biological” or natural race is no longer relevant
• “post-racialism” politics continue to maintain white or European supremacy through ordering racisms

Question 7

Anti-racialism

Answer 7

An avoidance of racial terminology that focuses on removing the evidence of, rather than the conditions of, racism as the “proper response” to racism

Question 8

Critical race theory

Answer 8

Challenges dominant notions of race and racialization, including concepts such as colour-blindness, and focuses on the lived experiences of Indigenous and racialized people and their capacity to resist and challenge those dominant structures and logics

Question 9

The “compliant group”

Answer 9

Accepts the dominant values and norms as fair, viewing discrimination as rare, isolated or unchangeable

• tends to accept the idea that one does what is required to get and keep an academic job
• others do not even recognize a racial justice critique of the academy or broader society

Question 10

The “pragmatic group”

Answer 10

Simply seek to meet the demands of the academy as set out for them without contesting them, although their experience has persuaded them that their demands are exclusionary and inequitable
-they learn how to navigate the maze, often overachieving to impress the dominant group members and avoiding being known just for issues of race

Question 11

Critical participation group

Answer 11

Addresses issues of inequity and racial injustice within institutions, often at great personal cost to their careers and their emotional and physical health

Question 12

Individualist

Answer 12

We associate, feelings, beliefs and behaviours primarily with individuals, such that most accounts imply that racism is first and foremost a matter of individual actions

Question 13

Essentialist

Answer 13

Rooted in liberal tradition, it dismisses any claims that do not pass the procedural equality test
-requires us to assign an identity to the acts of racialization (one is either a racist or not, all the time or never)

Question 14

Intentionalist

Answer 14

People’s words and actions are interpreted as racist only if they are intentionally enacted to produce outcomes that injure some or benefit others

Question 15

Race-targeted

Answer 15

The designation of racism requires that the offending word or act be race-targeted, as opposed to being systemic and having systemic impacts over time