Missing Voices and Perspectives: Investigating the Shadows of the Canadian Working Holiday Program

Abstract

Over the past decade, transnational temporary mobility has become a global trend, reflecting the rise of short-term migration programs aimed at addressing labour shortages and stimulating economic growth. Under Canada’s immigration regime, the Working Holiday Program (WHP) has emerged as a new supplier of temporary migrant labour, while perpetuating racialized labour hierarchies and exclusionary notions of neoliberal citizenship. Despite its exploitative nature in tandem with the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, the WHP has remained off the public radar and understudied, with much of the Canadian scholarship focusing on the experiences of European Working Holiday Makers (WHM). This study addresses this gap by focusing on Korean WHMs in Nova Scotia, considering the vastly growing newcomer population in Nova Scotia. By foregrounding Korean WHMs’ narratives, the research reveals how race, ethnicity, and nationality intersect to produce systemic inequalities, exposing WHP’s role in sustaining hidden hierarchies of labour, belonging, and citizenship in Canada.