Work, Social Reproduction, the Transnational Household, and Refugee Resettlement: A Canadian Case Study

Abstract

This article puzzles out the relationships between displaced peoples, their families, resettlement, the household, employment, and social reproduction – the often voluntary, feminized, and un- or under-compensated labour that reproduces a family, household, or labour force. Transnational refugee households and the conditions of refugee resettlement are co-constituted. These households are: 1) physical dwellings where a family is situated; 2) sites of emotional, care, and additional work required for the reproduction of the (often transnational) family; 3) necessitating ‘material’ inputs, in the form of paid labour, social provisions, or other sources. This article uses Social Reproduction Theory (SRT) to demonstrate the tradeoffs in securing the economic and care resources required for maintaining transnational refugee households. Profiling cases of resettling refugee families in Winnipeg, Canada, the article suggests that ‘small-n’ research reveals the challenges in meeting common resettlement imperatives amid expensive housing markets and restricted access to social and economic resources.

Refugees’ (In)dependency Conundrum: Obstructed Social Reproduction Activities and Unpaid Labour in Refugee Camps

“…Scholars have foregrounded the continuum between low-paid and unpaid migrant labour (Anderson 2000;Apostolova 2021; Kofman and Raghuram 2015) and the invisible exploitation of migrant domestic workers and care workers (Guti errez-Rodr ıguez 2010; Kofman 2012). Yet, little has been said about how social reproduction activities are disrupted in the field of refugee humanitarianism and, more specifically, how asylum policies choke and impact on migrants also by obstructing their autonomous spaces of liveability (but see Rigo 2022;Silvius 2020).…”

Caring for Refugees: Questioning the Public-Private Dichotomy in Canadian Resettlement

“…However, the sponsors in this sample were generally younger and had lower incomes: only 32% were above retirement age, and about one third had household incomes economic resources to a household in another country, or, minimally, tending to the emotional and material needs of their family members abroad. "260 Drawing on Social Reproduction Theory and research with resettled refugees in Winnipeg, he shows the "complex care and emotional labour required by resettled refugees to manage conditions of prolonged family separation." 261 Within Canada, neoliberal policies mean that resettled refugees often must participate in wage labour instead of participating in language training and education, especially given the challenges of accessing and affording housing, while care obligations limit inclusion in the labour market.…”