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Contact info
For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Labour Studies by email or Ask a librarian.
Essay
Start Your Research Here - This page gives you an overview of the research process, or in other words how to find materials for your essay.
Background information
Use encyclopedias and handbooks to obtain an overview of a topic and to identify key authors and resources on a topic.
- Routledge International Handbook of Migration Studies
- Routledge handbook of immigration and refugee studies
- Sage eReference
Sample research question
It is helpful to brainstorm about your topic before starting to search in databases or the Library Catalogue. Start by asking questions, jotting down some keywords for different concepts words and figuring out logical combination of terms. You can use the same search terms in both the databases and the Library Catalogue. After doing some searches, you may come across other terms which may be of interest, and if you have done the exercise of "concept mapping", then it will become easier to figure out how to incorporate the new terms into your search strategy.
What is the impact of international social policies on transborder labour migration?
Create a Concept Map
For each concept, think of other words that may describe that topic.
- transborder labour migration = international border migration
- labour = labor, worker, work, employee, work force, foreign migrant,
- migration = movement
- international = countries (or names of several countries or international regions such as European Union), transnational, transborder, global
- social policies = government polices, government regulations, laws, legislation, immigration policies
Combine different concepts
- "transborder labour migration" AND "international social policies"
- transborder AND migrat* AND (labor OR labour OR "foreign migrants") AND "social policies"
- ("forced labour" OR "slave labour" OR "human trafficking") AND ("human rights" OR abuse OR exploit*)
Journal articles
For journal articles, it is useful to search within the databases for the discipline for which your are writing your essay. It is a great way to find the current theories and critical debates.
If the articles are not be available full-text, then use the "Get@SFU" icon to see if the Library has the journal. For journals not owned by the Library, use the Citation Finder/ILL tab to request a copy of the article from another library (free).
For additional help, refer to the How to find journal articles, What is a scholarly journal? [guide], Finding articles: Advanced search techniques [video 3:13 mins]
Databases
The following databases are useful for finding journal articles which provide a social sciences perspective on international labour migration.
- Sociological Abstracts - Sociology discipline studies migration, refugees, societal structures, immigrants
- Social Sciences Full Text - Covers social science journals
- GEOBASE "Human geography" discipline studies issues related to "refugees" and "migration"
- Political Science Complete - scholarly articles related to labour, migration, unions, policies and remittances
- Women's Studies International for any issues related to gender, sexuality and women's studies
For more databases, see Labour Studies Databases
Selected journals
Below are selected scholarly journals with articles on international labour. When you wish to search for articles on your research topic, start by using the databases listed above. Each of the databases (above) will index different sets of journals.
Find books in the Library
How to use the Library Catalogue [guide]
Do a Library Catalogue search to see if the Library owns or provides access to the sources that you've identified.
For known items it is best to check using "Browse by title" icon.
Search by topic, using Basic or Advanced Search
Note: In the searches below, you can limited results to "Online Resources only" and "Resource type" of "Books" and "Subjects"
- "migrant worker*" AND (policy OR policies) AND [name of country or region]
- "migrant worker*" AND (policy OR policies) AND (Canad* OR British Columbia)
- "labour migrat*" AND (international OR global* OR transborder OR transnational)
- ("migrant work*" OR "migrant labor") AND (gender OR race OR class) AND (traffick* OR forced OR exploit* OR slave*)
- human trafficking AND international AND cooperation
- ("forced labour" OR "slave labour" OR "human trafficking") AND ("human rights" OR abuse OR exploit*)
Combine different concepts using AND
Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of words
Use pulldown menu and select, "Source Types" as "Books"
Note: For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")
In the search results, for the books that look relevant, click on their "Subject" to find more books on the same topic
Selected books
- Child Exploitation and Trafficking: Examining Global Enforcement and Supply Chain Challenges and U.S. Responses
- Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy
- Hidden in plain sight: America's slaves of the new millennium
- Human trafficking : trade for sex, labor, and organs
- Invisible Slaves: The Victims and Perpetrators of Modern-Day Slavery
- Masculinity and Modern Slavery in Nepal: Transitions into Freedom
- Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective
- Understanding Global Slavery: A Reader
Browse books in the Library Catalogue by Subject Headings
Some Subject Headings which may be helpful for your topics:
- Child trafficking
- Forced Labor
- Forced labor (International law)
- Foreign Workers
- Globalization -- Social aspects
- Human trafficking -- South Asia
- Human smuggling
- Human trafficking
- Check for names of countries under this general heading
- Human trafficking -- Canada
- Human trafficking -- Europe
- Human Trafficking -- Government Policy
- Human Trafficking -- International Law
- Human trafficking -- Prevention -- International cooperation
- Human trafficking -- Prevention
- Human trafficking -- Southeast Asia
- International labor activities -- History -- 20th century
- International Labour Organization -- History
- Labor and globalization
- Neoliberalism - Social aspects
- Organ trafficking
- Slavery history - 21st Century
- Slave labor
- Sweatshops
Government sources
The links below will lead you to reports and statistics from different levels of government.
British Columbia
Canada
- Public Safety Canada. Human Trafficking
- The Government of Canada's National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, 2012-2016
- The 2016-2017 Horizontal Evaluation of the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking
- RCMP Human Trafficking National Coordination Centre (HTNCC)
United Nations
- Inter-Agency coordination Group Against Trafficking in Persons ICAT is a policy forum mandated by the UN General Assembly to improve coordination among UN agencies and other relevant international organizations to facilitate a holistic and comprehensive approach to preventing and combating trafficking in persons, including protection and support for victims of trafficking.
- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) - Trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants
- International Labour Organization (ILO)
- International Labour Standards
- Use their search engine and do searches such as: forced labour or child trafficking
International Organization for Migration (IMO)
United Nations. Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking
United Nations. Global Migration Group
The Global Migration Group (GMG) is an inter-agency group bringing together heads of agencies which seeks to promote the wider application of all relevant international and regional instruments and norms relating to migration, and to encourage the adoption of more coherent, comprehensive and better coordinated approaches to the issue of international migration. [From the website]
Membership
The GMG consists of 10 organizations that are actively involved in international migration and related issues:
- International Labour Organization (ILO)
- International Organization for Migration (IOM)
- United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA)
- United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
- Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
- United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and
- World Bank
USA
- Department of State. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
- 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report
- It covers many countries of the world
- 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report
- National Human Trafficking Resource Center - Resources
- Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States
- Human Trafficking Assessment for Domestic Workers
- Injustice on Our Plates: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Food Industry
- The Hustle: Economics of the Underground Commercial Sex Industry
- Labor Trafficking Story | Domestic Work
- Women: Invisible in Labor and Labor Trafficking
Websites
The websites below will lead you to reports, statistics and videos.
- Al Jazeera - Slavery: a 21st Century Evil
- Anti-Slavery International
- The CNN Freedom Project: ending modern-day slavery
- The Guardian - Global Development Series: Modern-day Slavery
Library guides
- Annotated bibliographies
- Evaluating sources
- How to find journal articles
- What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?
- How to place an Inter-Library Loan request - to obtain books and articles from another library (free).
- Library Catalogue search guide
- What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?
- What is plagiarism? Guide to common forms of plagiarism and how to avoid them.
- Finding and evaluating resources on the web
- Evaluating sources [video from Western University 2:16 mins]
- Search tips for Google and Google Scholar
- Citation or reference management tools (Zotero or Mendeley) - use these tools to manage your citations and to create bibliographies for your papers. For assistance with Zotero or Mendeley, email, citation-managers@sfu.ca.
Search tips and techniques
- Use "or" to combine same concept
- Use "and" to combine different concepts
- Use "quotation marks" to search for an exact phrase
- Use asterisk (*) the truncation symbol, for variation on endings of words (work* will find: work, works, worker, working, workforce, etc.)
- For Abbreviations, also use full names: ILO or "international labour organization"
- Search Tips for Google and Google Scholar
- Use intitle: to force Google to find those words in the titles of results. Use quotation marks ("") to search for phrases
- intitle:"airport security"
- intitle:"airport security"
- Use filetype: to tell Google to find certain filetypes
- filetype:pdf
- filetype:pdf
- Use site: to specify results from a government web site
- "Airport security” site:gov
- Use intitle: to force Google to find those words in the titles of results. Use quotation marks ("") to search for phrases