LBST 307: Unfree Labour and Modern Day-Slavery: Understanding Coercion and Exploitation in Contemporary Labour Markets

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Contact info

For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Labour Studies by email moninder_lalli@sfu.ca 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.

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.  

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"

      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

      Browse books in the Library Catalogue by Subject Headings

      Some Subject Headings which may be helpful for your topics:

      If you have found one book that is particularly relevant to your research, but need more, search that book in the library catalogue and use the subject headings associated with that book to find more books on that topic!

      Government sources

      The links below will lead you to reports and statistics from different levels of government. 

      British Columbia

      Canada

      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.

      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

      Websites

      The websites below will lead you to reports, statistics and videos.

      Library guides

      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"
             
        • Use filetype: to tell Google to find certain filetypes
          • filetype:pdf
             
        • Use site: to specify results from a government web site
          • "Airport security”  site:gov

      Writing help