LBST 312: Global Labour Migration

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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.

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.  If the

Two databases (below) may be useful for finding the business perspective on labour, working conditions, and unions.

  • Business Source Complete
    • For country profiles, choose "country profile" box, and in keyword search box, enter your terms: France
    • Use "thesaurus" for subject specific term:  e.g. when you look up labor unions, you could choose descriptor words that will make your searches more relevant:
      • DE "LABOR unions & international relations"
         
  • CBCA Complete  Canadian Business & Current Affairs 

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

Library Catalogue search guide

Search the SFU Library Catalogue: Advanced keyword

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")

Write your research question and identify your "key concepts." 

    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 by subject

    Catalogue Search / Browse, then change "Title" to "Subject" and enter:

    Statistics

    Canadian statistics

    • Statistics Canada -  the major statistical gathering agency of the federal government. It publishes the "whole range of statistics on the economic and social activities of the Canadian people".  There are daily, weekly, quarterly, annual and irregular publications. They  also publishes the Census of Canada at five year intervals.
      • Labour
        • how many people are employed or unemployed; the unemployment rate; which industries or occupations people work in;
        • the hours they work; commuting patterns; wage and non-wage benefits; job training; labour mobility;
        • work absences; unionization; unpaid work; and other topics. Also includes geographic and demographic characteristics.
      • Labour Force Survey
        -  a monthly survey which measures the current state of the Canadian labour market and is used, among other things, to calculate the national, provincial, territorial and regional employment.

    British Columbia

    BC Statistics   Check out the tabs at the top
      Citing Government documents, Canadian -- APA style | MLA style | Chicago style

    Statista  A statistics portal that integrates statistics from thousands of sources and provides simple exports of both data and charts in multiple formats.

    ​United States

    International

    Websites

    Search Tips for Google and Google Scholar for using the Google or Google Scholar search engines

    Find material from government sites

    Use site:gov  to find sources from government websites.  Use quotation marks ("") to search for phrases (words next to each other)

    "Airport security” site:gov

    "transnational migration" site:gov

    "temporary foreign workers" site:gov

    Find material from university or educational sites

    Use site:edu to find sources from educational institutions' websites

    site:edu

    "temporary foreign workers" site:edu

    Organizations

    Canada

    International

    Guides and tutorials

    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