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.

• Handbook of Migration and Globalisation
• Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies
• Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism
• Palgrave Handbook of International Labour Migration Law and Policy Perspectives
• Research handbook on the law and politics of migration
• Routledge Handbook of Migration and Development
• Routledge International Handbook of Migration Studies
• Routledge handbook of immigration and refugee studies
• Routledge international handbook of globalization studies
• Routledge International Handbook of Migration Studies
• Sage handbook of neoliberalism
• Thinking globally : a global studies reader
• Sage eReference

Journal articles

Databases let you easily to search for articles from within scholarly journals for a discipline.

• How to find journal articles tutorial. 
• What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?

If the full-text of the article is not available within the database then use the "Get@SFU" link to find it or to initiate an inter-library loan request.

Databases

The following databases are useful for finding journal articles which provide a social sciences perspective on international labour migration.  If the

• ProQuest Sociology Collection - for issues related to class, gender, racism, sexuality and sexism and theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and policy science.
• Social Sciences Full Text  Covers social science journals
• Academic Search Premier - multidisciplinary database.  Limit search results to "academic / scholarly"
• 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
• EconLit - indexes economics journals, including labour
• Statista - statistics from thousands of sources. Can export of both data and charts in multiple formats.
• OECD iLibrary - Publications from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including country studies, forecasting publications, reports & periodicals. 
  • International migration outlook 2023 (annual) - analysis of migration movements, labour market inclusion of immigrants, policy changes in migration governance. This edition includes two special chapters on the labour market integration of migrant mothers and on fertility patterns among migrant populations in OECD countries. [description copied from the publication]
  • International migration outlook 2022

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 

Articles in legal journals

• CANLII
  Largest free web resource providing access to legal documents from Canada's federal, provincial and territorial governments, including laws & legislation, and cases.
  • Use only the first search box to enter your entire search:  immigrant* and women and labour
  • Use the "tabs" at the top of search results to limit to cases, legislation, or secondary sources such as decisions by tribunals.
  • Legislation and Tribunals
     
• Westlaw Next Canada  Current Canadian legal information, including cases, legislation, law reports, and journal articles.  
  Help guides and tutorials
  • Within the database, look at Canadian Encyclopedic Digest and  Canadian Abridgment Digests for overviews of labour topics and  precedents. 
  • From within the database, choose "Index to Canadian legal literature" to find scholarly, legal journal articles on topics
  • Try a search (e.g. "immigrant*"), and in the column on left-hand side, look at "Canadian Encyclopedic Digest" entries.
     
• HeinOnline - database for articles in legal journals
  Law and law-related research material, including legal journals, government documents, classic legal treatises, and world trials. Contains Canadian, American and international laws and agreements.
  • TIP:
    • Choose "Advanced Search".  In the "fulltext" field field, construct your search such as:
      • (labor OR labour) AND canada AND migrant*

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." 

• globaliz* AND (labor OR labour) AND (covid OR pandemic OR disease* OR contagion*)
• immigr* AND (policy OR policies) AND canad*
• (migrant* OR "temporary foreign") AND (work* OR labour OR labor) AND (rights OR code* OR laws OR legislat*)
• (labor OR labour) AND (migrant* OR foreign) AND (policy OR policies) AND canad*
• "migrant worker*" AND (transnat* OR global*) AND theor*
• "migrant worker*" AND (transnat* OR global*) AND  (policy OR policies)
• migrant* AND (labor* OR labour* OR work* OR job*) AND (gender OR race OR racial* OR class)
• (migrant* OR foreign) AND (labor OR labour) AND (challenge* OR hardship* OR problem* OR racism* OR inequal*)
•  international AND "migrant labor"
• ("labour migrat*" OR migrant work*) AND (international OR global* OR transborder OR transnational) 
• remitt* AND (poverty OR inequality)
• remitt* AND (poverty OR econom* OR inequality) AND developing countr*

In the search results, for the books that look relevant, click on their "Subject" to find more books on the same topic.

Selected books

• Admitted but excluded : removing occupational barriers to entry for immigrants to Canada
• Asian migrant workers in the Arab Gulf States : the growing foreign population and their lives
• Behind Closed Doors : Protecting and Promoting the Human Rights of Migrant Domestic Workers in an Irregular Situation
• Canada’s Colour Coded Income Inequality
• Care Activism : Migrant Domestic Workers, Movement-Building, and Communities of Care 
• Care, migration, and human rights : law and practice 
• COVID-19 and the Canadian Workforce : Reforming EI to Protect More Workers
• Contemporary work and the future of employment in developed countries
• Containing Diversity : Canada and the Politics of Immigration in the 21st Century
• Enduring Work : Experiences with Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program
• Exporting services : a developing country perspective 
• Global Labor Migration : New Directions 
• Human Rights and Migrant Domestic Work: A Comparative Analysis of the Socio-Legal Status of Filipina Migrant Domestic Workers in Canada and Hong Kong
• Immigration and the Politics of Welfare Exclusion: Selective Solidarity in Western Democracies
• Immigration Canada: Evolving Realities and Emerging Challenges in a Postnational World
• Impacts of workers’ remittances on poverty and inequality in developing countries
• International Labour Mobility: How Remittances Shape the Labour Migration Model
• International migration, remittances and brain drain : impacts on development 
• Legislated inequality temporary labour migration in Canada 
• Liberating temporariness? : migration, work, and citizenship in an age of insecurity
• Making Critical Sense of Immigrant Experience: A Case Study of Hong Kong Chinese in Canada
• Mapping China : peasants, migrant workers and informal labor 
• Migrant crossings : witnessing human trafficking in the U.S. [print]
• Migration in South Asia: IMISCOE Regional Reader
• Migration, racism and labor exploitation in the world-system
• Patterns of exploitation : understanding migrant worker rights in advanced democracies
• Racialised Workers and European Older-Age Care: From Care Labour to Care Ethics
• Racism, discrimination and migrant workers in Canada : evidence from the literature 
• Remittances and Vulnerability in Developing Countries
• Remittances as Social Practices and Agents of Change: The Future of Transnational Society
• Rethinking the politics of labour in Canada [print]
• Rural-Urban Migration in China : the Impact of New Media 
• Temporary migration, transformation and development : evidence from Europe and Asia
• Unfree labour? : struggles of migrant and immigrant workers in Canada 
• Who needs migrant workers? : labour shortages, immigration, and public policy 

Browse by subject

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

• Canada - Race relations
• Foreign worker certification
• Foreign workers
• Foreign workers -- Asia
  • Foreign workers, [name of country from where they come]
• Foreign workers, Asian -- Arab countries
  • Foreign workers, [name of country from where they come] -- [name of country where they are working]
• Foreign workers -- Canada
• Foreign Workers -- Canada -- Social Conditions
• Immigrant Women
• Immigrants
• Immigrants -- Employment
• Labor -- [country or region]
• Labor -- Canada
• Labor -- China
• Labor and globalization
• Labor movement -- [name of geographic area]
• Migration
• Migrant labor
• Migrant labor -- Abuse of
• Migrant labor -- Canada
• Migrant labor -- China
• Race discrimination -- Canada
• Racism in the workplace
• Refugees Canada
• Transnational migration
• Transnationalism
• Women foreign workers
• Women household employees

Government documents 

Canada 

Canadian law and legislation

• Labour laws and legislation

Website: canada.ca

Search: "temporary foreign worker*"

• Overhauling the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
• Reports and publications: Temporary Foreign Worker Program

Canada. Employment and Social Development

• Temporary Foreign Worker: Your Rights are Protected
  Information and resources for foreign workers on rights and protections as workers in Canada.

Statistics Canada

• 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.

British Columbia

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

​United States

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
  • Handbook of U.S. Labor Statistics: Employment, Earnings, Prices, Productivity, and Other Labor Data , 9th ed. - publication based on Bureau of Labor Statistics information, and gathered from various sources

International

• World Factbook (by CIA)
• International Organization for Migration (IOM)
  • Labour migration
  • World migration report 2022
  • World migration report 2024
• International Labour Organizatin (ILO)
  • Look at tab, "Topics"
    • E.g.: Care economy, Labour migration, Fair migration agenda, 
  • Standards and Fundamental Principles and rights at work
  • ILO Minimum Estimate of Forced Labour in the World. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO, 2012.
  • Labour Migration
• undata  Provides selected series from 30 specialized international data sources for all available countries and areas.
  • Search results for keywords:
    •  "migration"
    • "refugees"
• World Bank: World Development Report 2023: Migrants, Refugees, and Societies

• • OECD iLibrary - Publications from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including country studies, forecasting publications, reports, periodicals, and socio-economic databases. Topics covered include agriculture, developing economies, education, employment, energy, environment, migration, social issues, and sustainable development.
    • International migration outlook 2023 (annual)
    • International migration outlook 2022
      • Choose: Statistics
        • Choose: Trade Unions --> Employment and Labour Market Statistics
          • E.g. Union Members and Employees (international comparison chart)

   

Labour and other organizations

Canada

• BC Federation of Labour
  • Issues
• Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
  • Eroding Worker Protections: BC's New 'Flexible' Employment Standards (2005)
  • Labour Matters
• Canadian Labour Congress
  • Issues and Research

Using Google and Google Scholar

Search Tips for Google and Google Scholar

While searching the internet can find unexpected gems, be sure to evaluate the sources using the guide, "Evaluating sources"

• Use intitle: to force Google to find those words in the titles of results.  Use quotation marks ("") to search for phrases.  With a Google search the Boolean operator "AND" is assumed, so you don't need to use it in your search strategy.
   
• intitle:"future of work"
• (migrant workers OR migrant labour OR “temporary foreign workers”) Canada

Google Scholar for topic and "citation" searches

Set up Google Scholar library links and button 

Topic search

• (migrant workers OR migrant labour OR “temporary foreign workers”) Canada

E.g. 

Flawed by design? A case study of federal enforcement of migrant workers' labour rights in Canada

"Citation" searching

Search for your "key" article.  Check the link "cited by" right beneath the reference to that article

E.g. Who has cited the following article?

Strauss, K., & McGrath, S. (2017). Temporary migration, precarious employment and unfree labour relations: Exploring the ‘continuum of exploitation’ in Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Geoforum. Vol 78, 199–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.01.008

The above 2017 article has been cited more than 275 times.

Guides and tutorials

• Citing Government documents, Canadian -- APA style | MLA style | Chicago style
• What is plagiarism? [guide]
• Understanding and avoiding plagiarism [interactive tutorial]
• How to Write an Annotated Bibliography
• Internet research: Finding and evaluating resources
• Search Tips for Google and Google Scholar
• Research Tutorials
  • Library Research Skills [interactive tutorial]
  • What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?
  • Research concepts worksheet [guide]

Presentation skills

See the Student Learning Commons for expert and friendly help with academic writing, learning, and study strategies.

• Resources on developing your participation skills
• Resources to help you improve your presentation skills

Writing help

• Student Learning Commons
  • Writing for University
  • Book an appointment