For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies by email moninder_lalli@sfu.ca or Ask a librarian.

For researching the topic of refugees, see the guide: SA 366: Forced Migration and Refugee Studies

Essay

Start Your Research Here - This page gives you an overview of the research process and steps to take to find resources for your essay.

Selected encyclopedias and handbooks

Get overviews, summaries, key authors, debates and ideas from encyclopedias, handbooks or textbooks. 

• Encyclopedia of feminist theories
• Encyclopedia of Political Science  
• Handbook of culture and migration
• Handbook of Migration and Globalisation
• Handbook of research on global Impact of media on migration issues
• Handbook on human security, borders and migration
• Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies
• Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Development: Critical Engagements in Feminist Theory and Practice
• Palgrave Handbook of International Labour Migration Law and Policy Perspectives
• Research handbook on the law and politics of migration
• Routledge handbook of Asian transnationalism 
• Routledge Handbook of Diaspora Studies
• Routledge handbook of immigration and refugee studies
• Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives
• Routledge Handbook of the Chinese Diaspora
• Routledge Handbook of the Indian Diaspora
• Routledge Handbook of the South Asian Diaspora
• Sage eReference

For more, try Background information

Topics - Spring 2025 class

Process

• Brainstorming - ask questions about your topic. Each question may lead you to different search paths, hence different search results.  
• Figure out keywords for your main concepts and then the synonyms & related terms for each concept.
• Figure the "search syntax" (how to put the keywords together to create a search strategy.
• Decide on databases to search.  Each database will index journals from a particular discipline.  Some databases are "multidisciplinary" and index important journals from several disciplines.

For more, see: 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.

Strategies for effective search results

• If there are insufficent results then, 1) add more synonyms 2) use * (truncation)  
• If there are too many hits, then 1) add more concepts, or 2) limit some concept to "subject" field (default is "anywhere" in the record)
• if your focus is a particular country or region, add terms for geographic area.  
  Note: For Proquest's CBCA and Sociology Collection databases, you can limit by "location", which means the subject of the study is from that geographic area.

Transnational migration issues

(Transnational OR trans-border* OR “cross-border” OR diaspora) AND (migrat* or immigra*)

• (“visible minorit*” OR [name of specific group])
• (women OR gender OR female* OR LGBT)
• (law OR laws OR legislat* OR regulation* OR policy OR policies) 
• ("barriers to entry" OR "recognition of foreign credentials")
• (professional* OR doctor* OR lawyer* OR engineer*)
• (income OR wage* OR salar* OR employ* OR job* OR under-employ*) 
• ("discrimin*" OR racis* OR stereotyp*)
• (Canad* OR BC OR British Columbia OR Vancouver OR "lower mainland" OR GVRD)

Chosen topics

The links to searches (below) are from Library's Catalogue search.  You can limit search results by subject, date, type of publication (books, articles, videos), etc. Depending on your question(s) from your "brainstorming" process, there would additional search terms that may be used. 

These strategies and search syntax are the same whether you use article databases or Library's Catalogue Search.  
Note: For Catalogue Search, be sure to make the Boolean terms (OR, AND) be in capital letters.  
For Google and Google Scholar also use a "capital" OR to join synonyms; no need to say "AND" to join different concepts. Google assumes an "AND" when there are two words next to each other.

Diaspora and representation

• diaspor* AND represent*
• diaspor* AND (represent* OR portrayal OR identit*)
• (diaspor* OR transnational*) AND (represent* OR portray* OR identit*)

Diaspora: unbelonging and intergenerational issues

• diaspor* AND (unbelong* OR belong* OR identit*)
• (diaspor* OR transnational*) AND (unbelong* OR belong* OR identit*)
• diaspor* AND (intergeneration* OR inter-generation* OR grandparent* OR grandmother* OR grandfather* OR parent* OR sibling*)
• (diaspor* OR transnational*) AND (intergeneration* OR inter-generation* OR grandparent* OR grandmother* OR grandfather* OR parent* OR sibling*)

Immigration narratives: mobility, gender + conservatism

• (immigration OR immigrant*) AND (narrativ* OR stories OR story) 
  • limited to subject: narratives
• (immigration OR immigrant*) AND (mobility OR gender OR LGBT*) 
• (immigration OR immigrant*) AND (conservative* OR "far right)

International students + language

• international student* AND (language* OR slang* OR mother tongue OR english) AND (canad* OR bc OR british columbia)
• international student* AND communicat*
  • limited by subjects: communication, students

International students + opportunities

• international student* AND opportunit*
• international student* AND (work OR job OR employ*)

Policing + borders

• borders - limited to subjects: borders, border security, canada
• policing AND border* AND [name of country or region]
• policing AND ("border security" OR "border patrol")
• (enforc* OR surveillance) AND border* AND (security or patrol)

Temporary Foreign Workers 

• "temporary worker*" OR "temporary foreign worker*" AND (working conditions OR discrimin* OR rights) AND [canad* OR bc OR british columbia]

Find books in the Library

Library Catalogue search guide | Catalogue search tips

Search the SFU Library Catalogue: Advanced keyword

Example research question:

"What is the effect of the Anti-terrorism Act and how is it used for national security"

(anti-terror* OR national security OR border security) AND (law OR legislat* OR regulat*) AND (race OR racial OR islam*) AND Canad*
Results - you can further limit the results by "subject" and "resource type" of books or book chapters.

You can further limit the search results (below) by "subject" or "resource type"

Keywords for additional topics:

• immigr* AND (policy OR policies) AND canad*
• (women OR gender) AND migrat* AND canad*
• multicultural*  AND  (debate* OR policy OR policies) AND canad*
• (immigr* OR foreign) AND (skills OR credentials OR qualifications OR training) AND canad*
• (immigr* OR foreign) AND (labour market OR labor market) AND canad*
• commodif* AND (women OR gender OR female) AND (labor OR labour) AND canad*
• (raci* OR discrim* OR stereotyp*) AND (employ* OR jobs OR labour OR labor) AND canad*
• (nannies OR domestic work*) AND (employ* OR jobs OR labour OR labor) AND canad*
• (minor* OR "women of color" OR racial* OR immigrant*) AND (women OR female*) AND canad*
• transnational* AND (women OR female OR gender) AND (labor OR labour)

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")

Use the  "subject  headings" within the library record for a relevant book to find more books on that topic.

Selected books

Browse by subject

Catalogue Search / Browse

  Change "Title" to "Subject" and enter:

• Canada -- Emigration and immigration -- Government policy
• Canada - Race relations
• Diaspora
• Foreign students
• Foreign workers -- Canada
• Foreign Workers -- Canada -- Social Conditions
• Immigrant Women
• Immigrants
• Immigrants -- Canada
• Immigrants -- Canada -- Economic conditions
• Immigrants -- employment
• International students
• Migration
• Migrant labor
• Migrant labor -- Abuse of
• Migrant labor -- Canada
• Race discrimination -- Canada
• Racism in the workplace
• Refugees -- Canada
• Transnational migration
• Transnationalism
• Women foreign workers -- Canada
• Women immigrants
• Women Immigrants -- Employment -- Canada

Find journal articles

Start with the "Women's Studies International" database and then move on to other databases. Limit your search to "academic", "scholarly" or "peer-reviewed." For articles not available in fulltext within the database, use the "Get@SFU" or to initiate an inter-library loan request.

• Women's Studies International  Key database for issues related to women or gender.
• ProQuest Sociology Collection - for issues related to class, gender, racism, sexuality and sexism and theoretical and applied sociology, social science, and policy science. Other major topics include: migration, refugees, societal structures, and immigrants
• Social Sciences Full Text  Covers social science journals
• CBCA Complete  Canadian scholarly journal articles, trade publications, dissertations, books, newspapers and and magazines.
• Canadian Newsstream  covers the major Canadian daily newspapers.
• GEOBASE  "Human geography" discipline studies issues related to "refugees" and "migration."
• Political Science Complete - scholarly articles related to labour, migration, unions, policies and remittances
• Business Source Complete
  • For country profiles, choose "country profile" box, and in keyword search box, enter your terms: France
• Oxford Bibliographies Online   - for literature reviews, bibliographical essays on topics.
• Canada Commons (formerly, Canadian Electronic Library from desLibris) - contains the full text of public policy documents from Canadian institutes, think-tanks and research groups.
  • The "Boolean operators" (AND, OR) must be in capital letters.
  • If you don't want variations of a term then put the term in quotation marks ("term")
  • Advanced search engine:
• Statista  A statistics portal that integrates statistics from thousands of sources and provides simple exports of both data and charts in multiple formats.
  • Look for the "source" for each table or graph for more information.

If you want articles from legal journal articles, labour legislation, or cases, see another guide: Articles in legal journals

Key Journals

Government information

Labour information

Canada

• Employment and Social Development
  • Labour Program  "The Labour Program is responsible for protecting the rights and well-being of both workers and employers in federally regulated workplaces."
    • Canada Labour Code  Consolidates federal statues that relate to labour, facilitating production by controlling strikes & lockouts, occupational safety and health, and some employment standards. The Code only applies to the industries which are under federal legislation.
      • Laws and regulations
        • List of Acts
        • List of Regulations
        • Employment equity
    • Workplace standards
  • Dept of Justice - Canada Labour Standards Regulation  Federally consolidated regulations related to respecting hours of work, wages, annual vacations, general holidays, reassignment, maternity leave and parental leave, bereavement leave, group and individual termination of employment and severance pay, work-related illness and injury in federal works, undertakings and businesses.
• Canadian Human Rights Act
  • Canadian Human Rights Act - Table of Contents
• Library of Parliament. Research Publications
  •  
    Recognition of the foreign qualifications of immigrants

British Columbia

• British Columbia Employment Standards Act  The provincial legislation that ensures that employees in British Columbia receive at least basic standards of compensation and conditions of employment. The British Columbia Employment Standards Act and Regulation sets out minimum working conditions for all employees covered under provincial labour laws. A number of sectors or industries in British Columbia are subject to specific regulations that only apply to them. Click here to see the regulations for specific industries.
   
• British Columbia Labour Relations Code  The provincial legislation that protects the right of employees in British Columbia to be a member of a trade union and to participate in its lawful activities. The Code further delineates the rights of employees and employers.
   
• Human Rights Protection  "British Columbia has a law to protect and promote human rights. It is called the B.C. Human Rights Code or the Code. The Code helps to protect you from discrimination and harassment." [from the website]  [BC] Human Rights Code

Statistics

• Statistics Canada - 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.
  • Pre-tabulated data tables under "statistics by subject." 
  • Also check out the "Analysis" and other reports (see tabs at the top of the data tables).
  • Publications by subject
    • Immigration and ethnocultural diversity
    • 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.
• BC Statistics   Check out the tabs at the top
  • Employment and labour statistics
  • ​People, Population, Community

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.  Look for the "source" for each table or graph.

International

• World Factbook (by CIA)
• International Organization for Migration (IOM)
  • 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

Podcasting

Details for finding and creating podcasts are available on another guide: 

• All about podcasting

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"

Tips: 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.

Google

• intitle:"future of work"
• (migrant workers OR migrant labour OR “temporary foreign workers”) Canada

See also, Google's Advanced Search for easier searching

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 to find other scholars doing research on that topic.

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

• Cited 348 times

Library guides

• Findind and evaluating resources on the web
• Avoiding plagiarism
• What is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal?
• How to write an annotated bibliography
• More Tutorials (interactive)
• Citation or reference management tools collect your journal article, book, or other document citations together in one place, and help you create properly formatted bibliographies in almost any style — in seconds.
• For help with writing essays, visit the Student Learning Commons resources on Writing for university.

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