"This book is an institutional ethnographic investigation of the Ontario Works program and the problems that it creates in the lives of people on social assistance. Ontario Works is a work-for-welfare program that was implemented in Ontario in 1996 as part of the neoliberal restructuring of the welfare state. The book shows that Ontario Works has not, in reality, been used to help people on assistance and rather has been used as another means of facilitating an attack on them, while providing subsidized and cheap labour for companies and social agencies."--publisher's description.

A comprehensive examination of welfare state surveillance and regulation of single mothers in Ontario.

Over the past decade, Canada has experienced considerable growth in labour migration. Moreover, temporary labour migration has replaced permanent immigration as the primary means by which people enter Canada. Utilizing the rhetoric of maintaining competitiveness, Canadian employers and the state have ushered in an era of neoliberal migration alongside an agenda of austerity flowing from capitalist crisis. Labour markets have been restructured to render labour more flexible and precarious, and in Canada as in other high-income capitalist labour markets, employers are relying on migrant and immigrant workers as “unfree labour.” This book explores labour migration to Canada and how public policies of temporary and guest worker programs function in the global context of work and capitalist restructuring. Contributors are directly engaged with the issues emerging from the influx of temporary foreign workers and Canada’s “creeping economic apartheid”—the ongoing racialization of economic inequality for many workers of colour. The collection also examines how migrant and immigrant workers have organized for justice and dignity in Canada. As opposed to a good deal of current writing that often ignores the working conditions and struggles of racialized migrant and immigrant workers, the authors contend that migrant workers, labour organizations, and migrant worker allies have engaged in a wide range of organizing initiatives with significant political and economic impacts. These have included both court challenges to secure legal rights to unionization and grassroots alternatives to traditional forms of unionization through workers’ centres. Contributors include Aziz Choudry, Adrian A. Smith, Sedef Arat-Koç, Abigail B. Bakan, Joey Calugay, Jennifer Jihye Chun, Jill Hanley, Jah-Hon Koo, Mostafa Henaway, Deena Ladd, Marco Luciano, Loïc Malhaire, Adriana Paz Ramirez, Geraldina Polanco, Chris Ramsaroop, Eric Shragge, Sonia Singh, Christopher C. Sorio, and Mark Thomas.

The personal accounts in this book express fear, desperation, and anger. These are the voices of our neighbours. They have a moral claim on us, to meet their basic needs. This book comprises the personal accounts of low-income people who came to community meetings across Ontario during 1997; the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition sponsored these Neighbour to Neighbour Hearings to listen to those whose voices are too often ignored. Our Neighbours' Voices provides first-hand accounts, documentation and analysis of the extent of poverty in Ontario, and offers policy recommendations for both the provincial and federal governments. An Our Schools/Our Selves book.

An ethnographic study of Ontario Works—a jobs program for welfare recipients—this reference points to unsolved problems going back to 1996, when the program was voted in as part of the neoliberal restructuring of the welfare state. Key findings show that the assigned jobs often complicate the lives of the workers; that the workers provide subsidized and cheap labor for companies and social agencies; and that workers don't get enough assistance in keeping jobs or building skills.

As activists strategize, build resistance, and foster solidarity, they also call for better dialogue between researchers and movements and for research that can aid their causes. In this volume, contributors examine how research can produce knowledge for social transformation by using political activist ethnography, a unique social research strategy that uses political confrontation as a resource and focuses on moments and spaces of direct struggle to reveal how ruling regimes are organized so activists and social movements can fight them. Featuring research from Aotearoa (New Zealand), Bangladesh, Canada, Poland, South Africa, and the United States on matters as diverse as anti-poverty organizing, prisoners’ re-entry, anti-fracking campaigns, left-inspired think-tank development, non-governmental partnerships, involuntary psychiatric admission, and perils of immigration medical examination, contributors to this volume adopt a “bottom-up” approach to inquiry to produce knowledge for activists, not about them. A must-read for humanities and social sciences scholars keen on assisting activists and advancing social change.

The objective of this new edition is the same as that of previous editions: to help students understand social policy from a Canadian perspective, and to stir them to discussion and debate. Part One provides a general overview of social policy and Part Two discusses the policy-making processes, from the international factors that influence them to the ways in which a social worker can become part of this process. Part Three focuses on current social policy issues, and Part Four offers a look to the future. Each chapter of this best-selling book has been thoroughly updated for this new edition with regard to current policy, debated issues, and resources cited. Three new chapters have been added, including an overview of adult mental health policy and a critical look at risk assessment in child welfare. There is also a discussion of current challenges to the Charter of Rights and Canadians increasing use of the justice system to shape social policy. As a result, the reader gains an informed perspective of policy development and evaluation. Although designed primarily for use by social workers, the book will benefit anyone who is involved in the policy-making process.