[Wamvan] Fwd: [ws-centre] Conference on Globalization and Migrant Labour

[Meenakshi Mannoe]

 Registration**

Pre-registration for the conference is required as seats are limited. The
opening plenary is open to people not registered for the conference but
requires prior notification to: *cbanerjee at telus.net*

For registration contact: Chinmoy Banerjee: *cbanerjee at telus.net*

Registration fee for the conference: $40.00 (includes lunch and refreshments
on November 26 and November 27)**

Registration for conference and dinner on November 26: $60.00**

Cheques should be made out to: “Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation” and mailed to:
9155 Wiltshire Place, Burnaby, BC, V3N 4L6.**

** **

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*GLOBALIZATION AND MIGRANT LABOUR CONFERENCE*

*FOCUS ON SOUTH ASIA*

*November 25-27, 2011*

*SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC*

*Coast Salish Territory*

Globalization is a complex phenomenon grounded in the flow of capital,
mainly from the North to the South, and the flow of labour, mainly in the
counter direction. Within the global “South” there is a differential in
development, with flows of capital within developing nations, and a flow of
labour from the less developed to the more. Globalization is thus marked by
an unprecedented migration of labour that is further distinguished from
previous historical migrations by its largely temporary character. Migrant
labour in the period of globalization is characterized by its total
subservience to the needs of capital: its flow, its temporary character, and
its conditions of existence are governed by the nation states to purely
serve the interests of capital.**

* *

While Canada as one of the most developed nations of the global North
exports capital both through direct investment abroad and the hiring out of
services that can be performed abroad, it also imports labour in the most
cost-effective way to work on its fixed capital in the agricultural sector,
in construction, and in the service industry. These are temporary foreign
workers, whose numbers now surpass the number of regular immigrants, who
constitute the most exploited section of the labour force, a second class of
labour without the historically earned rights of workers in Canada.**

* *

Within South Asia labour migration produces both the lure of prosperity and
the overwhelming experience of misery. On the one hand the failure of nation
states to provide the basic necessities of life to vast numbers of their
people drive them to seek work abroad, attracted by the prospect of good
wages that they can remit home for the betterment of their families. On the
other hand this binds them to the most oppressive exploitation in the
receiving countries, where they are dehumanized and often deprived of health
and life.**

* *

The conference will explore a common framework within which the various
experiences of labour migration in the period of globalization can be
brought together. It will focus on the experience of South Asian migrant
labour in the specificity of national conditions but attempt to integrate
these different experiences into a global understanding.**

* *

The proceedings of the conference will be published and will include
submissions by scholars and activists unable to attend the conference.**

* *

The conference is being organized by Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation for South
Asian Advancement and is sponsored by the Morgan Centre for Labour Studies
at Simon Fraser University, the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s
Studies, SFU, Dean of Arts and Social Sciences, SFU, Institute for the
Humanities, SFU, Race, Autobiography, Gender, and Aging Centre (RAGA),
University of British Columbia, Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
Langara College, Vancouver, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, SFU,
Canadian Farmworkers’ Union (CFU), and Progressive Intercultural Services
Society (PICS), and South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy
(SANSAD).**

* *
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