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Journal article

Dancing Across Borders: Exotic Dancers, Trafficking, and Canadian Immigration Policy

Date

2003

Authors

Audrey Macklin

Abstract

This article analyzes a Canadian immigration program that authorizes issuance of temporary work visas to ‘exotic dancers.’ In response to public criticism that the government was thereby implicated in the transnational trafficking of women into sexual exploitation, Citizenship and Immigration Canada retained the visa program de jure but eliminated it de facto. Using a legal and discursive analysis that focuses on the production of female labor migrants variously as workers, as criminals and as bearers of human rights, the article argues that the incoherence of Canadian policy can only be rendered intelligible when refracted through these different lenses. The article concludes by considering policy options available to the state in addressing the issue.

Journal title

International Migration Review

Volume

37

Issue

2

Page numbers

464-500

Publisher

Center for Migration Studies

Place published

New York

File Attachments

Links

Economic sectors

Dancers

Content types

Policy analysis

Target groups

Policymakers and Researchers

Regulation domains

Right to change employer, Right to choose place of residence, Access to permanent status, and Right to liberty

Geographical focuses

Canada, Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, British Columbia, Other provinces, Federal, and Nova Scotia

Spheres of activity

Law

Languages

English