Political Capital, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and Pathways to Permanent Residency for Low-Skilled Migrant Workers: A Bourdieusian Perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a swift and dramatic impact on every aspect of Canadian life. This paper explores how the socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have altered the positionality of low-skilled migrant workers in the Canadian immigration regime and labour market. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological framework and concept of political capital, this paper seeks to explain how low-skilled migrant workers temporarily benefited from the distinction they received as essential workers during the pandemic in the form of new, albeit temporary, pathways to permanent residency. The designation of “essential” provided to low-skilled migrants and the distinction that accompanied it allowed them to experience an increased accumulation of political capital and redistribution of influential power. This paper will examine the Temporary Residency to Permanent Residency Pathway and Guardian Angel Program as examples of the fluctuations in Immigrant, Refugees and Citizenship in Canada’s practices during the pandemic and as temporary public policy responses to the increase in political capital accumulated by low-skilled migrant workers.