Migrant workers, though long welcomed in Canada for their labour, are often excluded from both workplace protections and basic social benefits such as health care, income assistance, and education. Through interviews with migrants and their advocates, Marsden shows that people with precarious migration status face barriers in law, policy, and practice, affecting their ability to address adverse working conditions and their access to institutions such as hospitals, schools, and employment standards boards. Enforcing Exclusion recasts what migration status means to both the state and to non-citizens, questioning the adequacy of human-rights-based responses in addressing its exclusionary effects.

Migrant workers, though long welcomed in Canada for their labour, are often excluded from both workplace protections and basic social benefits such as health care, income assistance, and education. Through interviews with migrants and their advocates, Marsden shows that people with precarious migration status face barriers in law, policy, and practice, affecting their ability to address adverse working conditions and their access to institutions such as hospitals, schools, and employment standards boards. Enforcing Exclusion recasts what migration status means to both the state and to non-citizens, questioning the adequacy of human-rights-based responses in addressing its exclusionary effects.