Migration, Pandemic and the Guardian Angels: The Case of Health Care Attendants in Quebec
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront complex inter-relations between human mobility and worldwide public health concerns. Throughout history, migrant communities have been identified as the scapegoats for the cross-border transmission and spreading of infectious diseases. A different rhetoric emerged during the recent Covid-19 crisis in Quebec and Canada: that of the migrant worker as "guardian angel." Expressed through this rhetoric was public acknowledgement of the crucial role that migrants played as essential workers during the pandemic, particularly in the health care system. The guardian angels also became the object of significant media attention during the pandemic period, particularly in relation to a special governmental program – known informally as the Guardian Angel program – put into place to regularize the migration statuses of asylum seekers and other precarious status migrants who had contributed to the pandemic effort. Although a seemingly positive expression of recognition and sympathy for their contributions during the crisis, the rhetoric of the guardian angel is not, however, without its tensions and contradictions. Drawing on the concepts of recognition and essential work, this rhetoric is examined in a study of the experiences of migrant Health Care Attendants (HCA) in Quebec health care institutions and public debate surrounding the Guardian Angel program. The results reveal the politics behind the recognition of migrant HCAs as essential workers in the health care system and, more generally still, of all precarious status migrant workers. While the circumstances surrounding Covid-19 produced unequalled and unimaginable working conditions, it also brought to the forefront structural problems already firmly entrenched in the health care system long before the pandemic. More than a pandemic crisis, the situation of migrant HCAs especially reveals a crisis of recognition and an ongoing site of struggle. Résumé: La pandémie de Covid-19 a mis au premier plan les interrelations complexes entre la mobilité humaine et les préoccupations de santé publique à l'échelle mondiale. Tout au long de l'histoire, les migrants ont été désignés comme les boucs émissaires responsables de la transmission transfrontalière des maladies infectieuses. Cependant, une autre rhétorique a émergé lors de la récente crise du Covid-19 au Québec et au Canada : celle des travailleurs et travailleuses migrants.es comme "anges gardiens." Cette rhétorique s'est traduite par la reconnaissance publique du rôle crucial joué par les migrants pendant la pandémie en tant que travailleurs essentiels, surtout dans le système de santé. Les anges gardiens ont également fait l'objet d'une attention médiatique importante pendant la période pandémique, notamment en ce qui concerne la mise en place d'un programme gouvernemental spécial – connu informellement comme le programme des anges gardiens – visant à régulariser le statut des demandeurs d'asile et d'autres migrants à statut précaire qui avaient contribué à l'effort de lutte contre la pandémie. Bien que ce programme devait surtout reconnaître la contribution des travailleurs et travailleuses migrants.es à l'effort pandémique, la rhétorique de l'ange gardien n'est cependant pas exempte de tensions et de contradictions. S'appuyant sur les concepts de reconnaissance et de travail essentiel, cette rhétorique est examinée dans le cadre d'une étude portant sur les expériences des préposés aux bénéficiaires migrants dans les établissements de soins de santé du Québec et sur le débat public entourant le programme des anges gardiens. Les résultats révèlent les dimensions politiques qui se cachent derrière la reconnaissance des préposés aux bénéficiaires migrants en tant que travailleurs essentiels dans le système de santé et, plus généralement encore, de l'ensemble des travailleurs et travailleuses migrants.es à statut précaire. Si les circonstances entourant la Covid-19 ont produit des conditions de travail inégalées et inimaginables, elles ont également mis en lumière des problèmes structurels ancrés dans le système de santé bien avant la pandémie. Plus qu'une crise pandémique, la situation des préposés aux bénéficiaires migrants révèle surtout une crise de reconnaissance et un lieu de lutte permanent.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.003 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.043 | 0.015 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.007 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.003 | 0.005 |
| Research integrity | 0.005 | 0.007 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.007 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".