Interlocking migrant illegalization with other markers of social location: The experiences of Mexican migrants moving and working in Toronto

SynopsisThis paper is interested in placing the literature on social reproduction in conversation with that of migrant illegalization—the identification of certain migrants as not welcome in a nation-state both through discursive and material processes. More specifically, I am interested in how migrant illegalization interlocks with other forms of social location to designate certain bodies as open to exploitation and exclusion. The paper focuses on a case study of Mexican migrants with precarious immigration status and their experiences in navigating the embodied process of moving through and working in the city of Toronto. I propose that the interlocking of migrant illegalization and the profiling of bodies as exploitable and suspicious limits precarious status migrants’ – those that do not have permanent residence or citizenship – ability to access social goods, decent work and the networks required to improve their social context.