University of British Columbia Press North of El Norte: Illegalized Mexican Migrants in Canada

North of El Norte provides an important counterpoint to the attention given to Mexican migration to the United States by examining a lesser-known migration route: that taken b by contemporary Mexican migrants to Canada. Paloma Villegas examines not only the implications of changing Canadian immigration policy and practice but also the barriers that migrants without permanent resident status encounter once in Canada, specifically in the labour market, in their creative pursuits, and in accessing health care. Her comprehensive research sheds light on how individuals and institutions work to illegalize migrants and on the migrants' active resistance to those efforts. Review There is little research on the experiences of Mexican migrants in Canada. This pioneering depiction of their lives in Toronto documents how migrant journeys are rooted in the political, social, and economic insecurities in Mexico, and vividly illustrates the hardship, humiliation, abuse, and pain that migrants endure while trying to attain legal status.--Tanya Basok, University of Windsor About the Author Paloma E. Villegas is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at California State University, San Bernardino. Her research on the intersections of migration, citizenship, borders, race, and gender can be found in publications such as Citizenship Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Women’s Studies International Forum, the Journal of Gender Studies, the Journal of Law and Society, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Refuge, and the Journal of International Migration and Integration. She is also a co-editor of Seeds of Hope: Creating a Future in the Shadows (with Tanya Aberman and Francisco Villegas).