A Brown Girl’s Journey Through the Canada Summer Jobs Program
Keywords:
Second-Generation South Asian Women, Career Barriers, Youth Leadership, Voluntary Sector, Feminist AutoethnographyAbstract
This critical feminist autoethnography explores the tensions between empowerment and exploitation in Canada’s Summer Jobs (CSJ) program through the lens of a brown girl, descended from migrants, two generations removed from the Partition of India. Tracing my trajectory from CSJ participant to nonprofit employer administering the program, this paper situates my experiences within broader structures of postcolonial displacement, economic precarity, and gendered care work. While CSJ is framed as a state mechanism for youth empowerment and equitable labour market entry, this article argues that it also reinforces age-coded, racialized, and gendered inequalities. Drawing on Baines et al.’s (2004, 2017) framework of compulsion and coercion in unpaid caring labour, the paper reveals how youth, particularly gendered, racialised youth are structurally positioned to absorb affective and relational labour, often invisibilised and devalued. Through three case studies, I examine how mentorship is often a discursive cover for emotional overextension, and how organisational austerity enables the reproduction of exploitative dynamics under the guise of opportunity.
References
Allen, K. R. (2023). Feminist theory, method, and praxis: Toward a critical consciousness for family and close relationship scholars. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 40(3), 899–936. https://doi.org/10.1177/02654075211065779
Altamimi, H., & Liu, Q. (2022). The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle: Does Overhead Spending Really Impact Program Outcomes? Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 51(6), 1324–1348. https://doi.org/10.1177/08997640211057404
Aurora, M. (2015). The Experiences of Second-Generation South Asian Female Students who are Attending Universities in Canada. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
Baines, D. (Ed.). (2017). Anti-Oppressive Practice: Neoliberalism, Inequality and Change. In D. Baines (Eds.), Doing anti-oppressive practice: social justice social work (Third edition.). Fernwood Publishing.
Baines, D. (2004). Caring for nothing: work organization and unwaged labour in social services. Work, Employment and Society, 18(2), 267–295. https://doi.org/10.1177/09500172004042770
Baines, D., Charlesworth, S., Turner, D., & O’Neill, L. (2014). Lean social care and worker identity: The role of outcomes, supervision and mission. Critical Social Policy, 34(4), 433–453. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018314538799
Baines, D., Cunningham, I., & Shields, J. (2017). Filling the gaps: Unpaid (and precarious) work in the nonprofit social services. Critical Social Policy, 37(4), 625–645. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018317693128
Birk, M. (2013). Brown acts of resistance: A glimpse into the lives of six activists. The International Journal of Diverse Identities, 12(3), 45–51.
Blanchet-Cohen, N., & Cook, P. (2014). The Transformative Power of Youth Grants: Sparks and Ripples of Change Affecting Marginalised Youth and their Communities. Children & Society, 28(5), 392–403. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2012.00473.x
Burkart, C., Wakolbinger, T., & Toyasaki, F. (2018). Funds allocation in NPOs: the role of administrative cost ratios. Central European Journal of Operations Research, 26(2), 307–330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10100-017-0512-9
Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW). (2018). Understanding Social Work and Child Welfare: Canadian Survey and Interviews with Child Welfare Experts. At https://www.casw-acts.ca/files/documents/CASW_Child_Welfare_Report_-_2018.pdf
Cader, N. H. (2017). Exploring Experiences of Mental Health in Second Generation South Asian Canadians. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
Carman, J. G., & Nesbit, R. (2013). Founding New Nonprofit Organizations: Syndrome or Symptom? Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 42(3), 603–621. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764012459255
Chikoto, G. L., & Neely, D. G. (2014). Building Nonprofit Financial Capacity: The Impact of Revenue Concentration and Overhead Costs. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 43(3), 570–588. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764012474120
Chen, C.-A., & Bozeman, B. (2012). Organizational Risk Aversion: Comparing The Public and Non-Profit Sectors. Public Management Review, 14(3), 377–402. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2011.637406
Clément, D. (2022). Local government funding for the nonprofit sector in British Columbia. Canadian Public Administration, 65(1), 166–187. https://doi.org/10.1111/capa.12446
Cunningham, I., Baines, D., & Shields, J. (2017). “You’ve Just Cursed Us”: Precarity, Austerity and Worker’s Participation in the Non-Profit Social Services. Relations Industrielles (Québec, Québec), 72(2), 370–393. https://doi.org/10.7202/1040405ar
De Boer, C., Small, S., Sitter, K., Ricciardelli, R., & Hall, A. (2022). Child Welfare Workers with Occupational Stress Injuries: A Content Analysis of Workers’ Compensation Legislation in Canada. Canadian Public Policy, 48(4), 503–517. https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2021-078
de Boer, C., Small, S., Sitter, K., Ricciardelli, R., & Hall, A. (2022). Child Welfare Workers with Occupational Stress Injuries: A Content Analysis of Workers’ Compensation Legislation in Canada. Canadian Public Policy, 48(4), 503. https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2021-078
Employment and Social Development Canada (EDSC). (2025). Canada Summer Jobs: Providing Youth with Quality Work Experiences Applicant Guide. Employment and Social Development Canada. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/esdc-edsc/documents/services/funding/canada-summer-jobs/canada-summer-jobs-applicant-guide.pdf
Evans, B., Richmond, T., & Shields, J. (2005). Structuring Neoliberal Governance: The Nonprofit Sector, Emerging New Modes of Control and the Marketisation of Service Delivery. Policy & Society, 24(1), 73–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1449-4035(05)70050-3
Fanelli, C., Rudman, D. L., & Aldrich, R. M. (2017). Precarity in the Nonprofit Employment Services Sector. The Canadian Review of Sociology, 54(3), 331. https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12153
Fraser, N. (2017). Crisis of Care? On the Social-Reproductive Contradictions of Contemporary Capitalism. In Tithi Bhattacharya (Ed.), Social Reproduction Theory (p. 21). Pluto Press.
Gallagher, T. L., Gosine, K., & Parker, D. C. (2024). Funding (In)security and Challenges: Non-Profit Literacy Programming and Neoliberal Contradictions in Canada. Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, 47(3–4), 59–75. https://doi.org/10.1177/10793739241253224
Gill, J. K. (2022). Problematizing “Honour Crimes” within the Canadian Context: A Postcolonial Feminist Analysis of Popular Media and Political Discourses. Societies (Basel, Switzerland), 12(2), 62. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12020062
Glucksmann, M. A. (1995). Why “Work”? Gender and the “Total Social Organization of Labour.” Gender, Work, and Organization, 2(2), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.1995.tb00028.x
Hall, M. H., Imagine Canada, & Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project. (2005). The Canadian nonprofit and voluntary sector in comparative perspective. Imagine Canada.
Heritage Canada, (2021). Canada’s First State of Youth Report. Cat. No. CH4-193/2021E-PD. Ottawa: Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/pch/documents/campaigns/state-youth/2021-State-of-youth-report.pdf.
James, N. (1989). Emotional labour: skill and work in the social regulation of feelings. The Sociological Review (Keele), 37(1), 15–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1989.tb00019.x
Justin, M. (2004). Walking between two worlds: The bicultural experience of second -generation East Indian Canadian women. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
Krishnan, S. (2021). Where do good girls have sex? Space, risk and respectability in Chennai. Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, 28(7), 999–1018. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2020.1770204
Lapadat, J. C. (2017). Ethics in Autoethnography and Collaborative Autoethnography. Qualitative Inquiry, 23(8), 589–603. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800417704462
Leonard, P., Halford, S., & Bruce, K. (2016). “The new degree?” Constructing internships in the third sector. Sociology (Oxford), 50(2), 383–399.
Malenfant, J. A., Nichols, N., & Schwan, K. (2019). Chasing Funding “To Eat Our Own Tail”: The Invisible Emotional Work of Making Social Change. Canadian Journal of Nonprofit and Social Economy Research, 10(2).
Margolin, L. (1997). Under the cover of kindness: the invention of social work. University Press of Virginia.
Mehrotra, G. R. (2016). South Asian Women and Marriage: Experiences of a Cultural Script. Gender Issues, 33(4), 350–371. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-016-9172-7
Mucina, M. K. (2018). Exploring the role of “honour” in son preference and daughter deficit within the Punjabi diaspora in Canada. Revue Canadienne d’études Du Développement, 39(3), 426–442. https://doi.org/10.1080/02255189.2018.1450736
Mustafa, N. (2013). Conspiracy of silence: Cultural dissonance as a risk factor for the development of eating disorders in second generation South Asian women. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
Ng, R. (1996). The politics of community services immigrant women, class and the state (2nd ed.). Fernwood Pub.
Office of the Auditor General of Canada. (2024). Report 12: Canada Summer Jobs—Employment and Social Development Canada. Cat. No. FA1-27/2024-1-12E-PDF. Office of the Auditor General of Canada. www.oag-bvg.gc.ca.
Patel, S. (2019). “Brown girls can’t be gay”: Racism experienced by queer South Asian women in the Toronto LGBTQ community. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 23(3), 410–423. https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2019.1585174
Qureshi, F., Misra, S., & Poshni, A. (2023). The partition of India through the lens of historical trauma: Intergenerational effects on immigrant health in the South Asian diaspora. SSM - Mental Health, 4, Article 100246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2023.100246
Ramsundarsingh, S., & Falkenberg, L. (2017). An exploration of charity/non-charity partnerships in Canada. Canadian Journal of Nonprofit and Social Economy Research, 8(1), 52. https://doi.org/10.22230/cjnser.2017v8n1a235
Saidel, J. R. (1989). Dimensions of Interdependence: The State and Voluntary-Sector Relationship. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 18(4), 335–347. https://doi.org/10.1177/089976408901800405
Schmid, H. (2013). Nonprofit Human Services: Between Identity Blurring and Adaptation to Changing Environments. Administration in Social Work, 37(3), 242–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/03643107.2012.676611
Shariff, A. (2015). Ethnic Identity and Parenting Stress in South Asian Families: Implications for Culturally Sensitive Counselling. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 43(1), 35.
Somerville, K. (2019). Intergenerational Relations and Gendered Social Surveillance of Second-Generation South Asians. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 51(3), 95–115. https://doi.org/10.1353/ces.2019.0022
Somerville, K., & Robinson, O. (2016). Keeping Up Appearances Within the Ethnic Community: A Disconnect between First- and Second-Generation South Asians’ Educational Aspirations. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 48(2), 99–117. https://doi.org/10.1353/ces.2016.0015
Sundar, P. (2008). To "Brown it up" or to "bring down the Brown": Identity and strategy in second-generation, South Asian Canadian youth. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 17(3), 251–278.
Sohal, A. (2009). Negotiating Identities: Second-generation South Asian Women’s Endogamous Marital Relationships. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses.
Virdi, P. K. (2013). Barriers to Canadian justice: immigrant Sikh women and izzat. South Asian Diaspora, 5(1), 107–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/19438192.2013.722383
