This article describes a case study of Portuguese manual trades workers in Toronto to provide an assessment of how Canada's skill-based immigrant selection policies treat workers with low human capital. While government rhetoric and much academic writing has presented skill-based immigration programs as a progressive move away from the racist and particularistic exclusions present in previous policies, the case study presented in this article provides a less optimistic reading of the situation. While workers with high human capital are granted pathways to permanent entry, those with low human capital are restricted to temporary and more pre-carious legal statuses. The result is a differential access to key social, economic, and civic rights depending on a migrant's skill category. An image of "fragmented citizenship," therefore, appears more re-alistic than writings proclaiming an expansion of universal rights and the emergence of a postnational mode of belonging. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

citizenship Immigration policy Portuguese Canada-Toronto Temporary migration

Canada immigration policy Toronto citizenship Ontario [Canada] migrant worker human capital European immigrant