This thesis examines the history of female immigrant domestic labour in Canada from a socialist feminist perspective. Over the past hundred years, Canadian immigration policy with respect to domestic workers became increasingly regressive with the shift in the racial composition of foreign female domestics. The women's movement contributed to this change as gains in Canadian women's public rights did not effectively challenge the dominant social paradigm of women's roles, and so left intact the public-private divide and the sexual division of labour to which were allied biases of race and class. The women's movement thus became an unwitting participant in the formulation of regressive immigration policies which rebounded on the women's movement itself, reinforcing its internal divisions.

Recent theories of the social consequences of institutions point to aspects of class and ethnic relations that are not fully captured by conventional institutional perspectives. Using some of these recent theoretical contributions, this thesis analyzes the influence of institutional conditions on the mobilization of French and immigrant workers in late 19th-century northern France. Two main institutional structures are discussed: France's unique network of labour courts, and the socialist cooperatives created by Flemish workers in the 1880s. The empirical, chiefly archival evidence suggests two main conclusions: labour movements emerged and evolved strongly influenced by the judicial framing of labour relations, which they in turn sought to use and modify to their advantage; the institutional innovation of Flemish immigrant workers had a durable influence on the organization of labour politics in northern France, and contributed to their integration as active social and political participants.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-145).

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Cover title. Photocopy typescript.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 222-230).

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 133-137).

Thesis (M.P.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 98-100).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-148).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990. / Also available in print.