Scholarly and policy responses to skilled immigrants' labour market integration in Canada have a tendency to normalise and individualise skill as a key issue to address immigrants' labour market challenges. In contrast, a small body of anti-oppressive social work advocates the need for examining the racist and assimilationist assumptions that lead to de-skilling and propose structurally oriented recommendations. In this paper, I draw from the historical materialist method of ideological critique and critical scholarship on work and learning for work to make a case that, since the notion of skill does not have a stable referent and is ideologically malleable, it helps to mask the exploitative relation between labour and capital in the job market. I argue that such an understanding of skill would sharpen the repertoire of anti-oppressive practice with skilled immigrant professionals by encouraging practitioners to acknowledge de-skilling as a fundamental aspect of the system they are critiquing, and thereby reorienting their critique to incorporate larger political economic structures. I conclude by proposing a dialogue between practitioners and researchers about the efficacy and viability of this proposition. © 2013 © The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The British Association of Social Workers. All rights reserved.
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