scholarly journals Maintaining the temporary nature of the seasonal agriculture workers program in Canada: a source country analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deon Castello
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Source Country ◽  
Farm Worker ◽  
Agricultural Worker ◽  
Temporary Migrant ◽  
Country Analysis ◽  
Permanent Residency ◽  
Migrant Farm

The successful management of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) in Canada for the past 52 years lies with the bilateral agreement of the program’s Memorandum of Understanding. Despite its expansion over the decades, the program does not offer a pathway to permanent residency for migrant farm-workers. The power imbalance in maintaining the ability to grant permanent residence pathways lies mainly with the host country (Canada). However, source country by proxy also appears to play a role in maintaining the temporary nature of the program via managing and policing the SAWP workers. Based on a case study, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and a total of 10 interviews with workers, former workers, former and current civil servants responsible for the program in this country, the Major Research Paper interrogates the roles played by the source country in the continuation of the temporary migrant status and conditions associated with SAWP. . Key words: seasonal agricultural worker program, labour migration, temporary foreign worker, migrant farm worker.

scholarly journals Maintaining the temporary nature of the seasonal agriculture workers program in Canada: a source country analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deon Castello
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Source Country ◽  
Farm Worker ◽  
Agricultural Worker ◽  
Temporary Migrant ◽  
Country Analysis ◽  
Permanent Residency ◽  
Migrant Farm

The successful management of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) in Canada for the past 52 years lies with the bilateral agreement of the program’s Memorandum of Understanding. Despite its expansion over the decades, the program does not offer a pathway to permanent residency for migrant farm-workers. The power imbalance in maintaining the ability to grant permanent residence pathways lies mainly with the host country (Canada). However, source country by proxy also appears to play a role in maintaining the temporary nature of the program via managing and policing the SAWP workers. Based on a case study, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and a total of 10 interviews with workers, former workers, former and current civil servants responsible for the program in this country, the Major Research Paper interrogates the roles played by the source country in the continuation of the temporary migrant status and conditions associated with SAWP. . Key words: seasonal agricultural worker program, labour migration, temporary foreign worker, migrant farm worker.

It Takes a Village: Civil Society Regulation of Employment Standards for Temporary Migrant Workers in Australian Horticulture

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Clibborn
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
System Level ◽  
Temporary Migrant ◽  
Employment Standards ◽  
State Employment ◽  
The Commons ◽  
Migrant Farm

How can civil society actors address regulatory deficiencies in complex systems? The challenge of regulating employment standards in non-unionised industries is shared by many developed countries. In industries like horticulture, violation of minimum employment standards for vulnerable temporary migrant workers is widespread and state employment regulators struggle to enforce laws. This article examines the challenge at a system level incorporating a range of civil society stakeholders. It conceptualises a regional town and its surrounding horticulture-dependent economy and society as a complex system in which stakeholders face the challenge of reputational damage among temporary migrant farm workers, threatening future labour supply. This ‘tragedy of the commons’ was created by some stakeholders acting solely in their individual interests by underpaying and otherwise mistreating the workers. Using a qualitative approach including 30 interviews, focusing on a single farming region in Queensland, Australia, this article identifies the conditions in which civil society stakeholders in a horticulture system regulate employment standards through orienting and connecting with one another to advance both individual and shared interests.

Photography and the Concept of Return: A Personal View

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 307-320
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Pietropaolo
Keyword(s):  
Farm Workers ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Personal View ◽  
Migrant Farm Workers ◽  
Temporary Migrant ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Italian Immigrants ◽  
Migrant Farm ◽  
Little Italy

As a photographer of the immigrant experience, the yearning for return to a homeland has been a central theme of my research. In this paper, I explore both my personal and collective experience of displacement and uprooting (Not Paved with Gold), the annual return to Canada of temporary migrant farm workers from Mexico and the Caribbean (Harvest Pilgrims), and the metaphorical return of Italian immigrants to a spiritual homeland through the annual re-enactment of the Via Crucis on the streets of Toronto’s Little Italy (Ritual). The paper poses the question of whether the immigrant, having abandoned his homeland, can truly return to it.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 110-120
Author(s):  
Leah F. Vosko
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Agricultural Worker ◽  
Work Program ◽  
Incremental Change ◽  
Migration Management ◽  
Legal Case ◽  
Temporary Migrant ◽  
Migrant Work

This concluding chapter reflects on the significance of the legal case of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) employeess at Sidhu & Sons for expanding understandings of the meaning of deportability and its applicability to temporary migrant work program (TMWP) participants laboring not only in Canada but also in other relatively high-income host states embracing migration management and the measures it prescribes. Obstacles to limiting deportability writ large will persist so long as migration management dominates paradigmatically. Nevertheless, in combination with the forward-looking organizing efforts already being undertaken by unions and worker centers, in areas where unionization is difficult to achieve partly because of the still-dominant Wagnerian-styled model of unionization, certain modest interventions in policy and practice hold promise in forging change and curbing deportability among temporary migrant workers. Because the foregoing case study focused on the SAWP, the alternatives outlined in this chapter primarily address this TMWP. Given, however, that the SAWP is often touted as a model of migration management, they seek to provide meaningful avenues toward incremental change in other TMWPs in Canada and elsewhere.

Disrupting Deportability

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah F Vosko
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Agricultural Worker ◽  
Work Program ◽  
Collective Representation ◽  
Temporary Migrant ◽  
Migrant Work

This book highlights obstacles confronting temporary migrant workers in Canada seeking to exercise their labor rights. It explores the effects of deportability on Mexican nationals participating in Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). The book follows the decade-long legal and political struggle of a group of Mexican SAWP migrants in British Columbia to establish and maintain meaningful collective representation. The case study reveals how modalities of deportability—such as termination without cause, blacklisting, and attrition—destabilize legally authorized temporary migrant agricultural workers. Through this detailed exposé, the book concludes that despite the formal commitments to human, social, and civil rights to which migration management ostensibly aspires, the design and administration of this “model” temporary migrant work program produces conditions of deportability, making the threat possibility of removal ever-present.

scholarly journals Plus ça Change? – A Comparative Analysis of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program and the Pilot Foreign Worker Program for Farm Workers in Quebec

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia J Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Agricultural Workers ◽  
Migrant Farm Workers ◽  
Federal Policies ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Migrant Farm ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

For the last 40 years, migrant farm workers from the Caribbean and Mexico have been recruited to work temporarily on Canadian farms under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). In 2002, the pilot Foreign Worker Program (FWP) for low skilled migrant workers was initiated in the province of Quebec and under this program began the recruitment of Guatemalan migrant farm workers. Since the program's start, the number of Guatemalan migrants has nearly tripled and there seems to be a decline in the number of workers hired under the SAWP in Quebec. This paper examines the FWP's development, set-up, consequences and operation alongside the SAWP and shows how the Canadian state is expanding the number of flexibility and temporary worker programs. This paper draws attention to the neo-liberal context of migrant farm labour in Canada, pointing to the ways in which Canada's federal policies governing seasonal agricultural migrants and athe agricultural labour market are exploitative and racist.

scholarly journals A food policy for Canada, but not just for Canadians: Reaping justice for migrant farm workers

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-284
Author(s):  
Anelyse M. Weiler
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Food System ◽  
Food Policy ◽  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Migrant Farm Workers ◽  
Policy Interventions ◽  
Permanent Resident ◽  
Migrant Farm ◽  
Core Features

In this policy commentary, I highlight opportunities to advance equity and dignity for racialized migrant workers from less affluent countries who are hired through low-wage agricultural streams of Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Core features of the program such as 'tied' work permits, non-citizenship, and workers' deportability make it risky for migrant farm workers to exercise their rights. I discuss five federal policy interventions to strengthen justice for migrant farm workers in Canada: 1) permanent resident status; 2) equal access to social protections; 3) open work permits; 4) democratic business ownership; and 5) trade policy that respects community self-determination. To realize a food system that enables health, freedom and dignity for all members of our communities, a Food Policy for Canada cannot be for Canadians alone.

scholarly journals Plus ça Change? – A Comparative Analysis of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program and the Pilot Foreign Worker Program for Farm Workers in Quebec

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia J Lowe
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Foreign Worker ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Agricultural Workers ◽  
Migrant Farm Workers ◽  
Federal Policies ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Migrant Farm ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

For the last 40 years, migrant farm workers from the Caribbean and Mexico have been recruited to work temporarily on Canadian farms under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). In 2002, the pilot Foreign Worker Program (FWP) for low skilled migrant workers was initiated in the province of Quebec and under this program began the recruitment of Guatemalan migrant farm workers. Since the program's start, the number of Guatemalan migrants has nearly tripled and there seems to be a decline in the number of workers hired under the SAWP in Quebec. This paper examines the FWP's development, set-up, consequences and operation alongside the SAWP and shows how the Canadian state is expanding the number of flexibility and temporary worker programs. This paper draws attention to the neo-liberal context of migrant farm labour in Canada, pointing to the ways in which Canada's federal policies governing seasonal agricultural migrants and athe agricultural labour market are exploitative and racist.

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