scholarly journals Racial Capitalism, Slavery, Labour Regimes and Exploitation in the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 55-61
Author(s):  
Julie Ann McCausland
Keyword(s):  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Agricultural Workers ◽  
Trade Policies ◽  
Agricultural Industry ◽  
Racial Capitalism ◽  
Indentured Servitude ◽  
Structural Adjustment Programs ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

This paper will attempt to critically examine Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) with an intent of connecting four themes: the Canadian agricultural industry, indentured servitude, the labour regime in Canada, and the racialization of the SAWP. It has been argued that the workers from the Caribbean who participate in the Temporary Agricultural Workers Program are should consider themselves fortunate to be given such an opportunity. I argue that this assertion is problematic because it overlooks the hardship the workers face in Canada as a result of their non-citizen status. I also examine the fact that many of the workers enlisted in the SAWP are forced to migrate for a living wage due to poor economic conditions in their countries of origin, and that these conditions are a direct consequence of unequal trade policies and structural adjustment programs. Finally, I demonstrate Canada’s complicity in benefiting from these programs.

scholarly journals Borders and boundaries in the lives of migrant agricultural workers: Towards a more equitable health services approach.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-103
Author(s):  
Susana Caxaj ◽  
Amy Cohen ◽  
Bonar Buffam ◽  
Oudshoorne Abe
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Agricultural Workers ◽  
Temporary Migrant ◽  
Inferior Status ◽  
Border Politics ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers ◽  
Canadian Citizenship ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

In 2018, over 70% of the 69,775 temporary migrant agricultural labourers arriving in Canada participated in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). Despite having legal status in Canada, these individuals are often systematically excluded from community life and face barriers when accessing health and social services. SAWP workers’ exclusion from many public spaces and their incomplete access to the benefits of Canadian citizenship or residency provide us a unique opportunity to examine social and political mechanisms that construct (in)eligibility for health and protection in society.  As individuals seeking to care for the sick and most marginalized, it is important for nurses to understand how migrant agricultural workers are positioned and imagined in society. We argue that the structural exclusion faced by this population can be uncovered by examining (1) border politics that inscribe inferior status onto migrant agricultural workers (2) nation-state borders that promote racialized surveillance and; (3) everyday normalization of exclusionary public service practices. We discuss how awareness of these contextual factors can be mobilized by nurses to work towards a more equitable health services approach for this population.

scholarly journals Sustaining Precarious Transnational Families: The Significance of Remittances From Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

Just Labour ◽  
1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Wells ◽  
Janet McLaughlin ◽  
Andre Lyn ◽  
Aaraon Diaz Mendiburo
Keyword(s):  
Medical Care ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
Agricultural Workers ◽  
Transnational Families ◽  
Global Development ◽  
Transnational Family ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers ◽  
Family Survival ◽  
Accelerating Flows ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

Accelerating flows of remittances are dwarfing global development aid. Thisstudy deepens our understanding of remittance impacts on the families ofworkers who come to Canada annually for several months under the SeasonalAgricultural Workers Program (SAWP). Interviews with SAWP workers, theirspouses, adult children and teachers in Mexico deepen our understanding of theimpacts of these remittances. They demonstrate thatthe remittances are oftenliterally a lifeline to transnational family survival, allowing them to pay for basicneeds such as shelter, food, and medical care. Yet,at the same time, theraemittances do not allow most of these workers andtheir families to escape deeppoverty and significant precarity, including new forms of precarity generated bythe SAWP. Instead, SAWP remittances help reduce poverty, at least temporarily,to more moderate levels while precarious poverty expands through globalneoliberal underdevelopmen

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.

Legal but Deportable: Institutionalized Deportability and the Limits of Collective Bargaining among Participants in Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

ILR Review ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 882-907 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah F. Vosko
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Migrant Worker ◽  
Agricultural Workers ◽  
Labor Laws ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Temporary Migrant ◽  
Key Informant ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

This article explores how model temporary migrant worker programs (TMWPs) that permit seasonal return can institutionalize deportability or the possibility of removal among participants with legal status. It draws on the cases of two groups of workers who participated in the British Columbia–Mexico Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) and who managed to unionize and secure collective agreements (CAs). The author argues that the design and operation of SAWP constrains workers’ capacity to see out fixed-term contracts and to realize the promise of seasonal return. These inherent constraints lead to a form of institutionalized deportability, even among participants covered by CAs crafted to mitigate the possibility of unjust termination and premature repatriation and to address workers’ precarious transnational situation. Focusing on how deportability operates, the article analyzes immigration and labor laws and policies, CAs, key informant interviews, and testimony before British Columbia’s labor relations tribunal along with the decisions of that tribunal.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document