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.

"No Somos La Migra": The Challenges of Research Among Stationary Mexican Farmworkers in the Northeastern United States

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Duke ◽  
Claudia Santelices ◽  
Anna Nicolaysen ◽  
Merrill Singer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Northeastern United States ◽  
Migrant Farm Workers ◽  
Migrant Farm ◽  
Precarious Situation

Engaging migrant farm workers in outreach, whether for social services or as participants in research projects, is particularly difficult. As a transient, semi-skilled, and largely undocumented workforce, migrant workers are understandably reluctant to engage with anyone whom they feel may jeopardize their already precarious situation. However, engaging with non-migrant farm workers presents its own unique challenges as well.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Pandemic and Structural Barriers for Migrant Agricultural Workers in Ontario

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa James
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Agricultural Workers ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Migrant Farm Workers ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers ◽  
Canadian Public Policy ◽  
Migrant Farm

COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated many longstanding barriers and shortcomings in labour protections for migrant workers in Canada. This paper focuses on the situation of workers under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) in Ontario, demonstrating how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and greatly aggravated the already precarious conditions of migrant workers. It explores the employment, labour and immigration law frameworks that render SAWP workers particularly vulnerable to exploitation and harm, both during pandemic and non-pandemic times. While some government policy and legislative responses have sought to respond to the increased vulnerability of migrant agricultural workers to the virus, fundamental changes in both the immigration and labour spheres are necessary to fix the structural causes of migrant agricultural workers’ vulnerability. This paper suggest that the pandemic has created not only an unprecedented urgency for systemic change, but also an unprecedented opportunity. Given the current broad shifts in public ideas about employment, health, and vulnerability, as well as mainstream public attention to the plight of migrant farm workers, I suggest that there is now an unprecedented space in Canadian public policy discourse to advance the urgently needed structural changes to protect the rights of migrant farm workers.

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 Cosmopolitan county: migrant farm workers' impact on the agricultural community of Leamington

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianna Jarvis
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Migrant Farm Workers ◽  
Essex County ◽  
Agricultural Community ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers ◽  
Migrant Farm ◽  
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

Migrant farm workers are behind-the-scenes backbone of Canada's agricultural economy. Despite their significant role within the food production industry, the outer public is typically unfamiliar with their contributions, experiences, and even their presence in Canada. Many researchers agree that workers arriving through the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program hold a precarious status, primarily due to the invisibility of their plight to the rest of Canada. In Leamington, Ontario, large-scale greenhouse operations call for thousands of workers from Mexico and the Caribbean to grow vegetables year-round. This study sought to gain an understanding of the relationship between migrant workers and community members by surveying and interviewing Leamington residents. While worker visibility and local familiarity with the presence of migrant workers is heightened in the Essex County region, the quality of social interactions was found to be severely limited. The implications were found to involve social marginalization, culture clash, and racial stereotyping.

scholarly journals Evelyn Encalada Grez in Conversation with Marlea Clarke

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
Encalada Grez Evelyn
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Central American ◽  
Migrant Farm Workers ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
Founding Member ◽  
Migrant Work ◽  
Rural Mexico ◽  
Migrant Farm ◽  
The University

Evelyn is a community organiser and a PhD candidate at OISE of the  University of Toronto. Her dissertation focuses on migrant work across rural Ontario and Rural Mexico. Born in Chile, raised in Canada, Evelyn has worked in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras with the Central American Network in Solidarity with Women Maquila Workers and with the Workers Support Centre in Puebla, Mexico. Evelyn is a founding member of Justice for Migrant Workers, a political collective that has fought for the rights of migrant farm workers in Canada since 2001

scholarly journals Food Security and Obesity among Mexican Agricultural Migrant Workers

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (21) ◽  
pp. 4171 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Castañeda ◽  
Graciela Caire-Juvera ◽  
Sergio Sandoval ◽  
Pedro Alejandro Castañeda ◽  
Alma Delia Contreras ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Farm Workers ◽  
Obesity Prevalence ◽  
Double Burden ◽  
Migrant Farm Workers ◽  
Migrant Farm ◽  
The Relationship

Mexican migrant farm workers are one of the poorest and most marginalized social groups within the country. They face the double burden of malnutrition, food insecurity, as well as harsh living and labor conditions. Objective: To examine the relationship between household food insecurity (HFI) and obesity in a population of migrant farm workers in highly modernized agribusiness areas of Northwest Mexico. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study with a concentric (site) (n = 146 households) and systematic selection of participants (adult men and women). Methods included questionnaires regarding socio-demographic characteristics, food security, diet (two non-consecutive 24-h recalls), and physical activity (PA). Anthropometric data included height, weight, and waist circumference. Data analysis covered descriptive statistics, multivariate linear and logistic regression. Results: Sample showed 75% prevalence of overweight and obesity, while 87% of households reported some level of HFI. Mild HFI resulted in five times more probability of farm workers’ obesity (OR = 5.18, 95% CI: 1.37–19.58). However, there was a protective effect of HFI for obesity among men (OR 0.089, 95% CI: 0.01–0.58) in a context of intense labor-related PA. Conclusion: There is a difference by gender in the relationship of HFI with obesity prevalence related perhaps to the energy expenditure of male agricultural migrant workers.

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 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.

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