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Listening to migrant workers: should Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program be abolished?

DOI:10.1007/s10624-019-09563-4
Authors:
Anelyse Weiler at University of Victoria
Anelyse Weiler
Janet McLaughlin
Janet McLaughlin
Janet McLaughlin
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FORUM RESPONSE
Listening to migrant workers: should Canada’s Seasonal
Agricultural Worker Program be abolished?
Anelyse M. Weiler
1
&Janet McLaughlin
2
#Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Introduction
Leigh Binford’s essay cuts to the core of how Canada’s migrant agricultural worker program
undermines rights, freedom, and dignity for racialized migrants from the Global South while
boosting a horticultural industry that continues to consolidate. By reviewing research on the
Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), including his own, Binford underscores three
features of the SAWP that escalate expectations of worker productivity and growers’dispro-
portionate power over workers. Specifically, he draws attention to SAWP workers’
deportability, barriers faced by sending-country officials in defending the rights of fellow
nationals in Canada, and what he calls a “dual frame of reference.”Binford uses the dual frame
of reference to explain why SAWP workers generally put up with the wages and working
conditions on offer: they evaluate Canadian farm jobs against widespread poverty and grim
employment options in their countries of origin.
After establishing a trenchant analytical and empirical foundation, Binford drops something
of a bombshell by proposing to abolish the SAWP and related migrant worker programs.
Binford endorses abolition as a way to strengthen non-Canadian workers’rights. This includes
workers’access to social protections such as employment insurance, their ability to join a
union without fear of reprisal, and liberation from unfree employment relationships. However,
the essay does not elaborate on the implications of this proposal, the potential drawbacks for
workers, or what should be established in the wake of the SAWP. Well-intentioned calls to
dismantle the SAWP can unwittingly give fuel to xenophobic actors who regard migrants as a
threat to “our”jobs. Some labor organizers also see migrant workers as a drag on the labor
movement because when workers are deportable and replaceable, it is difficult for unions to
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10624-019-09563-4
*Anelyse M. Weiler
anelyse.weiler@mail.utoronto.ca
Janet McLaughlin
jmclaughlin@wlu.ca
1
Sociology, University of Toronto, 725 Spadina Ave, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2J4, Canada
2
Research Associate, International Migration Research Centre, Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford
and Waterloo, 73 George Street, Brantford, Ontario N3T 2Y3, Canada
Dialectical Anthropology (2019) 43:381–388
Published online: 13 August 2019
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... to fill positions related to on-farm primary agriculture. This stream provides four options for employers wishing to hire TFWs for agricultural positions: [1] the SAWP, which enables employers to hire TFWs exclusively from Mexico and a number of Caribbean countries to work in seasonal agricultural positions; [2] the agricultural stream; [3] the high-wage stream; [4] and the low-wage stream (16). Each option has different rules concerning where the foreign workers can come from, the types of farms they can work on, and the type of work they can do (17). ...
... In the U.S., foreign agricultural workers are admitted through the foreign temporary/ seasonal agricultural workers program, known as the H-2A visa program, which emerged as a result of the reform of the H-2 visa program in 1986 under the Immigration Reform and Control Act (7,18). The H-2A program is an uncapped category that is managed and administered by three federal agencies (7) including temporary/seasonal positions (8)(9)24); [2] both countries have similar longstanding TFWPs, though administered differently (25), which attract hundreds of thousands of TFWs every year; [3] agriculture in both countries comprises the largest sector compared to all other sectors in the TFWP (24,26); [4] the TFWPs in both countries have received much attention and criticism, particularly towards violations to TFWs' collective bargaining rights and protection capacities, among other issues (7); [5] the TFWPs in both countries continued to expand progressively, even after many reforms over the years (7,13- ...
... temporary/ seasonal foreign agricultural workers (documented and non-documented); [2] provided information on the workers' food security status; [3] within North American contexts (Canada and the U.S.); [4] published between 1966 and 2020; and [5] published in English. (See Figure 3). ...
Title: Food security of temporary foreign farm workers under the seasonal agricultural worker program in Canada and the United States: a scoping review Word count: 7962 Number of figures: 5 Number of tables: 5 Running title: Food security of SAWP workers
Article
  • Apr 2022
Temporary foreign farm workers (TFWs) are among the most vulnerable and exploitable groups. Recent research shows alarming rates of food insecurity among them. This review explores research focusing on food security of TFWs in Canada and the United States (U.S.), summarizes findings, and identifies research gaps. Online databases, including MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and government and non-government websites, and
... to fill positions related to on-farm primary agriculture. This stream provides four options for employers wishing to hire TFWs for agricultural positions: [1] the SAWP, which enables employers to hire TFWs exclusively from Mexico and a number of Caribbean countries to work in seasonal agricultural positions; [2] the agricultural stream; [3] the high-wage stream; [4] and the low-wage stream (16). Each option has different rules concerning where the foreign workers can come from, the types of farms they can work on, and the type of work they can do (17). ...
... Peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed literature were searched through electronic databases, grey literature, reference lists, and hand-searching of key journals (54), using the following steps: [1] pre-search; [2] identify and select relevant databases and other literature sources; [3] develop a search strategy for each database using key terms; and [4] document the search process and outcomes. ...
... temporary/ seasonal foreign agricultural workers (documented and non-documented); [2] provided information on the workers' food security status; [3] within North American contexts (Canada and the U.S.); [4] published between 1966 and 2020; and [5] published in English. (See Figure 3). ...
Food Security of Temporary Foreign Farm Workers Under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in Canada and the United States: A Scoping Review
Article
  • Mar 2022
Temporary foreign farm workers (TFWs) are among the most vulnerable and exploitable groups. Recent research shows alarming rates of food insecurity among them. This review explores research focussing on food security of TFWs in Canada and the United States (U.S.), summarizes findings, and identifies research gaps. Online databases, including MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and government and non-government websites, and websites of migrant workers-supporting organizations were searched for peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed papers and reports published between 1966-2020 regarding food security of TFWs. Articles reviewed were analyzed to determine publication type, country, year, target population, and main findings. Content analysis was performed to identify major themes. Of 291 sources identified, 11 met inclusion criteria. Most article (n=10) were based on studies conducted in the U.S. The prevalence of food insecurity among TFWs ranged between 28% and 87%. From the content analysis, we formulated 9 themes, representing a diversity of perspectives, including access to resources, income, housing and related facilities, food access, dietary pattern and healthy food choices, and migrant's legal status. Instruments reported for the measurement of food security include USDA Household Food Security Survey Module (HFSSM) (8, 72.7%), modified version of the USDA HFSSM (1, 9%), hunger measure (1, 9%), modified CDC's NHANES (1, 9%), and 24-hourr recall, diet history and/or food frequency questionnaire (3, 27.3%). Factors impacting food security of TFWs working under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Programs (SAWPs) in North America is understudied. There is a need to advance research looking particularly at policies, regulatory, and administrative aspects of the SAWPs to improve food security of this cohort. There is also a need for qualitative studies that explore lived experiences and perspectives of TFWs and key informants. Longitudinal studies may be useful to examine various factors, including policy-related, contributing to food insecurity of TFWs over time.
... A study based on a coroner's report of 9 agricultural workers' deaths in Ontario between March 2020 and June 2021 identified four domains of risk accounting for the disproportionate number of casualties: (1) recruitment and travel risks; (2) missed steps and substandard conditions of healthcare monitoring, quarantine, and isolation; (3) barriers to accessing healthcare; and (4) missing information (Caxaj et al., 2022). Their dependency on employers for work authorization, residency status, and housing make it difficult for agricultural workers to report health issues and crowded living conditions (Caxaj et al., 2022;Weiler & McLaughlin, 2019). Due to these vulnerabilities, this group has suffered disproportionately throughout the pandemic. ...
Immigration policy 'on the fly': A critical review of pandemic policymaking in Canada
Preprint
Full-text available
  • Nov 2022
Since January 2020 Canadian federal immigration policy has been shaped by the need to contain the spread of COVID-19 balanced against the need to protect the economy. This paper provides a critical review of key administrative trends and immigration policy responses and their significance for different groups of migrants. Using the newly developed CERC Migration Covid-19 Immigration Policy Tracker (2022), we 1 identify key trends in policymaking and practice beginning January 2020 through August 2022, and evaluate their impact on refugee claimants and refugees, immigration detainees, economic immigrants, temporary foreign workers and international students, and family class immigrants. We find that while the federal government responded with rapid border closures for non-citizens, it immediately began to carve out exceptions for non-discretionary purposes. Ultimately, essential mobility into Canada was defined according to economically driven criteria with the pandemic sometimes used as an excuse to exclude migrants considered undesirable, particularly asylum seekers, and to achieve administrative efficiencies. We conclude that while successful in reacting swiftly to modernize its operations and meet ambitious permanent levels targets, despite the lofty rhetoric recognizing the contributions of migrant workers and refugee claimants, ad hoc policymaking did not substantially deviate from the status quo. The government failed to take advantage of opportunities to undertake systemic changes and build a more inclusive citizenship and immigration model that would better promote equity, rights, and protections for migrants and asylum seekers who continue to be made vulnerable by Canada's immigration and refugee policies.
... Some have argued for dismantling the temporary foreign worker program (Binford 2019;Kanchana 2019). Conversely, others have cautioned against dismantlement as the temporary foreign worker program provides workers with opportunities for economic development that may not be achievable in their home countries (Ramsaroop, 2019;Weiler & McLaughlin, 2019). Appeals have been made to provide agricultural foreign workers with permanent residency (Otero, 2019), citizenship (Bauder, 2012), and to improve employer adherence to legislation protecting agricultural labour (Preibisch & Otero, 2014). ...
Diversity, equity and inclusion policy texts in Canadian agriculture: A patchwork quilt
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2022
This study explores diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policy texts in Canadian agriculture from a policy-as-information perspective. Public policy is a powerful form of information in shaping citizenship behaviour and identity. Borrowing theory from social constructionism and using “policy texts” as data, this article enables us to start to understand the discursive framework constructing under-represented groups in agriculture. The article finds that there is a patchwork quilt approach with DEI agricultural policy in Canada: Federal, provincial and territorial governments and non-governmental organizations are individually pursuing DEI agendas. The conclusion calls for future information research on DEI agricultural policy in Canada, with contributions from academics, practitioners, industry and farmers. The contribution of this article is twofold: It provides policy practitioners with a snapshot of current DEI policies in agriculture across Canada and it attempts to stimulate research and discussion among policy scholars through suggestions for future research.
... The emotional resonance of Weiler's images comes not only from Weiler's commitment to food scholarship but from her emotional connection to a forest ecosystem and foodscape threatened by climate change. Thinking about these images in the context of Weiler's scholarship on farm workers (Weiler 2021;Weiler and absences from their families and increasingly work in smoke-filled conditions that threaten their health and well-being. Food's emotional dimension is linked to macro events like an existential climate crisis, but it is also rooted in the banality of everyday foodwork and eating habits. ...
... Though access to information finds mention in several scholarly works on SAWP, few, if any, have dedicated study to knowledge-sharing as the main question. Yet, migrant workers have been speaking to these issues for a number of years (Paz Ramirez, 2013;Basok et al., 2014;McLaughlin and Weiler, 2019), and have highlighted the importance of clear and comprehensive information to their safety and wellbeing (United Food and Commercial Workers Canada and Agricultural Worker Alliance, 2020). ...
Bodies and Documents: The Material Impact of Collaborative Information- Sharing Within the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program
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  • Dec 2021
This study examines information-sharing practices within the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), focusing on the program as it is administered within Ontario. I analyze 61 documents for their content, codification of stakeholder relationships, and discourse regarding the program. Documents were selected based on their creation, use, or circulation within Ontario, and based on the likelihood that at least one stakeholder group would look to the document for (what they perceive to be) reliable information. Documents include, for example, SAWP contracts, webpages describing program requirements, and e-pamphlets on workplace safety and accessing services. Document analysis was supplemented by interviews with industry and service provider experts, which guided interpretation of documents’ significance. I argue that documents function as material actors, alongside (and sometimes beyond) human actors, and make physical impact on SAWP bodies and realities. Documents construct and uphold neoliberal structures surrounding the program by contributing to the creation and sustaining of incomplete, labour-centric individuals. Through consistent sharing of narrow, “work” information, and the rare inclusion of more well-rounded, “non-work” knowledge, documents subtly discipline the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable communication. In doing so, material actors (alongside other SAWP actors) perpetuate a foreign worker program which does not consider the varied, complex needs of whole persons but, instead, treats them as disposable labouring bodies.
Mitigating Transnational Employment Strain Among Migrant Farmworkers: Principles and Practical Strategies
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  • Jan 2023
Attending to the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic deepened structural vulnerabilities previously and routinely experienced by migrant farm workers, this chapter emphasizes how working and living conditions described in Chapter 4 flowed from those established prior to the pandemic. In revealing the excessive levels of employment strain among this essential transnational workforce, this chapter argues that revelations of the pandemic open space for mounting immigration reforms that automatically grant permanent residency status to migrant farmworkers who desire it combined with other structural changes that would improve working conditions for agricultural workers. As such changes in policy require long-term advocacy, consultations, and planning, in the interim this chapter reports on other recommendations articulated by the migrant farmworkers participating in our study. Emanating from the voices of workers themselves, such proposals include: protecting workers from arbitrary dismissal, permanent residency status for injured workers, the implementation of regular unannounced labour inspections on farms with mechanisms to secure worker voice without fear of reprisal, the creation of national housing standards, improvements in wages and thoroughgoing access to income support in periods of unemployment, and opportunities for full access to a wide range of jobs and public services facilitating transitions.
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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.
Food Security at Whose Expense? A Critique of the Canadian Temporary Farm Labour Migration Regime and Proposals for Change
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Temporary farm labour migration schemes in Canada have been justified on the premise that they bolster food security for Canadians by addressing agricultural labour shortages, while tempering food insecurity in the Global South via remittances. Such appeals hinge on an ideology defining migrants as racialized outsiders to Canada. Drawing on qualitative interviews and participant observation in Mexico, Jamaica and Canada, we critically analyse how Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program is tied to ideological claims about national food security and agrarianism, and how it purports to address migrant workers’ own food insecurity. We argue remittances only partially, temporarily mitigate food insecurity and fail to strengthen migrant food sovereignty. Data from our clinical encounters with farm workers illustrate structural barriers to healthy food access and negative health consequences. We propose an agenda for further research, along with policies to advance food security and food sovereignty for both migrants and residents of Canada.
Rock Stars and Bad Apples: Moral Economies of Alternative Food Networks and Precarious Farm Work Regimes
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Sustaining Precarious Transnational Families: The Significance of Remittances From Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program
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  • Dec 1969
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
From “Canadians First” to “Workers Unite”: Evolving Union Narratives of Migrant Workers
Article
  • Mar 2014
Federal government policy changes in the early 2000s led to the rapid expansion of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program by increasing the number of eligible occupations. Before the expansion few trade unions in Canada had interaction with TFWs, but with the new rules, and the high profile political debate that ensued, unions were forced to confront the issue of migrant workers directly for the first time. Using narrative analysis, the paper examines media statements from union officials between 2006 to 2012 to track the narratives constructed by unions regarding TFWs. It finds three temporally sequential narrative arcs: 1-prioritizing of Canadian workers’ interests and portrayal of TFWs as employer pawns; 2-TFWs as vulnerable workers needing union advocacy for their employment and human rights; and 3-post-economic crisis conflicted efforts to integrate Canadian and TFW interests. The changing narratives reflect evolving union reaction to the issue of growing use of TFWs, as well as interaction with external political and economic contexts shaping the issue. The study examines how unions understand challenging new issues. The results suggest union discourses are shaped by the tension between internal pressures and external contexts. They also suggest that leaders’ responsibility to represent members can sometimes clash with unions’ broader values of social justice. Unions build internal value structures that inform their understanding of an issue, but they must also reflect members’ demands and concerns, even if those concerns may not reflect social justice values. The case study reveals the line between “business union” and “social union” philosophy is fluid, contested and context dependent. The paper also links union narratives of TFWs in this contemporary setting to labour’s historical attitude toward immigration and race, finding elements of both continuity and disruption.
Business or Bureaucratic Dominance in Immigration Policymaking in Canada: Why was Mexico Included in the Caribbean Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program in 1974?
Article
  • Sep 2007
This article considers why Mexico was added to the Caribbean Seasonal Agricultural Workers' Program in Canada in 1974. It also asks how the conflicting interests of the host country's bureaucracies, its business community, and the sending countries' representatives influence the formation of policies on seasonal migration programs? The article suggests that recent versions of political economy, which emphasize a neoliberal turn in Canadian immigration policy, help only partly to explain why Mexico was added to the Caribbean Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program in 1974. The author argues that political economists need also to pay attention to the independent interests of immigration bureaucrats and bureaucracies in the policy-making process. Canadian immigration officials were responsive to employer interests, but also gave the green light to Mexican migrant workers as a way to solve a particular legitimacy crisis that they were facing in the early 1970s. From immigration bureaucrats' point of view, this policy also had the effect of helping to resolve embarrassing and politically explosive challenges to its claimed ability to supply Ontario farmers with suitable supplies of farm labour.
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