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Return to Work for Migrant Agricultural Workers: Challenges, Barriers, and Opportunities for Reform Newfoundland and Labrador Dialogue on Return to Work

  • December 2022
  • Conference: Newfoundland and Labrador Dialogue on Return to Work
Authors:
Stephanie Mayell at University of Toronto
Stephanie Mayell
Janet Mclaughlin
Janet Mclaughlin
Janet Mclaughlin
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Return to Work for
Migrant Agricultural Workers:
Challenges, Barriers, and
Opportunities for Reform
Presentation to
Newfoundland and Labrador Dialogue on Return to Work
December 7, 2022
Stephanie Mayell, PhD Candidate, University of Toronto
Janet McLaughlin, Associate Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University
•In 2021, 61,735 MAWs employed in Canada
~27,000 MAWs worked in Ontario
•MAWs employed in:
1. Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP)
2. Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) (Agricultural
and Low-Wage Streams)
•Ontario hosts workers primarily from the Caribbean, Mexico,
the Philippines, Thailand, and Latin America
•Undocumented workers also work in Canadian agriculture
Migrant Agricultural Workers (MAWs) in
Canada
Health Vulnerabilities
•Temporary status and work permit tied to a single employer,
who can fire and deport workers without a grievance process
•Workers are often unable to refuse unsafe work and are
reluctant to report situations of abuse for fear of deportation
and/or not being asked back by their employer
•MAWs experience barriers accessing health care in Ontario
•Sick and injured MAWs are often deported before they receive
adequate health care or file a WC claim
(Caxaj et al. 2022; Hennebry 2010; Mayell 2016; Mayell and McLaughlin 2009, 2016; McLaughlin and Hennebry 2013; Narushima et al. 2015)
MAWs are vulnerable to various
health issues related to:
•occupational and
environmental health
•sexual and reproductive
health
•chronic and infectious
diseases
•mental health
Issues linked to social determinants of
health (SDoH):
•precarious employment and working
conditions
•low income/social status
•lack of social support and
connectedness
•substandard living environments and
housing
•limited access to health care
•health literacy challenges
•gender issues
Health Issues & SDoH
(Caxaj et al. 2022; Hennebry 2010; Mayell 2016; Mayell and McLaughlin 2009, 2010, 2016; McLaughlin and Hennebry 2013; Narushima et al. 2015)
Migrant Workers in NL
•In 2019, 117 MAWs in NL
•Provincial government seeking to attract more
migrant workers
•To qualify for NL’s Medical Care Plan, migrants
must have full-time permanent jobs with a
contract of at least one year
•Advocates call for health care upon arrival for all
migrant workers
“Migrant workers and international students in Newfoundland and Labrador say
they face a constant cycle of unpaid sick leave and a lack of health care, usually
while working minimum wage essential jobs.”
-CBC News, Oct. 2021
Research Objectives & Methods
•2 main objectives:
1. Investigate the return to work (RTW) barriers and
facilitators for MAWs across sectors and streams
of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP)
2. Propose policy solutions to ensure optimal RTW
outcomes for MAWs
•Methods include qualitative interviews with MAWs, and
an analysis of WC policies
Return to Work (RTW) for MAWs in Ontario
•MAWs granted WC coverage in Ontario obliged to accept offers
of modified work
•Both the worker and the employer have a legal obligation to
cooperate in the early RTW process
•Intersection of workers’ temporary migration and
employment status present unique challenges for RTW
•Many injured and sick workers repatriated prior to recovery
and do not benefit from re-employment, retraining and/or
reintegration into the labour market
(Hennebry and McLaughlin 2012; Mayell 2016; McLaughlin 2007, 2009; McLaughlin and Hennebry 2013; McLaughlin et al. 2014)
During interviews, injured MAWs reported:
•General confusion about the WSIB and its processes
•Needing support throughout the claims process
•Challenges communicating with case managers due to
language and cultural differences
•Lack of communication from and poor treatment by WSIB
case managers
•Poor representation from sending country representatives
•Ongoing pain and disability
•Inability to return to work back home or in Canada
Preliminary Findings
“No, I didn't heard about the WSIB at that time when we went there to
do the evaluation. I saw a lady, she introduced herself… she said she's
from the WSIB. I don't even know what that will be at that time… we
were there talking till I saw two gentleman coming in. One say he’s the
doctor. The other one say he’s a physiotherapist. So they were there
talking behind my back.”
-Injured MAW from Jamaica
“…he [the boss] come for me to go to work and I tell him, I cannot work
anymore. I can’t manage it. And he come and he come and he want me
to go and I said no, I can’t manage the work now. I'm feeling pain all
over. And then he book a flight for me back home…”
-Injured SAWP worker
Preliminary Findings
“…when I call back [WSIB] another time, it’s a different case
[manager]. So, it was like when I'm close it's like I'm put backward,
because everything have to be starting all over again. So, it was hectic.
They would just pull up attitude. I think I maybe change about 4, or
even 5 or 6 case workers… every like 6 months or so it's a different
person.”
“We as migrant workers, we need changes to happen. We don’t need
any promises. We need it to happen because we are the one who have
to make this big sacrifice and leave our families. A lot of us, we have
broken homes because we miss a lot of our children growth.”
-Injured TFWP worker from Jamaica
Preliminary Findings
Conclusion & Recommendations
1. Injured MAWs should have greater RTW supports
2. MAWs unable to return to their previous jobs should be given opportunities to
retrain and reintegrate into the Canadian labour market
3. Injured MAWs should be able to stay in Canada to access all necessary health
care
4. MAWs who return home unable to work should receive fair loss of earning
benefits that recognize local labour market realities
5. Health care in home country should be pre-arranged before repatriation
6. MAWs should have choice of health care providers in their home country
7. WSIB should review/ consider adopting evidence-based recommendations to
improve equitable access to benefits
8. MAWs across Canada should have access to health care upon arrival
Thank you!
For more information about this presentation, please contact:
Janet McLaughlin, PhD
jmclaughlin@wlu.ca
Stephanie Mayell, MA
stephanie.mayell@mail.utoronto.ca
www.migrantworker.ca
Bibliography
Caxaj, C. Susana, Maxwell Tran, Stephanie Mayell, Michelle Tew, Janet McLaughlin, Shail Rawal, Leah F. Vosko, and Donald Cole. (2022). "Migrant agricultural workers’ deaths in Ontario from January 2020 to
June 2021: a qualitative descriptive study." International Journal for Equity in Health 21, no. 1: 1-17.
Hennebry, Jenna. 2010. "Not just a few bad apples: Vulnerability, health and temporary migration in Canada." Canadian Issues, 1: 73.
Hennebry, Jenna, Janet McLaughlin and Kerry Preibisch. 2015. “‘Out of the Loop’: Improving Access to Health Services for Migrant Farm Workers in Canada.” Journal of International Migration and
Integration.
Hennebry, Jenna and Janet McLaughlin. 2012. Responding to Temporary Migration in Ontario’s Agricultural Workplaces. Final research report submitted to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)
Research Advisory Council.
Huesca, Eduardo, Leonor Cedillo, Cynthia Mora, Stephanie Mayell, Mavra Qamar, Calum Thompson, Taina Roberts, and Christine Khalil. 2022. Mental Health & Psychosocial Supports for International
Agricultural Workers in Ontario. Report prepared by the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW), submitted to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
(OMAFRA) on April 25.
Mayell, Stephanie, Janet McLaughlin, C. Susana Caxaj, Donald Cole, Leah F. Vosko, Tanya Basok, and Anelyse Weiler. 2022. “Ontario must do more to protect migrant workers. Here’s how,” TVO, March 9.
Mayell, Stephanie and Janet McLaughlin. 2016. Migrating to Work at What Cost?: The Cumulative Health Consequences of Contemporary Labour Migration. Handbook of Migration and Health, Felicity Thomas
(ed.), Edward Elgar Publishing, 230-52.
Mayell, Stephanie. 2016. "Up-rooted Lives, Deep-rooted Memories: Stress and Resilience among Jamaican Agricultural Workers in Southern Ontario." MA Thesis, McMaster University.
Mayell, Stephanie, Janet McLaughlin and Michelle Tew. “Migrant agricultural workers and Canada’s “not so universal” health care system: lessons learned from an effort to improve access to health care in
the province of Ontario.” Paper presented at the International Congress on Rural Health, Lodi, Italy, September 8-11, 2015.
McLaughlin, Janet. 2010. "Determinants of Health of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada." Health Studies. Paper 3.
———. 2009. “Trouble in our Fields: Health and Human Rights among Canada’s Foreign Migrant Agricultural Workers.” PhD diss., University of Toronto.
McLaughlin, Janet, Jenna Hennebry, Donald Cole and Gabriel Williams. 2014a. The Migrant Farmworker Health Journey: Stages and Strategies. Waterloo, ON, IMRC Policy Points, International Migration
Research Centre. https://scholars.wlu.ca/imrc/9/.
McLaughlin, Janet, and Jenna Hennebry. 2013. "Pathways to precarity: structural vulnerabilities and lived consequences for migrant farmworkers in Canada." Producing and negotiating non-citizenship:
precarious legal status in Canada, 1: 175-195.
Mysyk, Avis, Margaret England, and Juan Arturo Avila Gallegos. "Nerves as embodied metaphor in the Canada/Mexico seasonal agricultural workers program." Medical anthropology 27, no. 4 (2008): 383-404.
Narushima, Miya, Janet McLaughlin and Jackie Barett-Greene. 2015. Needs and Risks in Sexual Health among Temporary Foreign Migrant Farmworkers in Canada: A Pilot Study with Mexican and Caribbean
Workers. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Up-rooted lives, deep-rooted memories: Stress and resilience among Jamaican agricultural workers in Southern Ontario
Thesis
Full-text available
  • Jun 2016
The Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) is a transnational labour agreement between Canada, Mexico, and various Caribbean countries that brings thousands of Jamaican migrant workers to Canada each year to work on farms. This thesis explores Jamaican SAWP workers’ experiences of stress in Ontario, and situates these experiences within a system of power and international inequality. When describing their experiences of stress and suffering in Ontario, many Jamaican workers drew analogies between historic and modern slavery under the SAWP. However, stress discourses also inspired workers to emphasise their resilience, and many workers gave equal attention to explaining their inherent strength as “Jamaicans”, which they associate with national independence and the history of slavery. In this way, I suggest stress discourses are sites of flexibility and resilience for Jamaican workers, and this thesis presents the foremost cultural, political, and historical factors that support Jamaican workers’ resilience in Ontario. Moreover, the predominant coping strategies workers employ in Ontario will be explored within the context of their restricted agency under the SAWP. This thesis concludes with a discussion of stress as an expression of subjectivity that is characterised by strength, faith, and the history of slavery.
View
Out of the Loop: (In)access to Health Care for Migrant Workers in Canada
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2015
Drawing on a survey of nearly 600 migrant farm workers in Ontario, Canada, we investigate the ways in which the liminality of temporary migrants is both conditioning and consequential in terms of health for these migrants. In particular, we demonstrate how the liminality inherent in managed temporary migration programmes creates the conditions for heightened vulnerability, which also have consequences for the health of migrant workers and their access to care. We discuss common barriers to health care access experienced by migrant workers, including employer mediation, language differences, and hours of work.
View
Migrant agricultural workers and Canada’s “not so universal” health care system: lessons learned from an effort to improve access to health care in the province of Ontario
Conference Paper
  • Sep 2015
There are approximately 40,000 migrant agricultural workers (MAWs) employed on temporary labour contracts in Canada, primarily from Mexico and the Caribbean. Although they have legal access to provincial health care under Canada’s “universal system,” these workers experience numerous practical barriers, including: long work hours; limited clinic hours; lack of transportation; delays in receiving health cards; lack of information about and integration into the local health care system; dependence on employers, and resulting confidentiality concerns; and language and literacy barriers. For the first time in 2014 a pilot program was initiated that was designed to mitigate barriers through provision of walk-in style primary care clinics and community outreach in two regions of Ontario with the highest concentration of MAWs. This presentation assesses this program, outlining challenges and successes, and offers strategies for other service provider organizations and community partners interested in improving care for MAW populations. Data were gathered in two regions via clinic records, a convenience sample of client surveys (N=86), 3 focus groups with selected key system stakeholders, clinicians, community partners, and other clinic participants (N=24), physician surveys (N=7), and qualitative interviews (N=2). There were 462 workers seen at the clinics (visits = 715). Client survey respondents (N=86) stated their health needs were met and the location of the clinic was easy to find. The predominant health issues presented, impact of outreach on community capacity, lessons learned, and continuing challenges will be discussed. Although these programs exceeded projected targets, only 5% of the MAW population in the two regions was served. Providing follow-up and secondary care remained challenging. This clinical model is a demonstration of an enhanced/specialized public system model bolstered by support from community partners. Future programming will continue to build on this model.
View
Migrating to work at what cost? The cumulative health consequences of contemporary labour migration
Chapter
  • Dec 2016
Migrant labour is a major component of the contemporary global economy, integrated across various sectors, industries and national contexts. In recent years, international instruments have focussed on recognizing and protecting migrant workers’ rights, however, their health considerations have been largely neglected in both policy and practice. Migrant workers face a variety of health risks across each stage of their journeys, although these risks and their outcomes vary considerably based on factors such as socioeconomic and legal status and gender. This chapter begins with a broad sketch of contemporary transnational labour migration, and proceeds to explore the health vulnerabilities faced by migrant workers during each stage of the migratory process. To follow, a case study of migrant agricultural workers in Canada illustrates the fluctuating health of workers throughout the migration process.
View
View
Needs, Risks, and Context in Sexual Health Among Temporary Foreign Migrant Farmworkers in Canada: A Pilot Study with Mexican and Caribbean Workers
Article
  • Mar 2015
Every year Canada hosts approximately 40,000 temporary foreign migrant farmworkers (MFWs). They are predominantly Mexican and Caribbean married men or single mothers who leave their families for months at a time over a span of many years. This pilot study investigated their knowledge about HIV/AIDS, attitudes towards condoms and their use, and perceived barriers to accessing sexual health services. A survey (n = 103) and four focus groups (n = 21) were conducted in Ontario's Niagara Region. The results suggest that MFWs commonly face vulnerabilities to HIV/AIDS, STIs and other sexual health issues due to personal, social-cultural, environmental and structural factors. The findings highlight the need for increasing culturally and gender sensitive sexual health education and harm reduction outreach and providing information about local health care systems and resources for MFWs. The study also calls for further community-based research and actions to reduce MFWs' perceived access barriers to health care services.
View
Nerves as Embodied Metaphor in the Canada/Mexico Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program
Article
This article examines nerves among participants in the Canada/Mexico Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (C/MSAWP). Based on in-depth interviews with 30 Mexican farm workers in southwestern Ontario, we demonstrate that nerves embodies the distress of economic need, relative powerlessness, and the contradictions inherent in the C/MSAWP that result in various life's lesions. We also explore their use of the nerves idiom as an embodied metaphor for their awareness of the breakdown in self/society relations and, in certain cases, of the lack of control over even themselves. This article contributes to that body of literature that locates nerves at the "normal" end of the "normal/abnormal" continuum of popular illness categories because, despite the similarities in symptoms of nerves among Mexican farm workers and those of anxiety and/or mood disorders, medicalization has not occurred. If nerves has not been medicalized among Mexican farm workers, neither has it given rise to resistance to their relative powerlessness as migrant farm workers. Nonetheless, nerves does serve as an effective vehicle for expressing their distress within the context of the C/MSAWP.
View
Migrant agricultural workers' deaths in Ontario from
  • Jun 2020
  • 1-17
  • C Caxaj
  • Maxwell Susana
  • Stephanie Tran
  • Michelle Mayell
  • Janet Tew
  • Shail Mclaughlin
  • Leah F Rawal
  • Donald Vosko
  • Cole
Caxaj, C. Susana, Maxwell Tran, Stephanie Mayell, Michelle Tew, Janet McLaughlin, Shail Rawal, Leah F. Vosko, and Donald Cole. (2022). "Migrant agricultural workers' deaths in Ontario from January 2020 to June 2021: a qualitative descriptive study." International Journal for Equity in Health 21, no. 1: 1-17.
Not just a few bad apples: Vulnerability, health and temporary migration in Canada
  • Jan 2010
  • 73
  • Jenna Hennebry
Hennebry, Jenna. 2010. "Not just a few bad apples: Vulnerability, health and temporary migration in Canada." Canadian Issues, 1: 73.
Responding to Temporary Migration in Ontario's Agricultural Workplaces. Final research report submitted to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Research Advisory Council
  • Jan 2012
  • Jenna Hennebry
  • Janet Mclaughlin
Hennebry, Jenna and Janet McLaughlin. 2012. Responding to Temporary Migration in Ontario's Agricultural Workplaces. Final research report submitted to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Research Advisory Council.