Determinants of Health of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada

Despite wide indications that migrant farm workers (MFWs) comprise a particularly vulnerable subset of the temporary foreign worker population, relatively little attention has been paid to their health issues. This article describes major health concerns among MFWs in Canada, reviews the social determinants of health of particular importance to this population, and notes research and policy implications. Findings are drawn primarily from two recent literature reviews conducted for the Public Health Agency of Canada

Issue 02: Key Issues & Recommendations for Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program: Reducing Vulnerabilities & Protecting Rights

In this issue of Policy Points we have identified some of the most significant rights issues facing Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) in Canada based on our empirical research amassed over a decade of study. In order to address these problems, we have provided a number of recommendations for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) with an emphasis on some of the most vulnerable workers – those in the Pilot Project for Occupations Requiring Lower Levels of Formal Training (NOC C & D Pilot), and the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). While recognizing that there are jurisdictional differences and many other changes could be integrated at the provincial and municipal levels, the following provide the most essential federal-level recommendations

Paper versus Practice: Occupational Health and Safety Protections and Realities for Temporary Foreign Agricultural Workers in Ontario

Over 20,000 temporary foreign agricultural workers come to Ontario each year, primarily from Mexico and the Caribbean. Agricultural workers are exposed to a number of occupational health and safety (OHS) risks. This article discusses the various OHS protections available to workers and their limitations, and analyzes the specific challenges that temporary foreign workers face in accessing rights, such as language and cultural barriers, information gaps, and precarious employment and immigration status. It also analyzes the limitations with respect to OHS training and the provision and use of personal protective equipment, arguing that these protections are under-regulated and inconsistent. The article concludes with recommendations to improve shortcomings, including standardized and specific OHS training, random OHS inspections, and full inclusion of agricultural workers in provincial legislations. Findings are based primarily on interviews with 100 migrant farmworkers who reported injuries or illness, as well as with key stakeholders such as employers and government officials

Gender, Health and Mobility: Health Concerns of Women Migrant Farm Workers in Canada

The economic impacts of temporary labour migration, for both migrants and host countries, often overshadow and render invisible the social consequences. Based on three years of ethnographic research in Mexico, Jamaica and Canada, this article addresses issues of health and health care among women migrant workers in Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). This temporary labour migration program annually employs some 20,000 workers from Mexico and the Caribbean in the Canadian agricultural industry. Approximately three per cent of SAWP participants are women. In FOCALPoint’s 2007 Special Edition on Migration, Kerry Preibisch demonstrated the ways in which women’s migration is characterized by specific concerns, as they live and work in a “highly masculinized environment.” Women’s health is an especially important, yet neglected issue

A redescription of Diogenes senex Heller, 1865, sensu stricto (Decapoda: Anomura: Paguridea: Diogenidae)

Diogenes senex Heller, 1865 sensu stricto is redescribed from specimens collected in Australia, particularly in and around the type locality of Sydney. A neotype has been designated. Comparisons of this material with other specimens identified as D. senex by a number of authors has shown that at present only the Australian material truly represents Heller's taxon

Trouble in our fields : health and human rights among Canada’s foreign migrant agricultural workers

The study investigates the nature and extent of health and human rights issues among participants in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). Lack of accessible transportation to clinics and lack of translation services at clinics along with communication struggles and non-standardized treatment are some of the main issues. Canada’s migrant agricultural workers are temporary entrants unable to circulate freely in the labour market or to change employers without permission, and constitute a form of “unfree” migrant labour. Coming from home contexts where local job markets have been decimated, many workers become dependent on the relatively well-paying Canadian positions to support their families

Development of an electronic resources web/database system for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries have an extensive collection of electronic resources consisting of over 215 indexes and databases, and over 500 electronic journals. This project involved the development of a web database system to improve access to and maintenance of this collection. This system include a relational database housing information about the library's electronic resources, a public access web interface through which library patrons search the collection alphabetically and by subject, and a web-based administrative module for use in maintaining the database, adding new resources, and improving work flow for those responsible for expanding and maintaining the collection

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

Accelerating flows of remittances are dwarfing global development aid. This study deepens our understanding of remittance impacts on the families of workers who come to Canada annually for several months under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). Interviews with SAWP workers, their spouses, adult children and teachers in Mexico deepen our understanding of the impacts of these remittances. They demonstrate that the remittances are often literally a lifeline to transnational family survival, allowing them to pay for basic needs such as shelter, food, and medical care. Yet, at the same time, the remittances do not allow most of these workers and their families to escape deep poverty and significant precarity, including new forms of precarity generated by the SAWP. Instead, SAWP remittances help reduce poverty, at least temporarily, to more moderate levels while precarious poverty expands through globalneoliberal underdevelopment