COVID-19 violence and the structural determinants of death: Canada’s seasonal agricultural worker programme

Allied Interpreters: Exploring the Role Perception and Ethics of Uncertified Interpreters Supporting Migrant Agricultural Workers in British Columbia

“…That is, this study affirms extensive research on how exploitative employer-worker dynamics often enable abusive and harmful workplaces for migrant agricultural labourers (see Basok, 2010;Bhuyan et al, 2018;Binford, 2019;Caxaj & Cohen, 2019;Cortina-Castro & Kobayashi, 2020;Mysyk et al, 2009;Preibisch, 2004;Strauss & McGrath, 2017). More broadly, research on structural violence within the SAWP confirms such multifaceted issues as power hierarchies, workplace abuse, and barriers to governmental and community supports (Bhuyan et al, 2018;Lee et al, 2022;Mysyk et al, 2009;Strauss & McGrath, 2017)-issues similarly highlighted by the participants in this study.…”

“…Academics and reporters in the field of labour rights have shown that the housing provided to migrant agricultural workers is often overcrowded, unsafe, in close proximity to pollutants (such as agrochemicals), and lacking in adequate hygiene facilities (Bhuyan et al, 2018;Caxaj & Cohen, 2019;Edmiston, 2020). These inhumane conditions also contributed to COVID-19 infections and the COVID-related deaths of migrant workers during the pandemic (Lee et al, 2022). Moreover, some employers have used their positions as landlords to surveil and prevent workers from accessing community resources, securing reliable transportation, shopping for groceries, or partaking of life beyond the bounds of their employer's property (Caxaj & Cohen, 2019;Preibisch, 2004).…”

“…This situation points to the pervasive vulnerability of migrant farm workers within Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). Migrant workers, also known as temporary foreign workers, are recruited from lower-income countries through transnational employment programs to work in Canada on a temporary basis (Lee et al, 2022;Polanco & Zell, 2017). Hired through a low-wage stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), migrant agricultural workers often perform strenuous, tedious, and poorly compensated work (André, 1990).…”

“…As Bhuyan et al demonstrate in their 2018 article on Canada's TFWP, certain practices within Canada's SAWP constitute a form of "structural violence" that places migrant workers at a disproportionate risk for physical and psychological harm (p. 614). The power that the SAWP gives to the employers of migrant workers, the inaccessibility of migrant worker support systems, and the inadequacy of regulatory workplace protections all contribute to the structural violence perpetuated by the program (Bhuyan et al, 2018;Lee et al, 2022;Robillard et al, 2018).…”

Housing Conditions and Health Implications for Migrant Agricultural Workers in Canada: A Scoping Review

“…On the other hand, housing conditions can directly threaten workers' health, such as the threat of exposure to agrochemicals from 'dual purpose' housing, rodent infestations, along with airborne disease and stressful interpersonal conflict in overcrowded bunkhouses. Given the increasing popularity of low-wage, temporary farm labor migration programs worldwide and a growing recognition of housing as a determinant of health (Lee et al, 2022;Reid et al, 2021;Swope & Hernández, 2019), this scoping review offers insights that transcend the Canadian context. On the other hand, our focus on the physical domains of housing may preclude important social processes and consequences such as the gender dynamics arising from institutionalized living quarters (Preibisch & Grez, 2010;Smith, 2015b;Thomas, 2020), along with workers' agency in resisting housing conditions that segregate them (Cohen & Hjalmarson, 2020;Juárez Cerdi, 2010).…”