Embodying and resisting labour apartheid : racism and Mexican farm workers in Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

Bodies and Documents: The Material Impact of Collaborative Information- Sharing Within the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program

“…Extending SAWP literature on the prevalence of neoliberal structures within program spaces (Paz Ramirez, 2013;Preibisch, 2010;Braun, 2012;Basok, et al, 2014), I argue that SAWP's discursive practices represent another dimension contributing to the disciplining of program bodies towards neoliberal ends. Documentation perpetuates de-collectivizing and the minimizing of laboursocial intersections (McLaughlin et al, 2017;Paz Ramirez, 2013) through its representation of relevant program stakeholders, needs, and dimensions of life. These representations invariably favour labour and industry concerns over social, familial, and communal wellbeing.…”

“…This article examines information-sharing within Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) as it relates to long-standing flaws within the program's ability to foster effective communication with (and among) workers and other SAWP stakeholders. These flaws include: language barriers (Mysyk et al, 2009;Paz Ramirez, 2013), inadequate translation services (Mysyk et al, 2009), unclear program processes (Vosko, 2018, p. 902), insufficient job training (Paz Ramirez, 2013;Caxaj and Cohen, 2019), constrained access to information on worker rights (McLaughlin and Weiler, 2019, p. 3), weak inter-governmental and cross-agency communication (Nakache and Kinoshita, 2010;Braun, 2012), minimal communication with the public on key issues (Nakache & Kinoshita, 2010), and lack of support in understanding formal and informal infrastructure (Basok et al, 2014;McLaughlin et al, 2017;Caxaj and Cohen, 2019). 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.…”

“…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).…”

“…My study intervenes in this literature, and aims to include information-sharing more fully among scholarly discussions of SAWP's varied harms-understanding it as a significant concern (Caropresi, 2013) along interrelated spectrums of oppression (Thomas et al, 2016;Strauss and McGrath, 2017). Extending SAWP literature on the prevalence of neoliberal structures within program spaces (Paz Ramirez, 2013;Preibisch, 2010;Braun, 2012;Basok, et al, 2014), I argue that SAWP's discursive practices represent another dimension contributing to the disciplining of program bodies towards neoliberal ends. Documentation perpetuates de-collectivizing and the minimizing of laboursocial intersections (McLaughlin et al, 2017;Paz Ramirez, 2013) through its representation of relevant program stakeholders, needs, and dimensions of life.…”

Rotten asparagus and just-in-time workers:

“…Moreover, migrant workers' deportability, lack of job security, and employer-tied visas mean they often cannot access in practice the rights they formally have on paper. Migrant workers thus exist in a space of legal exceptionalism and "labour apartheid" (Paz Ramirez, 2013;Walia, 2010), and are therefore consigned to the whims of employers and globalized pressure to stabilize agri-food capital accumulation.…”