From Fields of Power to Fields of Sweat: the dual process of constructing temporary migrant labour in Mexico and Canada

Classifying the “ideal migrant worker”

“…Large commercial establishments, sometimes with hundreds of SAWP employees and lucrative corporate chain contracts, benefit from the same access to the dependable ideal migrant worker labor force as do the smaller operations. The SAWP thus does not lessen, and may even facilitate, the replacement of small farms by large corporate operations (see Binford 2010). 9.…”

“…12. See Basok (2002), Binford (2002), Preibisch and Binford (2007), and Satzewich (2007) for further analyses of why Mexican labor has grown in the SAWP. 13.…”

“…A loss of contract means the loss of the right to remain in Canada, and deportation normally follows. Readmittance to the program is not secured by seniority or experience, and depends largely on employers' evaluation of or request for them (Basok 2002;Binford 2009). Thus there is a constant pressure for workers to conform to their employers' expectations.…”

National sovereignty and transnational labour: the case of Mexican seasonal agricultural workers in British Columbia, Canada

“…Specifically, it perpetuates their ‘deportability’, which De Genova () associates with the threat of deportation. In the case of SAWP employees, in a twist on this notion, Binford (, 508) helpfully suggests that deportability is also maintained by officials in sending states who may dismiss (i.e. expel or deport) workers from a future in Canada on the basis of negative employer evaluations, distinguishing De Genova's original concept from the insecurities posed by deportation per se to encompass explicit and implicit threats on the part of both sending and host states .…”

Cultivating Equitable Ground: Community-based Participatory Research To Connect Food Movements with Migrant Farmworkers

“…These features of the TFWP make it difficult for farmemployer during the growing season (e.g., transfers), the total number of SAWP positions reported in this table does not reflect the actual number of seasonal workers in Canada during that period." workers to refuse employer requests for long hours or high-risk work (Binford, 2009). While researchers have documented cases of migrant farmworkers who have worked seasonally in Canada as long as three decades (Preibisch, 2012), migrants are denied access to permanent residency or citizenship and the numerous rights, entitlements, and social recognition associated with a more secure immigration status.…”