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

Needs, Risks, and Context in Sexual Health Among Temporary Foreign Migrant Farmworkers in Canada: A Pilot Study with Mexican and Caribbean Workers

“…Like research in the United States [8,9], a number of studies in Canada have also found that MFWs face occupational risks and barriers to accessing health care and compensation [2,10,11]. Nevertheless, the amount of research focused on HIV/ AIDS and sexual health for MFWs is still scarce in Canada.…”

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

“…To be clear, our review of such critiques is not intended to vilify farmers, many of whom exemplify high standards of employee relationships, but rather to point out how temporary farm labour arrangements create structural inequalities and vulnerabilities for farmworkers. For instance, migrant farmworkers' temporary visas are tied to an individual employer, which makes it very difficult for farmworkers to transfer employers when they encounter problematic work and/or living arrangements (McLaughlin, Hennebry, & Haines, 2014). This difficulty is compounded by migrant farmworker living accommodations, which are generally on the same site where employers work and reside (McLaughlin, 2010).…”

Making vulnerability visible: medical repatriation and Canada’s migrant agricultural workers

“…7 The structures of the program create the conditions for workers' increased vulnerability to health risks, particularly because workers' lives (and access to essential services and protections) are closely controlled and tied to the employers. 4,8 Medical repatriation and the naming system exacerbate barriers to health care for migrant agricultural workers, because fear of repatriation and lack of reporting injuries contribute to workers' reticence to seek care while in Canada. For those who are repatriated, opportunities to seek care or compensation from provincial insurance systems (e.g., Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board) are lost once they return home.…”

“…An overwhelming body of evidence from surveys and interviews with migrant workers, health care practitioners and community service providers points to systemic vulnerabilities of migrant farm workers, with contributing factors being barriers to health care access, employment and legal precarity, and dependency. 4,8 Although the program is often framed as a "win-win-win" for Canada, the sending countries and the migrants themselves, the developmental rhetoric is contrasted by these realities and the increased precarity and vulnerability perpetuated by the naming and early termination clauses of the program (in particular, medical repatriation).…”

“…2 The chronic health effects facing many migrant agricultural workers are of great concern for researchers, migrant rights advocates and scholars. [3][4][5][6] In Canada, the practice of repatriating workers who have been injured and "naming" people for future participation in the program increases employer control, the dependency that migrant workers have on the program and the likelihood that workers will not seek treatment for medical conditions or injuries. Experts and government officials gathered to offer testimony on the violations of workers' labour and human rights under the SAWP before a recent hearing of the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.…”