Understanding Migrant Farmworkers’ Health and Well-Being during the Global COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada: Toward a Transnational Conceptualization of Employment Strain

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada imposed certain international travel bans and work-from-home orders, yet migrant farmworkers, declared essential to national food security, were exempt from such measures. In this context, farm worksites proved to be particularly prone to COVID-19 outbreaks. To apprehend this trend, we engaged an expanded and transnational employment strain framework that identified the employment demands and resources understood from a transnational perspective, as well as the immigration, labour, and public health policies and practices contributing to and/or buffering employment demands during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We applied mixed methods to analyze administrative data, immigration, labour, and public health policy, as well as qualitative interviews with thirty migrant farmworkers employed in Ontario and Quebec. We concluded that the deleterious outcomes of the pandemic for this group were rooted in the deplorable pre-pandemic conditions they endured. Consequently, the band-aid solutions adopted by federal and provincial governments to address these conditions before and during the pandemic were limited in their efficacy because they failed to account for the transnational employment strains among precarious status workers labouring on temporary employer-tied work permits. Such findings underscore the need for transformative policies to better support health equity among migrant farmworkers in Canada.

Seasonal agricultural workers' personal well-being and preventive behaviors about Covid- 19 in Turkey

“…Although health is one of the most important determinants of well-being, agricultural workers make insufficient use of health services in most regions of the world [ 19 ]. In a study conducted in Canada, it was determined that migrant agricultural workers could not be adequately protected during the pandemic period, and a low level of welfare was found in the workers in this process [ 20 ]. In our study, it was found that employees were not sufficiently protected from covid 19 and had low welfare.…”

A Small Randomized Controlled Trial of Three Remote Methods to Collect Mental Health Data from Migrant Farmworker Adults

“…These issues became particularly salient during the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19 pandemic) which involved social distancing measures to be put in place and prohibited many in-person interactions like conducting in-person interviews, focus groups, and surveys. While there have been few cross-sectional reports indicating migrant farmworkers faced heightened vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 11 , 12 ], to date, there has been no published longitudinal study of the mental health of migrant farmworkers in the U.S. during the pandemic. Even beyond the pandemic, there is great utility in understanding the best methods to survey this important vulnerable working population.…”

Work, Health, and the Ongoing Pursuit of Health Equity

“…The authors use study designs and logics derived from epidemiology, community-based (participatory) research, and the social sciences, employing qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches to gather their data and undertake their analyses. As we considered the research, we categorized it into three general but not mutually exclusive content groupings, as follows: Studies that highlight the ways in which work interacts with other social phenomena to influence health [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]; Studies that focus on the context in which work happens and emphasize the importance of that context in shaping work or health [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]; Studies that encourage us to think more expansively about work [ 10 , 11 ]. …”

“…Studies that focus on the context in which work happens and emphasize the importance of that context in shaping work or health [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ];…”

“…However, legal rights are tied to the societies in which they are developed, so they often have the same gaps and biases built into them that the society has, and these can create different circumstances regarding resources and protections for different socially defined groups of people. Vosko and colleagues [ 7 ] underscore the fact that context varies significantly among those within the same nation but under different legal constraints, demonstrating how the outsized power that agricultural employers have over migrant farmworkers, permitted by the legal context and reaching across national borders, limited the effectiveness of pandemic health protections for this group.…”