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      It’s past time for migrant farm workers, like these employees at Pfenning's Organic Farms in New Hamburg, Ont., to have permanent residency on arrival, open work permits, fully accessible health care, EI and other benefits, members of the Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group write.

      Let’s accept migrant farmworkers as members of our food community

      It’s Labour Day, 2020. Isn’t 54 years long enough for migrant workers to wait for fair treatment in Canadian agriculture?

      The COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting the importance of migrant workers in Canadian agriculture. It’s also forcing Canadian governments to reckon with an outdated migrant farmworker program. Created in 1966, this program brings racialized migrant workers predominantly from Mexico and the Caribbean into Canada under a system that intensifies power imbalances between employers and workers through tied work permits and precarious immigration status. Warnings from researchers and advocates early in the pandemic were ignored. Predictably, such neglect led to more than 1,300 migrant workers contracting COVID-19, three of whom died.

      During the pandemic, some employers are further curtailing migrants’ rights, such as preventing healthy workers from leaving their property under the paternalistic rationale of “protection.” Researchers have long documented overcrowded employer-provided housing and unsafe workplaces. Further, because migrants are deportable, they often can’t exercise the rights they have on paper.

      Instead of more inadequate Band-Aid reforms, what if migrant workers were treated like peers in Canadian agriculture?

      Proponents of Canada’s migrant farmworker program often argue that employers care for migrant workers as “one of the family,” that migrants depend on remittances, and that Canada’s food security depends on migrant workers.

      However, the food security story is complex; focusing exclusively on the public good of local food obscures how migrants are essential for the private profits of Canadian agribusiness, including non-food sectors like cannabis. Remittances can go a long way in Global South economies undermined by the legacies of colonialism, structural adjustment programs, and trade liberalization. But remittances do little to break cycles of poverty.

      Migrants don’t receive pay commensurate with their experience, expertise, or the hazards of a high-risk job. They have no occupational mobility. If they are too vocal about their rights, they may jeopardize their prospects for return. Injured migrant workers often face substantial barriers to receiving health care and compensation, and most never return to Canada once they are injured or sick. Moreover, the design of Canada’s migrant farmworker program requires workers to endure prolonged separation from their own families and communities.

      Ultimately, the status quo for migrants is justified on the premise that there is no other way to fill the shortage of workers willing to accept farm wages and conditions on offer.

      But a growing movement of eaters and advocates are questioning this premise. This includes organizations like the National Farmers’ Union, which focuses on issues including corporate control of the food system, young farmers and the climate crisis. Migrant justice groups such as Justicia for Migrant Workers and Migrant Rights Network are calling for permanent residency on arrival, open work permits, fully accessible health care, EI, and other benefits, as well as comprehensive protection from employer reprisals and repatriation.

      What else would it take for migrant agricultural workers to be materially valued as members of our communities?

      A national standard for migrant worker housing is crucial. It must be accompanied by unannounced provincial and federal inspections of working and living conditions throughout the season, with steep penalties for non-compliance. Local governments can work with service providers to address scheduling and language barriers in health care, and can foster connections between migrant workers and local communities. Providing the option of spousal/dependent accompaniment and access to permanent residency would recognize migrants as humans with families.

      When given the choice, many farmworkers elsewhere have settled with their families and established farms of their own, often based on sustainability principles. Canadian governments could support viability for all farmers by ramping up policies to curb farmland speculation, invest in local food processing and transportation infrastructure, and support access to land, training and capital through co-operatives and foodland trusts.

      Canada’s migrant farmworker program is deeply out of touch with national and international human rights, and with the realities of contemporary agriculture. Now is the time to look forward, not backward. Let’s use the lessons from this pandemic to build a vibrant, sustainable food system that rejects the idea that migrant workers are foreigners and instead embraces them as community members.

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      Anelyse Weiler, Stephanie Mayell, Leah F. Vosko, Jenna Hennebry and Janet McLaughlin are researchers and members of the Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group (migrantworker.ca)

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