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Migration Information Source - Canada's Temporary Migration Program... http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=650
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Temporary workers in Canada harvest apples and other crops.
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Canada's Temporary Migration Program: A Model Despite
Flaws
By Tanya Basok
University of Windsor
November 2007
Interest in temporary
migration programs has been
rising across the globe.
Economist Manolo Abella
conservatively estimates
that, since 2000, the
temporary migration of
foreign workers into
high-income countries has
grown at about 4 to 5
percent a year.
Compared with permanent
forms of migration,
policymakers consider
temporary migration more
attractive for a number of
reasons. In particular,
temporary migration permits
greater flexibility in the labor
market and can seem more
acceptable to electorates that
find permanent immigration
"threatening."
Also, a legal channel for
labor migration can reduce
flows of unauthorized
immigrants. A less
considered reason among
destination countries is the
development impact of
migrants remitting income.
The Canadian Seasonal
Agricultural Workers Program
(SAWP), which began over
40 years ago, is Canada's
flagship temporary migration
program (the newer Low
Skilled Workers Pilot Program
operates on a much smaller
scale).
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Countries and Provinces Participating in SAWP
Countries and Year They Joined SAWP
Jamaica (1966), Mexico (1974), Trinidad and Tobago
(1967), Barbados (1967), and the Organization of the
Eastern Caribbean States (Antigua and Barbuda,
Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St.
Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines) (1976), and Guatemala (2003).
Provinces in Canada
Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, Manitoba, Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island,
Saskatchewan, and Ontario.
Widely recognized as one of
the better administered
temporary migration
programs, SAWP involves
multilateral cooperation
between governments of
origin countries and the
Canadian government, and
has stable and predictable
levels of workers.
SAWP Background
In the years preceding the
program, farmers in the
province of Ontario
experienced serious labor
shortages. Farm labor
supplied by the National
Employment Service was
unreliable since many workers did not stay long enough to harvest the crop. For several years,
Ontario growers petitioned the Canadian government to allow them to import foreign agricultural
labor.
Under constant pressure from Canadian growers,
one of whom, Eugene Whelan, was a Liberal
member of parliament and a future minister of
agriculture, the Department of Labor consented to
importing Caribbean farm workers. SAWP began in
1966 by bringing Jamaican workers to harvest field
crops in Essex County, Ontario.
Despite the pool of Caribbean farm workers,
Canadian growers continued to experience labor
shortages and consequently contracted
unauthorized migrants from Mexico and Portugal.
To dry up the pool of unauthorized workers and
insure respect for labor standards, the government
extended the program in 1974 to include Mexican workers. A number of Caribbean nations joined
later.
Today, migrants can work in nine Canadian provinces, further testimony to the program's success.
However, Ontario receives 90 percent of the workers.
Under SAWP, approximately 16,000 migrant farm workers are recruited in the Caribbean and
Mexico to work in Canadian agriculture. Approximately one-half of these workers are from Mexico.
In 2006, 7,806 Mexican and 7,770 Caribbean workers came to work in Canada. Most workers are
men, but about 3 percent are women, mostly single mothers.
Migrant workers provide labor for such activities as apple and other fruit harvesting; canning/food
processing; bee and flower production; and ginseng, sod, tobacco, and greenhouse and field
vegetable harvesting. The hourly wage is generally CAN$8.58 though workers harvesting tobacco
earn CAN$9.63.
How SAWP Works
Within Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) manages SAWP and
sets general policies for the program. HRSDC works closely with private agencies, including Foreign
Agricultural Resource Management Services (FARMS) in Ontario and Nova Scotia, and its
French-language equivalent, the Fondation des entreprises pour le recrutement de la main-d'œuvre
étrangère (The Foundation of Enteprises for the Recruitment of Foreign Labor, or FERME), in
Quebec, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
Employers submit requests for foreign agricultural workers to FARMS or FERME. These requests,
once HRSDC approves them, are forwarded to recruitment agencies in Mexico or the participating
Caribbean countries. It is then the responsibility of migrant-origin countries to recruit workers to
match the requests.
Growers bear most of the program's costs, including airfare and ground transportation, visa fees,
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and administrative costs paid to FARMS or FERME. Some of the airfare costs are consequently
deducted from the workers' paychecks. Growers also provide housing to the workers and contribute
to the provincial health insurance and workers' compensation insurance programs.
Migrant selection criteria and procedures are different in each participating country. In Mexico, for
instance, ideal candidates have worked in agriculture, are responsible for the economic well-being of
their households (such as male heads of the family or single mothers), and have experienced
difficulties in finding other viable sources of subsistence in Mexico (due to low educational levels
and/or occupational backgrounds).
Workers and employers sign a contract that outlines respective rights and obligations and length of
employment, which is not to exceed eight months.
Workers are covered under provincial Employment Standard Acts. In Ontario, harvesters are
entitled to vacation pay and public holiday pay if they have been employed for at least 13 weeks.
Vacation pay is calculated at the rate of 4 percent of total gross earning.
Canadian law requires employers to carry workers' compensation, and workers make contributions
to unemployment insurance and the Canada Pension Plan through regular deductions from their
salaries.
Workers receive weekly wages calculated as the greatest of the following:
the minimum wage of workers as stipulated in provincial legislation
the rate HRSDC determines annually to be the prevailing wage rate for the type of
agricultural work being carried out
the rate the employer pays his Canadian workers performing the same type of agricultural
work.
Workers who earn the approval of employers are "named" and requested to return to the same
employer. New participants are sent to the same farm for the first few years and then, if not
"named," are relocated to another farm.
At the end of the contract, growers arrange for their workers to be transported to a nearby airport.
Upon arrival in their home country, workers report to the recruitment agencies with evaluation
forms from their employers. A negative report can result in suspension from the program.
Since 2003, the province of Quebec and the government of Guatemala have engaged in a program
with the same objective and principles of SAWP, but one that is managed in a slightly different
manner. The federal employment ministry approves the offers of employment on an individual
basis. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) provides technical assistance, selects
qualified Guatemalan workers, and transports the workers to Canada. In conjunction with FERME,
IOM returns the workers to Guatemala once their contracts have ended.
Economic Benefits of SAWP
Up-to-date statistics on the economic benefits of SAWP are not available. However, some
conclusions can be drawn from a 1995 FARMS report, which argued that new jobs are created and
old ones sustained in fields related to agriculture because of the employment of seasonal foreign
workers.
The report presented the following calculations. In 1995, the Ontario horticulture industry required a
labor force of 99,876 workers per year. Canadians filled only 90 percent of these jobs, generating a
shortage of 9,876 jobs.
Ontario farmers invested CAN$626 million in seed stocks, chemicals, equipment, and other goods
and services, and thus supported approximately 2,500 jobs in the supply side of the industry. At the
same time, they also contributed to the creation of 49,938 jobs in the food processing industry,
which employs predominantly Canadian workers.
Thus, each farmworker in horticulture supported 2.6 jobs in the supply and processing sectors in
1995. If the 9,876 jobs in the Ontario industry were not filled, 25,678 jobs in other sectors would
have been lost.
SAWP as a Model
Many policymakers and scholars who study labor migration view SAWP as a best-practice model.
At a 2000 workshop (organized by IOM in cooperation with the UN Economic Commission on Latin
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America and the Caribbean), David Greenhill, a Canadian government official responsible for the
program, argued that a program like SAWP, which recognizes and responds to legitimate labor
shortages in the economy, is in the national interest.
Greenhill contended that SAWP's key strength is its formal structure. This structure ensures that all
the key players are engaged and that the workers' rights are clearly understood, outlined, and
enforced through agreements, memoranda of understanding, and operations guidelines.
A 2006 World Bank report identifies numerous benefits of the Canadian program. Growers receive
reliable and experienced agricultural workers. Local communities benefit from expanded
employment opportunities for native workers (linked to the growth of agricultural industries staffed
by reliable and skilled foreign workers). Foreign workers stimulate demand for local services and
goods.
For foreign workers, the program provides an opportunity to gain secure employment and to
support family needs, especially improved housing, children's education, better nutrition, and
medical services. Since they do not need to pay recruitment or smugglers' fees, even the poorest of
Mexican and Caribbean workers can gain employment through this program.
For instance, among the 465 Mexican workers I surveyed between 1997 and 2000, about 80
percent (and higher in some villages) used their earning to improve their homes in Mexico. Some
had to buy land to build a house. Those who already owned land bought material and paid wages to
construction workers.
About 60 percent of the workers I surveyed used their Canadian-earned income to improve the
education of their children. For most workers, Canadian jobs provided an opportunity to improve
their households' diet and respond to medical emergencies. Anthropologist Leigh Binford and
sociologist Gustavo Verduzco report similar findings.
Among Jamaican participants of the program, 35 percent of remittances was spent on children's
education, according to Roy Russell, a researcher affiliated with the Agro-Socio Economic Research
Center in Jamaica.
The overstay rate among SAWP workers is negligible. The previously mentioned World Bank report
estimates it to be 1.5 percent.
Program Flaws
Despite the numerous advantages the Canadian program offers migrants over alternatives, such as
illegally crossing into the United States, the program has serious flaws. Most importantly, SAWP
restricts workers' mobility. In addition, employers have excessive control over the workers' current
and future labor contracts.
The need to secure approval from current employers can make workers acquiescent. They may
decide not to claim worker's compensation when injured or take time off to see a doctor when they
are sick. Also, workers may choose not to refuse employer requests to work seven days a week or
complain about substandard housing or safety conditions.
Those who assert their rights risk being deported and/or blacklisted. In conducting my research
among Mexican workers, one such story came from Arturo, who felt that Mexican workers on a farm
in Quebec were treated like slaves. After he demanded improvements from the farm owner, the
owner called the Mexican consulate.
A consular representative arrived but refused to help the Mexican workers. The following year the
Mexican recruitment agency told Arturo that he had been penalized. Only two years after the
incident was Arturo able to return to Canada.
The problems extend beyond workers' rights. Anthropologist Leigh Binford highlights social and
psychological costs borne by migrants and members of their households, although he recognizes
that the nonmonetary costs of the Canadian program are not as high as those of US-bound
unauthorized migrants.
Separated from their families and communities, Binford has found that SAWP workers suffer from
depression and anxiety. Loneliness breeds promiscuity, and venereal diseases are not uncommon.
Also, Canada has no provisions for the seasonal agricultural workers to become permanent
residents and bring their families.
To a certain degree, workers' support centers, which the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union (UFCW) in Ontario and Quebec fund, have attempted to assist otherwise unprotected migrant
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workers. At these centers, seasonal agricultural workers receive information about occupational
hazards, workers' compensation, pensions, and taxes. Volunteers will also prepare their tax returns
free of charge.
However, UFCW support centers have a limited mandate. UFCW cannot legally represent migrant
workers in Ontario — the province where the vast majority of them work — because of legal
provisions that prohibit agricultural workers from bargaining collectively. While agricultural unions
are legal in Quebec, Manitoba, and other provinces, pressure from employers and the extreme
vulnerability of the workers stand in the way of union organizing.
Justicia for Migrant Workers is a civil society organization based in Toronto and Vancouver that has
advocated on behalf of migrant workers. Among other actions, it has urged the Canadian
government to extend the rights of residency and citizenship to migrant workers and their families.
Canadian labor organizations and Justicia for Migrant Workers have called for significant changes to
the current program, including the program's transfer from human resources to the labor
department, the provision of training and employment services to migrant workers, the inclusion of
migrant workers under provincial health and safety regulations, the right to organize, and the
establishment of a review board to examine workers' complaints.
The goals of other community organizations are more modest. Accepting the fact that migrant
workers will not be allowed to bring along members of their families, some organizations try to
address their social and psychological needs. These include Ontario-based Enlace; Leamington,
Ontario-based Cultural Centre for Arts (for Mexican workers); and the literacy organization Frontier
College in Toronto.
Conclusion
From the perspective of Canadian policymakers, a temporary worker program like SAWP, which fills
a shortage in the labor market and has a low overstay rate, is very attractive.
For origin countries, SAWP offers an opportunity to improve the living standards of some of their
citizens, and to monitor and protect the rights of those citizens while they are in Canada.
However, SAWP's restrictions on workers' mobility and the power of employers remain problematic.
These questions of equity and social justice continue to be among the main concerns of Canada's
community and labor organizations. Anthropologist David Griffith believes this support of labor and
civil society organizations is one of the reasons SAWP can be considered a "best-practice" model
despite its numerous flaws.
Indeed, Canada will likely maintain this long-running program even as it considers other ways of
bringing seasonal workers to the country.
The author thanks MPI's Aaron Matteo Terrazas for his research assistance.
Sources
Abella, M. (2006). Policies and Best Practices for Management of Temporary Migration. International
Symposium on International Migration and Development, Population Division, Department of
Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Secretariat, Turin, Italy, 28-30 June. Available online.
Basok, T. (2004). "Post-National Citizenship, Social Exclusion, and Migrants' Rights: Mexican
Seasonal Workers in Canada." Citizenship Studies 8(1), pp. 47-64.
Basok, T. (2003). "Mexican Seasonal Migration to Canada and Development: A Community-Based
Comparison." International Migration 41(2), pp. 3-21.
Basok, T. (2002). Tortillas and Tomatoes. Mexican Transmigrant Harvesters in Canada. Montreal:
McGill-Queen's Press.
Basok, T. (2000). "He Came, He Saw, He... Stayed. Guest Worker Programs and the Issue of
Non-Return." International Migration 38 (2), pp. 215-238.
Basok, T. (1999). "Free to Be Unfree: Mexican Guest Workers in Canada." Labour, Capital and
Society 32 (2), pp. 192-221.
Binford, L. (2002). "Social and Economic Contradictions of Rural Migrant Contract Labor Between
Taxcala, Mexico and Canada." Culture & Agriculture 24(2), pp.1-19.
Migration Information Source - Canada's Temporary Migration Program... http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=650
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Binford, L. (2003). "Migrant Remittances and (Under)Development in Mexico." Critique of
Anthropology 23 (3), pp. 305-336.
FARMS (1995). The Quest for a Reliable Workforce in the Horticulture Industry. Reliable Workers,
Regardless of Source. Missisauga, Ontario.
Griffith, D. (2003). The Canadian and United States Migrant Agricultural Workers Programs:
Parallels and Divergence Between two North American Seasonal Migrant Agricultural Labor Markets
with respect to "Best Practices." Report to The North-South Institute, Ottawa, Canada, November
2003.
Russell, R. (2004). "Jamaican Workers' Participation in CSAWP and Development Consequences in
the Workers Rural Home Communities." Agro-Socio Economic Research, Kingston, Jamaica. Ottawa:
North-South Institute.
Verduzco, G. and M. I. Lozano (2003). "Mexican Farm Workers' Participation in Canada's Seasonal
Agricultural Labour Market and Development Consequences in their Rural Home Communities."
Ottawa: North-South Institute. Available online.
World Bank (2006). "At Home and Away: Expanding Job Opportunities for Pacific Islanders Through
Labour Mobility." Available online.
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