Permanently temporary? : Agricultural migrant workers and their integration in Canada

The author uses empirical data, interviews and research on the situation in Ontario, the province with the largest number of agricultural migrants, to examine the degree of integra- tion of migrant farm workers. [...] The program began bringing workers to Canada from Jamaica in 1966, Trinidad and Tobago in 1967, Barbados in 1967, Mexico in 1974 and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States in 1976 — under the same bilateral memoranda of understanding that still govern the program today. [...] Agricultural Migrant Workers and Their Integration in Canada specific indicators of integration are arguably unique to temporary migrant workers — or at the very least are more important for them — such as whether they enjoy the same access to health care and social benefits and the same freedom of employment and residence as residents. [...] Important to the examination of integra- tion for migrant farm workers specifically is an approach that considers both the everyday experiences of inclusion and exclusion, and the structural factors that so significantly affect the integration of this group: namely, the legal frameworks and parameters of their work permits under the SAWP and the LSPP. [...] In addition, as argued by Nakache and Kinoshita (2010), the TFWP puts up significant barriers to providing the same employment rights to foreign workers as to domestic workers, most notably the restrictive nature of the work permit and the weak enforceability of the employment contract (since the federal government has no authority to intervene as it is not a party to the contract).