Foreign Farmworkers in Canada Fear Deportation if They Complain
"The very existence of temporary foreign worker programs enables the Canadian government to deny basic freedoms and protections as a result of their immigration status." The farmworker program is part of a broader initiative
that also brings in temporary foreign workers for other industries, like fish processing and home health care.
Ken Forth, the president of Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services, an organization in Ontario
that assists with requests and transport of workers in the program, said that employers faced rigorous standards and that workers could receive quality medical care in Ontario and qualify for a Canadian pension.
While Canada has decreased the overall number of temporary foreign workers since 2014, the farmworker program is growing,
with visas approved for more than 34,000 laborers in 2016, up from about 25,000 in 2011, government figures show.
"There are lots more people in Mexico wanting to work in Canada, so they don’t protect our rights." Canada’s seasonal agriculture worker program was set up to recruit migrants from Mexico
and 11 Caribbean nations to work for up to eight months a year to address chronic labor shortages.
In 2014, the British Columbia Labor Relations Board ruled
that the Mexican government had improperly interfered by blacklisting from the program a Mexican worker who consular officials suspected was a union sympathizer.
There are thousands of employers in the temporary foreign worker program, yet just
eight employers are listed as noncompliant, and only one for labor violations.
Mr. Martinez said that The priority was to keep employers happy so they continue to request Mexicans,
Chris Ramsaroop said that This program is a form of apartheid,
