A Lifeline in troubled waters: A support intervention for migrant farm workers
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| Author | Amy Cohen,C. Susana Caxaj |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13027 |
132
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International Migration. 2023;61:132–147.
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND
Migrant agri cultural workers f ace unique risks and challenges to their health, soc ial, and legal s tatus while workin g in
Canada. Across the country, and i n the provin ce of British Columbia (BC ) in parti cular, limited se rvices exist for this
group (Caxaj & Cohen, 2020; Colindres et al., 2021), and lit tle resea rch has expl ored possib le solutio ns to address these
gaps in services. The needs and challenges of the thousands of migrant farmworkers living and working in Canada are
complicated b y many factors. Fi rst, they often l ive on the margins of Canadian society due to their tempor ary status,
Received: 10 Augus t 2021
|
Revised: 3 April 2 022
|
Accepted: 23 April 2 022
DOI: 10.1111/imig.13027
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
A Lifeline in troubled waters: A support
intervention for migrant farm workers
Amy Cohen1| C. Susana Caxaj2
1Departme nt of Anthropolog y, Okanagan
College, Verno n, British Columb ia, Canada
2Departm ent of Nursing, Unive rsity of
Western Onta rio, London, Ont ario, Canada
Correspondence
Amy Cohen, De partment of Anth ropology,
Okanagan Co llege, 7000 Coll ege Way,
Vernon, BC, C anada V1B 2N5.
Email: acohen@okanagan.bc.ca
Funding information
This researc h was funded by the Vanco uver
Foundation Fi eld of Interest Par ticipatory
Action Rese arch Project 18- 0185.
Abstract
We implemented and evaluated a service deliver y inter-
vention (support model) to addres s the challenges fa ced by
migrant agricultural workers in British Columbia, C anada.
Three factors were identifi ed that contributed to the ef-
fectiveness of the intervention: (1) face- to- face support
and in- person outrea ch towards connection; (2) accounting
migrant workers' hierarchy of needs and ad dressing their
basic needs fir st towards comprehensiveness; and (3) role
clarity and communication between partners involved in
supporting this po pulation towards coordination. A f inal
factor, wider constraints, referred to the wide r context of
migrant workers' lives inc luding their temporary st atus,
tied work permits, and lack of access to rights. Thes e wider
constraints, which were ex acerbated by the COVID- 19
pandemic, undersco re th at until greate r poli cy a ction is
taken to address thes e workers' precarious status, supp ort
services can o nly offer a lifeline in troubled water s.
This is an open ac cess article und er the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which
permits us e and distributio n in any medium, provid ed the original wor k is properly cited , the use is non-comme rcial and no
modificat ions or adaptatio ns are made.
© 2022 The Auth ors. International Migration published by John W iley & Sons Ltd on behalf o f International Or ganization for
Migration.
|
133
A LIFELINE IN TROUBLED WATERS
isolation in rur al areas, language barr iers, lack of access to tra nsportation, and lo ng work hours (Cohen & Ca xaj, 2018;
Hennebry, 2012; Preibisch, 2004). This p opulation als o faces obstacles accessing legal and health services (Cohen
& Caxaj, 2018; Cole, 2020; Colindres e t al., 2021; Henne bry et al., 2016) and du e to their in eligibility for permanent
residency in the country, h ave access to fewer rights and protections than per manent reside nts or citizen workers
(Far aday, 2012; Marsden, 2019a; Preibisch & Otero, 2014; Rodgers , 2018). For these reasons, migrant agricul tural work-
ers of ten strug gle to form me aningf ul social connecti ons in the com munity, he ighteni ng their iso lation an d vulnera bility
(Basok & George, 2020; Horgan & Liinamaa, 2017). Wi thin th e Okan agan Va lley of BC , wher e this st udy wa s condu cted ,
prior rese arch indicates that service p rovision for this population is still in its infancy (Caxaj & Cohen, 2020). And al-
though importa nt investments in programming have been made in recent years, serv ice provision for this group remains
time- limited, patchwo rk, and largely lacking in evidence to supp ort its implementatio n (Caxaj et al., 2020a).
Today, temporar y foreign agricultural workers ma ke up a significant number of workers on the fa rms and or-
chards ac ross BC, w ith more tha n 14 thousand travelling to the province in 2021 (G overnment of C anada, 2022).
The number of migrant workers in agriculture in the province of BC has been increasing, representing a growing
perc entage of the total mi grant ag ricult ural wor ker popu lation in Canada , from 4.6% in 2005 to 17.1% in 2017 (Z hang
et al., 2021). Yet desp ite the gro wing pre sence of foreig n farm wor kers in Br itish Co lumbi a, inclu ding in th e Okana gan
Valley where our research to ok place, there have been few efforts to p rovide formal su pport to this population or
promote their social inclusion or access to legal rights. In this region, suppo rt has mostly been offered by volunteers
and ad hoc su pport people (C axaj et al., 2020a). This i s largely because f ormal organizations have not had the man-
date or track- record to support migrant workers, in cont rast to some regions of metropolitan BC and Ontario wh ere
community health clin ics and ot her formal organizations have a longe r history of providing services to this grou p
(Basok & George , 2020; Preibisch, 2004). Nevertheless, the cross- cutting challenges migrants face across the coun-
try indicate t hat there is a need for greater suppor t in health, social, and legal se rvices for this populatio n.
To address some of the challenges confro nted by this populati on, our team launch ed a service deliv ery interven-
tion fo r migrant agricultural workers in the Okanaga n Valley. The intervention, or “suppor t model,” offered healt h,
social, and legal support to mig rant workers in th e region over a two- year per iod (2019– 2020) and evaluated the
effectiveness of the support model. In this paper, we discuss successes and challenges of developing and delivering
this inte rvention, rep orting spec ifically on our qualit ative findings . Further description of the supp ort model is dis-
cussed b elow. We identifi ed several key factors that enabled the success of the inter vention across three domai ns
(comprehensiveness, connection and coordination). Nonetheless, these ser vices offered could not fully counter the
wider cons traints, or “ troubled waters,” exacerbated by t he COVID- 19 pandemic which contributed to is olation and
systemic restrictions on this workforce and ultimate ly limited supports available du ring the second year of the in-
tervention (Caxaj & Cohen, 2021; Colindres et al ., 2021). Nonetheless, our findings de monstrate that a coordinated,
local support intervention can positively impact migrant agricultural workers' ability to access health, legal, and social
suppor ts. Insights gai ned from this inter vention can inform bo th the programmi ng of organization s delivering ser vices
and government polic ies to facilitate the promotion and saf eguarding of workers' health, well- being, and legal rights.
The uniq ue context of our rese arch— situated in a touristic “wine countr y” destinat ion, known for its f amily
farms, orch ards, and beaches (Getz & Brown, 2006)— presents chal lenges and oppor tunities for esta blishing sus-
tainable services for migrant agricultural workers. Prior research suggests th at these to uristic discou rses often
reinforce a White normat ivity that can make invisible the dist inct experiences and needs of ra cialized and migrant
populations in the region (Aguiar, 2021; Aguiar et al., 2010). Yet after the first outbreak of COVID-19 among this
workforce reported in the Okanag an (Thom, 2020), the roug hly 5000 migrants work ing in the region (Kelowna
Capital News, 2021) may be more on the radar of the wide r community. These workers hail primaril y from Mexico
and to a lesser ext ent from the Caribbean a nd Guatemala and work prima rily on orchards and green houses in the
Okanagan. Our research sough t to document the po tential of an interve ntion to address th e barriers and uni que
needs of this group. This research will have appli cability across the country, given the similar ities in challenges and
precarity faced by this workforce nationally, but may be particularly salient to similarly midsize and rural regions,
where historic ally limited resources a nd services have been in pl ace.
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