Troubling the Fields: Choice, Consent, and Coercion of Canada's Seasonal Agricultural Workers
| Author | Amrita Hari,Stephanie J. Silverman |
| Date | 01 October 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12266 |
| Published date | 01 October 2016 |
Troubling the Fields: Choice, Consent, and
Coercion of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural
Workers
Stephanie J. Silverman* and Amrita Hari**
ABSTRACT
This article brings a new, theoretically minded approach to weighing the relative utilities and
harms of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) without dismissing the
agency of SAWP enrollees or arriving at an abolitionist argument to end Temporary Migrant
Worker (TMW) programmes in Canada. Building on the anti-trafficking debate within feminist
migration studies, we evaluate the availability and exercise of consent, choice, and coercion
among SAWP workers. We draw on extensive documentation by scholars across disciplines to
contextualize the SAWP within a socio-economic history that engendered and continues to
legitimize the “success”of the programme in both Mexico (the largest sending state) and
Ontario (the largest provincial recipient of workers). Our analysis suggests that, while grie-
vous, the SAWP’s structural injustice ought not to preclude individuals from migrating and
earning wages. The article concludes with recommendations to create a fairer avenue for Mexi-
can workers into, through, and out of the SAWP.
INTRODUCTION
Canadian immigration policy is increasingly turning to temporary or probationary admissions in
lieu of granting access to permanent settlement. Allocation of residence rights is preceded by tem-
porary presence, and citizenship rules make membership harder to obtain and easier to lose (British
Columbia Civil Liberties Association, 2015; Goldring and Joly, 2014: 96). As a demand-driven
policy, Canadian Temporary Migrant Worker (TMW)
1
policies and intakes respond to regional
pressures and the needs of employers; in turn, employers are primed to rely on a continuing flow
of willing and available migrant workers. TMWs typically work in agriculture, caregiving, mining,
construction, food services, and related industries, and other occupations that the National Occupa-
tional Classification deems to require lower skills. The focus of this article is Seasonal Agricultural
Workers Program (SAWP) enrollees from Mexico.
The current pattern of temporary entries surpassing permanent economic class immigrants began
in 2006 with slightly more than 139,000 temporary migrant workers (TMWs) of all skill levels
across all sectors entering that year. By 2010, 182,276 TMWs were entering per year, including
23,898 Seasonal Agricultural Worker Programme (SAWP) enrollees (Hennebry, 2012: 5). Women
comprise fewer than 4 per cent of selected applicants from Mexico.
2
As a snapshot, on 01 Decem-
ber 2013, there were 104,160 TMWs officially residing in Canada (Research and Evaluation
* University of Ottawa
** Carleton University
doi: 10.1111/imig.12266
©2016 The Authors
International Migration ©2016 IOM
International Migration Vol. 54 (5) 2016
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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