Just Food Project: Migrant Labour

Preface to Module

“Race is always on the table, if not on top of the table, then right under it” - David Billings and Lila Cabbil

Race is a made-up social and political construct originally designed to support world-views that classified some groups of people as superior and some as inferior; it is “both rigid (in terms of [its] consequences for our lives) and fluid (because [it] can change)”. Race is not biological; there are no distinct genetic differences between races that account for differences in traits such as sexuality, athleticism or mathematical ability. Race is “a deeply complex sociopolitical system whose boundaries shift and adapt over time,” and has been used to organize society and its resources along racial lines. While race is socially constructed, it does have tangible consequences on our lives.

Recognizing that the food system is a project based on racial ideology is essential to understanding food justice. In the United States, farmworkers and food service workers are generally people of colour, whereas farm owners and operators are disproportionately white. Many are paid poverty-level wages, face high levels of food insecurity and diet-related diseases, and suffer from labour abuses and resource inequalities. This explains how social and environmental injustices are disproportionately passed to racialized groups throughout the production, distribution, and consumption of food. It also helps explain why many seemingly promising alternatives, such as farmers’ markets and community-supported agriculture (CSA), tend to be dominated by people who are privileged by whiteness.

To recognize, identify, and confront racism in the food system, we have to first ask: how do we know what we know? Food justice work is rooted in epistemic justice. Racial injustices towards Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) in the food system often result from implicit biases where negative racial stereotypes are covertly reinforced. This often stems from epistemic injustice, when ways of knowing cause harm to marginalized groups and undermine their sovereignty and right to self-determination. In order to understand food justice, we must also question who gets to tell the stories we know, and acknowledge how these stories shape our collective history.

Both the Migrant Labour and Diasporic Foodways modules contextualize contemporary food system inequities within structural racism and settler-colonialism and their implications of intergenerational trauma, resistance to oppression, epistemic injustice, and mobilizing for systems change. These modules seek to create space for learners to critically examine internalized racism, reflect on the perpetuation of racial oppressions within ourselves, and write our own stories. These modules ask: How is racism embedded in our food system due to historical and on-going processes of colonialism, slavery, and other forms of oppression of Indigenous communities and peoples of colour? More importantly, how are communities of colour resisting and creating spaces of renewal and celebration? How can allies and accomplices support this ongoing work?

Introduction

When we think about labour and food, whose faces appear in our minds? Wealthy Global North countries' food systems often rely on a racialized workforces where BIPOC bodies represent the majority of low wage, low skill, high-risk jobs. This includes both immigrant and migrant labourers in meat-packing and food processing plants, farms, and fast-food restaurants. This module primarily focuses on the Canadian context and employs migrant labour as a way of unpacking key concepts in labour, racializing processes, and food systems.

Migrant labour is a core tenet of many so-called developed countries including the United States, Australia, and Italy. In Canada, the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) has multiple streams linked to food: agriculture, and the low wage streams that include food services. The program was initiated in 1973 by the government to fill labour gaps. The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) first started in Ontario in the 1960s with 264 agricultural labourers from Jamaica. In 2017, the Canadian TFWP issued 48,105 permits for agricultural migrant workers and 3,325 permits for caregivers. Combined with other temporary foreign work streams, 79,055 migrant workers came to Canada in 2017. These migrant workers account for a significant part of food production, packaging, and provision services labour. As borders closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, a typically "invisible" component of the food system became visible, as the overwhelming reliance on migrant workers was made apparent.

In this module, we explore the economic and social systems in place that support a disposable, racialized workforce, and imagine potential ways forward. By interrogating the notion of “migrants” we aim to speak to ideas of nationhood and the systemic racism present in immigration policies, implicated in discourses of whose work is valuable and visible.

Learning Outcomes

1. Develop a commitment towards racial justice in the food system.
2. Illustrate how structural racism and white supremacy show up in food systems labour.
3. Identify and act out potential interventions for equitable work through deeper exploration of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP).

Background

History of Work and Immigration

The inseparable tie between immigration and work in Canada has historically been based on a nation-building project of populating the country with white immigrants. This harmful history traces its roots to the colonization of Indigenous peoples' territories in so-called Canada in the 1500s, which laid the way for imperialist practices of displacing and dispossessing Indigenous peoples. An early resolution adopted by the Trades and Labor Congress in 1883 read: “the future welfare of the working people of this country requires the prohibition of further importation of Chinese labor”. This marked the beginning of a long and continuous set of racially discriminatory immigration policies that uphold labour standards for white Canadians. The question of who rather than how many labourers was at the forefront of debate for labour decision-makers. Asians were often regarded as unfair competition to white Canadians, who harbored a perceived fear of Asian workers bringing violence and corruption. Scholar Gillian Creese’s study of anti-Asian racial prejudice by Vancouver unionists found that labour leaders saw race as a fundamental criteria for participation in the working class, but also as a divisive barrier in workplaces and the broader community.

How did Canadian immigration policy shift from protecting jobs for white settlers to relying on a predominantly racialized "temporary" labour force? In 1973, the Non-Immigrant Employment Authorization Program (NIEAP) was introduced in Canada to entrench programmes of foreign labour in federal policy, allowing more people to enter Canada as labourers. This shift is connected to the globalization of food systems and the spread of free-trade capitalism; the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) displaced Mexican farmers and forced millions of Mexicans into poverty. These individuals now work as undocumented workers in both Canada and the United States. Additionally, the building of the nation of Canada relied on foreign labour. For example, the Trans-Canada railway was built by approximately 17,000 Chinese workers in the late 1800s. This is tied into conceptions of what is considered “good work” and for whom—labour standards were upheld for Canadians initially based on race (White workers earned 2.5 times the rate of Chinese workers on the railway) and is now more formally entrenched through citizenship standards and the TFWP. While hiring based on racial prejudice is no longer written in law, racial legacies live on in more hidden ways. Who is able to access work to support themselves and their dependents remains tangled in discussions around capital value and racial public discourse. Who is conceived as a citizen, immigrant, and migrant are all imbued with ideas of nationhood, race, gender, and class.

Migrant Work

Who is a migrant and who has the power to decide migrant status? The nation-state of Canada romanticizes the notion of cultural diversity while persistently and strategically using race as a mechanism to further marginalize social groups from formal citizenship. As Nandita Rani Sharma’s research demonstrates, immigration in Canada since the 1970s has shifted: the majority of migrants no longer enter as permanent residents but as temporary migrant workers. In 2020, despite calls for “Status for All", avenues to citizenship in Canada for migrant workers are not straightforward. This marks “the denial of permanent resident status to the vast majority of (im)migrants and their relegation to the ranks of a temporary, unfree labour force”. As Sharma further explains, the concept of home helps us understand processes of demarcating some groups as belonging and others as not belonging. When home maps onto larger ideas of nation, the migrant worker is seen as a foreigner participating in a "foreign labour market" rather than being an integral part of Canadian society. As Walia highlights, migrant labour is not a topic unique to Canada, but is an international phenomenon that global capitalism has created. The influences of neoliberal economic systems and trade agreements have led to co-dependency of countries on one another for goods and services. The making of these economic systems themselves is by no means the work of the “invisible hand” of natural market evolution, but is rather a “systemic reliance upon exploitation through race, immigration status, and shifting forms of 'unfree labour'”. Canada’s capitalist economy depends on a clear delineation of forms of citizenship as a means to exploit the labour of racialized bodies. The treatment of migrant workers once they set foot in the state indicates their role as disposable, cheap, and exploitable commodities. While deemed "temporary", the entrenchment of global capitalism has led to the seasonal migration of workers year after year, as both Canadian employees and migrant workers are mutually dependent on these programs.

The term apartheid has been used several times by scholars to denote the power dynamics and separation between migrant workers and society at large. Galabuzi uses the term, “economic apartheid” to speak of the growing gap between the rich and the poor, and how this maps onto racialized groups. Walia also speaks to the “apartheid of citizenship” that migrant workers face as the invisibilized labour force. Both signal the racialization of labour as a divisive and systemic force wherein migrant workers find themselves in a power struggle with their peers, employers, and the state.

The Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) and the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP)

The food Canadians proudly call local is produced and packaged by invisible hands. In 2020, Mexico and 11 countries in the Caribbeans participated in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP). The program's central goal is to provide for labour needs that are unmet by reluctant domestic Canadians. However, the imaginary prior state where labour needs were met by domestic Canadians covers over the reality that racialized agricultural labour was one of the many tactics used by White settlers to advance their superiority over other social groups in the past. In 2017, Canada also had a total of 79,055 individuals enrolled in the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP). 48,105 workers were based in the agricultural sector, and of those, 16,920 were based in the province of B.C.

Proponents of the SAWP tout the importance of Canada’s agricultural production as a means of food security in a romanticized Canadian agrarianism, while neglecting declining food sovereignty of migrant labourers. The influence of agricultural subsidies and subsequent dumping of staple exports from the global North into the global South has created an uneven distribution of food security between nation states. To support food security in the global North, constructed vulnerability has produced hunger in nation-states in the global South to satisfy these needs. Employment opportunities that would have otherwise been available domestically in the global South are no longer viable options. Migrant worker families and individuals cannot survive financially within their home countries and foreign work is often the only viable option for social mobility and change.

While SAWP aims to increase the food security of Canadians, food insecurity is often a driver for migration, with migrant worker remittances sent back to home countries to purchase household food. Furthermore, migrant farm workers often lack access to healthy, culturally appropriate food during their stay in Canada due to the challenging working and living conditions they face. Canada’s alternative food movement discourse centres around “local food” as being more sustainable and ethical compared to industrial agriculture; however, both supply chains are supported by a migrant workforce. Locality cannot be equated with morality. In April of 2014, in Canada, a moratorium was placed on the food services sector's access to temporary foreign workers due to controversy about employer preferences of migrant workers over domestic workers. Media outlets exposed fast food chains for supposedly replacing Canadian workers with temporary migrants, however, this claim was not supported by data. Amidst the moratorium, discourse emerged for “putting Canadians first”, painting migrants as a threat to the fabric of Canadian society and reinforcing a false dichotomy of "us vs. them" instead of looking at the policies and conditions that have allowed this inequitable labour structure to manifest. The moratorium was lifted within three months with major reforms to the program that were intended to benefit the Canadian labour force; some of these changes (namely the rule that only allowed migrant workers to work for up to four years) were reversed due to academic and activist criticism.

Fast Food Workers

The Canadian Temporary Foreign Workers Program also contributes to the labour supply in the food services sector. Employers in the fast food industry found that Canadian employees, often teenagers and young adults, lacked the skills to fulfil demanding service positions and had a high turnover rate. Polanco’s research of Canadian-Filipino fast food labour chains found a “comparative advantage” for employers to hire Filipino workers for their reputation for being docile, hardworking, English-speaking, and loyal. This tactic further marginalized vulnerable communities in the domestic workforce: the aging, racialized, immigrant women of colour.

Gendered Dynamics of the TFWP

While the Canadian Temporary Foreign Workers Program is rooted in a racial project that dictates who is foreign and who belongs, it is also gendered. The majority of people in the TFWP who are in the Live-In Caregivers Program (LCP) are female, whereas in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, around 4% of workers are female. In addition to the aforementioned vulnerabilities, female farmworkers experience additional racial and gender discrimination, and sexual harassment due to the power dynamics inherent between workers and managers, farm owners and co-workers. Furthermore, many female workers are widowed or single mothers, and are the sole provider in their family, forcing them into silence for fear of losing their job if they complain. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, migrant care workers organizations released a report entitled "Behind Closed Doors: Exposing Migrant Care Worker Exploitation During COVID-19", which outlines the exploitation and precarious work situation caregivers faced due to the pandemic. Care workers were forced to not leave their employer's house and to work long hours without proper compensation, while their status made it impossible to assert their rights. Many feared not being eligible for Permanent Residency (PR) due to unrealistic work requirements and English language testing, making it harder to reunite with their families.

Female migrants represented 96% of the Live-In Caregivers Program in 2013 and the proportion of female caregivers did not fall below 94% between 2003 and 2013. Care work often requires food work. The shopping and preparation of food by caregivers for children and the elderly entrenches gender roles for racialized workers. Employers within the LCP, including mothers, are able to step out of gender roles as the traditional “stay-home” caretaker while racialized caregivers are in roles that reify these narratives.

Fuerza Migrante, a migrant worker advocacy organization, acknowledges that the patriarchy is an additional obstacle towards migrant worker unity and health: “patriarchal oppression fractures migrant unity through gendered violence and lack of empathy, intensifying the exploitation of migrant labour by capitalists both in Canada and abroad.” This intersectional lens is key to dismantling the structures that uphold oppression and working in solidarity with groups by emphasizing and building “capacity in the intersections that bring us together, built upon the foundations of love and respect”.

Key Terms

• Farmworker: (or agricultural worker, or farmhand) is a hired agricultural labourer, employed in a farming, ranching, orchard work or other agricultural operation. Their main duties can include growing, planting, cultivating or harvesting agricultural products.
• Labour migration: is prompted by a migrant's intent to relocate to a more or less distant labour market, either permanently, temporarily or seasonally. Where labour is allocated through a labour market, most migration is prompted by the decisions of households and individuals to move in search of better work opportunities. Labour migration reflects the spatial distribution and redistribution of economic opportunities among regions and nations.
• Migrant: a person who changes their place of usual residence by moving across a political or administrative boundary, for example, between countries or regions within the same country. Defining who is a migrant is not a precice and absolute endeavour. An international migrant, for example, may be classified as foreign-born, foreign-national and/or someone who has moved to a country for at least a year. Some surveys and official sources treat refugees as migrants, but others do not.
• Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP): The Canadian federal migrant worker program administered through Employment and Social Development Canada which aims to provide labour for jobs that are difficult to get domestic labour for. This includes the various domains of: caregivers (for children or individuals with high medical needs), agriculture (Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program, agricultural stream, high wage and low wage streams), academics, general high or low wage positions, and the Global Talent Stream.

• Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP): A specific program of the TFWP that allows employers to hire temporary foreign workers (TFW) when Canadians and permanent residents are “not available”. These employers can hire TFWs from participating countries for a maximum period of 8 months, between January 1 and December 15, provided they are able to offer the workers a minimum of 240 hours of work within a period of 6 weeks or less.
• Nation-State: While hard to define, a nation-state is the “idea of a nation [a group of people that see themselves as a cohesive and coherent unit] governed by a sovereign state”; in practice, this is very difficult to achieve”.
• Race: A political construction created to concentrate power among white people and legitimize dominance over non-white people. Race is a made-up social construct, and not a biological fact. Racial categorization schemes were invented by scientists to support worldviews that viewed some groups of people as superior and some as inferior.
• Racism: It involves one group having the power to carry out systematic discrimination based on race through the institutional policies and practices of the society and by shaping the cultural beliefs and values that support those policies and practices. It is different from racial prejudice, hatred, or discrimination.
  • Individual racism: refers to the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism in conscious and unconscious ways. Examples include telling a racist joke, believing in the inherent superiority of white people over other racial groups, or not hiring a person of color because “something doesn’t feel right.”
  • Institutional racism: occurs when organizations, businesses, or institutions like schools and police departments discriminate, either deliberately or indirectly against racialized groups of people to limit their rights. This type of racism reflects the cultural assumptions of the dominant group.
  • Structural racism: while many of the legally based forms of racial discrimination have been outlawed, many of the racial disparities originating in various institutions and practices continue and accumulate as major forces in economic and political structures and cultural traditions. Structural racism refers to the ways in which social structures and institutions, over time, perpetuate and produce cumulative, durable, race-based inequalities. This can occur even in the absence of racist intent on the part of individuals.”
  • Racial equity: The Center for Social Inclusion defines racial equity as both an outcome and a process. “As an outcome, we achieve racial equity when race no longer determines one’s socioeconomic outcomes; when everyone has what they need to thrive, no matter where they live. As a process, we apply racial equity when those most impacted by structural racial inequity are meaningfully involved in the creation and implementation of the institutional policies and practices that impact their lives. When we achieve racial equity:
    • People, including people of color, are owners, planners, and decision-makers in the systems that govern their lives.
    • We acknowledge and account for past and current inequities, and provide all people, particularly those most impacted by racial inequities, the infrastructure needed to thrive.
    • Everyone benefits from a more just, equitable system.”
  • Whiteness: Whiteness is the normalization of white peoples' social norms and culture as proper for society. This can be implicit such as in common farmers markets, or explicit, in the case of white supremacists’ ideologies. White can be understood as a “position in a racialized social structure”, as it influences access to resources and this whiteness would have no meaning outside of a racialized social structure.
  • White supremacy: A historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations, and peoples of color by white peoples and nations of the European continent; for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power and privilege.

Activity Outline

Facilitator Note: These activities are provided as guidance for instructors and facilitators to mix and match as they fulfil the learning outcomes. Times given are an estimate and facilitators should use their best judgement of when to move things along and when to tease out certain topics based on their own learning goals.

Activity	Estimated Time	Associated Learning Outcomes	Activity Notes
Pre-Activity: Group Guidelines	30 min		Define your role as facilitator and clarify the group’s expectations of you and each other, as well as foster a safe, respectful, and effective learning environment for participants.
Activity 1: Reading Discussion	40 min	1. Develop a commitment towards racial justice in the food system. 2. Illustrate how structural racism and white supremacy show up in food systems labour. 3. Identify and act out potential interventions for equitable work through deeper exploration of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP).	This activity provides background reading and a sample discussion activity to go through the readings. Choose one reading for each learning outcome. Assign the readings before class and offer prompts to encourage in-class discussions. Conduct an in-class discussion to debrief the reading and background material.
Activity 2: Labour Spectrum	15-25 min	1. Develop a commitment towards racial justice in the food system. 2. Illustrate how structural racism and white supremacy show up in food systems labour.	Recognize the different lived experiences of work amongst peers through active listening and effective questioning.
Activity 3: Power Mapping	45-70 min	1. Develop a commitment towards racial justice in the food system. 2. Illustrate how structural racism and white supremacy show up in food systems labour. 3. Identify and act out potential interventions for equitable work through deeper exploration of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP).	Integrate and illustrate understandings of power by drawing the power dynamics present in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program. Identify routes for advocacy and change within this understanding.
Activity 4: Amplifying Advocacy for Migrant Rights	30 min	3. Identify and act out potential interventions for equitable work through deeper exploration of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP).	Identify local migrants rights advocacy efforts and find ways to support them.