Seasonal Agriculture Worker Program (SAWP) is a governmental program that allows Canadian farmers to hire employees from the Caribbean and Mexico. Foreign workers receive temporary visas during the seasons of planting and harvest. Migrant farmworkers face problems of abuse during their working season. There are many cases of violation of labor in migrant employees, and it is essential to examine how SAWP undermines accommodations for Caribbean and Mexico migrants and seek an efficient solution.
Many struggles exist in SAWP that should be fixed. For instance, migrant farmers work up to fourteen hours a day and receive a small salary. Work conditions are horrible, but workers’ complaints do not help fix the situation. Moreover, the workplaces for immigrant workers are often overcrowded; many employees report violating attitudes towards them. There is no free access to medical equipment and attention; COVID-19 is ignored, and people have to infect each other.
Lack of proper resources such as masks, sanitizers, and gloves makes the work unsafe for health. Places where migrant farmworkers sleep are called bunkhouses. These bunkhouses are overcrowded with people, and workers have to sleep very close to each other; it raises the risk of infection with COVID-19 (Mojtehedzadeh, 2020). It is important to note that many workers are elderly; it is known that older people get infected and bear the disease in a far more complicated way than young people. Thus, the 55 years old Juan Lopes Chaparro died because of coronavirus when he got infected on the farm (Dubinski, 2020). “Lopez Chaparro’s death has caused shock and devastation to his family in Mexico,” the article reports (Dubinski, 2020, p. 2). He was a loving father of four children, and now his family is abandoned without support in Mexico.
Everything I have learned from these articles caused emotional discomfort in me. I feel disappointed and very sorry for migrant farmworkers, as I cannot imagine being violated as they are. It is a manifestation of cruelty to migrant people. Significantly, the news about death from COVID-19 shocked me, as death is always frightening and devastating. I cannot imagine that such labor conditions exist in the modern world, where most of us have access to medicine, masks, and necessary medicaments.
There are many political and economic reasons for hiring migrant workers for seasonal work. For instance, their labor is cheaper than the labor of Canadian employees. Moreover, migrant people often fail to find a job in their countries, and migration is the only option for them for work purposes. Many articles prove a violation of human rights and terrible working conditions (Dubinski, 2020). Many employees come “with no grasp of English and little formal education,” which allows dishonest employers to manipulate (Mojtehedzadeh, 2020, p. 3). Though these reasons are inhuman, programs such as SAWP continue to invite foreign workers.
Some activists say that migrant workers should have more rights and abilities to have necessary resources and a proper day schedule. Some sources state that Canada is creating a program to avoid abusive workplaces (Mojtehedzadeh, 2020). Probably, one of the best options is to implement supporting programs that will honestly assess employers. Moreover, it is worth arranging periodic checks of the living and working conditions in the workplace. Many people strive to help migrant workers, for example, local volunteers. These people often are connected with the public administration, and in case rules are violated, volunteers can report, as migrants often do not know English. Volunteer programs might help improve the situation with abusive workplaces through checks, gathering reviews and complaints, and voluntary help if needed.