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Research Project Archives [Previous] [Home]
Trade, Labour,
and Migration
| Title
of Project |
Canada's
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program as a Model of
Best Practices in Migrant Worker Participation
in the Benefits of Economic Globalization |
| Key
Staff |
Rudi
Robinson, Ann Weston, Luigi Scarpa de Masellis |
| Research
Period |
March
2002 – August 2003 |
| Output |
Workshop;
Synthesis Report; Best Practice Paper |
Canada's
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (CSAWP) provides
for the overseas recruitment and organized entry into
Canada every year of over 15,000 Caribbean and Mexican
migratory agricultural-wage workers for short-term employment
on Canadian farms. Our research hypothesis is that at
the core of the issues surrounding Canada's agricultural
sector and its migrant workforce are the economic choices
that farm employers make in a highly competitive global
trade environment, and that these choices simultaneously
shape the need for farm enterprises to become more cost-efficient
vis-à-vis their migrant workforce development
practices. Farm enterprises' migrant workforce development
practices, are not however, independent of the CSAWP
federal and provincial institutional regulatory framework.
The project involves research in Canada, Mexico and
in the Caribbean. The research focuses on the following
dimensions of the Program:
- The
Institutional Framework (policy, management, regulation,
implementation and industry-level practices)
- Migrant
worker-farm community social relations
- Worker
participation and rural economic development in
their home countries (Caribbean and Mexico)
- Canadian
and US Cross-border trade in temporary farm labor
services: Parallels and Divergences
- CSAWP
future direction under unionization, NAFTA, FTAA
and in the context of Post-9/11
The
research is well underway in Canada, the Caribbean
and Mexico, with selection of farm sending and host
communities, and worker samples, considerable field
work (involving site-visits, interviews and surveys)
undertaken on components 2 and 3, and desk work and
interviews in components 1 and 5. In February, a mid-stage
workshop was held at the University of Guelph to evaluate
research progress, to begin the process of consolidating
work under the six project components, and to collectively
agree on the way forward to project completion. Draft
preliminary component reports are to be completed
by June. In August, NSI will organize a roundtable
meeting on preliminary draft component reports and
in October NSI will host a conference to present the
draft synthesis report. The expected completion of
the final synthesis report and its subsequent publication/dissemination
is scheduled for November of this year.
The project is proving timely as the Canadian government
considers how best to meet semi-skilled and unskilled
labour market shortages. At the same time, many developing
country governments and multilateral agencies such
as the IDB and the World Bank have increased their
attention on how best to manage labour migration.
To see publications:
| Social
Relations Practices between Seasonal Agricultural
Workers, their Employers and the Residents of
Rural Ontario — prepared for NSI by Dr.
K. Preibisch, University of Guelph |
 to
view executive summary |
|
| Jamaican
Workers’ Participation in CSAWP and Development
Consequences in the Workers” Rural Home Communities
— prepared for NSI by Roy Russell, Agro-Socio
Economic Research, Kingston, Jamaica |
| to
view executive summary |
|
| Canadian
Migrant Agricultural Workers’ Program Research
Project: The Caribbean Component — prepared
for NSI by Professor Andrew Downes and Cyrilene
Odle-Worrell, University of the West Indies |
| to
view executive summary |
|
| Mexican
Farm Workers’ Participation in Canada’s
Seasonal Agricultural Labour Market and Development
Consequences in the Rural Home Communities
— prepared for NSI by Gustavo Verduzco and
Maria Isabel Lozano |
| to
view executive summary |
|
| The
Canadian and United States Migrant Agricultural
Workers Program: Parallels and Divergence between
Two North American Seasonal Migrant Agricultural
Labour Markets with respect to “Best Practices”
— prepared for NSI by Professor David Griffith,
East Carolina University |
| to
view executive summary
to view the full report
|
|
| The
Mexican and Caribbean Seasonal Agricultural Workers
Program: Regulatory and Policy Framework, Farm
Industry Level Employment Practices, and the Future
of the Program under Unionization by Veena
Verma |
| to
view executive summary
to view the full report
|
|
| Hemispheric
Integration and Trade Relations: Implications
for CSAWP — Ann Weston, Vice-President
and Research Coordinator and Luigi Scarpa de Masellis,
NSI |
| to
view executive summary |
|
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