Cheap Labour and A New Market: Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program and its Effects on Mexico.

Abstract

Documented, undocumented, permanently, temporarily, internally, externally – each year Mexico sees thousands of its citizens migrate. Approximately 13 000 of those will travel to Canada to work in fields and greenhouses for the planting, growing and harvesting seasons, only to return to their families in Mexico for a few months. 1 These temporary workers are a part of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP), which is an initiative on the part of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) with the Mexican Secretaría del Trabajo y Previsión Social (STPS, Ministry of Work and Social Security). Despite responsibilities that the employers and both governments have to the workers, they often face dangerous conditions, low wages and discrimination. Through the use of the dependency paradigm, this paper will argue that exploitation is faced on all fronts by the workers of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program. The temporary agricultural workers play a key role in the competitiveness of Canada’s agricultural exports, but it is clear to see that in developing Canada’s agribusinesses and economy, Mexican workers are being exploited to the detriment of both the individual workers and the Mexican economy.