Labour Migration

• Thesis title in Czech: Pracovní migrace
• Thesis title in English: Labour Migration
• Key words: Cirkulární migrace|Totální instituce|Rámování problémů|Socialní inkluze|Lobbying|Nezísková organizace|Pracovní podmínky
• English key words: Circular migration|Total institution|Problem Framing|Social inclusion|Lobbying|Non-government Organization|Work conditions
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2020/2021
• Thesis type: Bachelor's thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Sociology (21-KSOC)
• Supervisor: Mgr. Jaromír Mazák, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 30.11.2020
• Date of assignment: 30.11.2020
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 10.02.2021
• Date and time of defence: 03.02.2022 08:00
• Submitted/finalized: no

Guidelines

1. Background
In the 1960’s Canada was in need of help to harvest their crops as the interest of the local workforce in such work was on the decline, therefore they created the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to bring in workers from abroad. What was and is seen as a win-win-win situations for the government, employers and farmers alike is in reality only seen so as the workers who carry the greatest load of such optics also have the most repressed voice of the three subjects due to their vulnerable position within the program and language barriers, which some argue outweigh their share of the “win” in the form of better income in comparison to their possibilities in their home country (Marsden, 2019). The lack of policies and regulations protecting the human rights of the foreign workers in the program has left a pathway for decades of oppression from the side of employers who can take advantage of the workers vulnerable position caused by being in Canada solely under the watch of the employer without a legal status without, while the employer also having the power to uncontestably deport any worker they’d deem unfitting, putting the employer in an unjust position of power which can be and has been easily abused(Shantz, 2015). Occurrences of workers being pushed to meet hard quotas, work without days off or with extended hours without a bonus all under the threat of deportation while having their freedom of movement taken away under the same threats are not infrequent. For some the manifestation of Canada’s “Temporary Foreign Worker Program” creates a situation not so far from being a total institution (Binford, 2009). Over the past couple of decades different non-government organizations have been lobbying for substantial enhancements to the program as the government has been slow to take care of its workers in a way that would prevent oppression. This work will specifically follow the oppression of Mexican workers in Canada under this program and analyze the development of the program in synchronization with efforts from non-government organizations and look at how and through which tools the problematic has been framed by these organizations.
2. Goal
The main goal of this work is to cover the evolution of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and analyze the actions of non-government organizations working to assist the people in the program and try to reveal which actions have been effective under which circumstances such that the workers could find themselves in a better situation.
3. Method
This work will work as a review of literature primarily in English, however Spanish literature may also be utilized. This work will cover the theoretical background of the role of non-government organizations in framing social problems and mediating social development of marginalized societies and then use the case of NGOs assisting Mexicans in Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program as a case study of the application of such tools and analyze how they were used to reach improvements in the program.
4. Characteristics of the Results
The results of this work will be able to be used as a case study of non-government organization problem mediation and the effect of its tools on social development while also synthetizing the literature on situation of Mexican workers in Canada under the TFWP program . It will be able to be used in comparison with other situations of non-government organizations supporting marginalized societies and which actions under which circumstances can lead to potential results.
5. Outline

1. Circular migration in Canada
2. The case of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program with an emphasis on its impact on situation of foreign workers in Canada
3. Pioneers of change in the TFWP program
4. Approaches to the problem framing of marginalized groups
5. Analysis of the framing of the TFWP by NGOs advocating for change
6. Social integration – methods and perceived pros and cons
7. Conclusion

References

Binford, L. (2009). From Fields of Power to Fields of Sweat: the dual process of constructing temporary migrant labour in Mexico and Canada. Third World Quarterly, 30(3), 2009, 503–517
Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC) (2019, September) How Labour Challenges Will Shape the Future of Agriculture: Agriculture Forecast to 2029.https://cahrc-ccrha.ca/sites/default/files/CAHRC-National-Report-FINAL-August-19-2019.pdf
Castles, S. (2014), International migration at a crossroads, Citizenship Studies, 18(2), 190-207, DOI: 10.1080/13621025.2014.886439
Cohen, A. (2019). “Slavery hasn’t ended, it has just become modernized” Border Imperialism and the Lived Realities of Migrant Farmworkers in British Columbia, Canada. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 18(1), 130-148
Díaz Mendiburo, A., McLaughlin J., Wells D. & Lyn A. (2018) Adapting Spousal Relations and Transnational Family Structures: Responses To Mexican-Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Migration Adaptación de las relaciones de pareja y de las estructuras familiares transnacionales: respuestas a la migración agrícola temporal mexicano-canadiense. Norteamérica, (13) 2, 37-59, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.20999/nam.2018.b002
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Marsden, S. (2019). Migrant Workers, Rights, and the Rule of Law: Responding to the Justice Gap. Dalhousie Law Journal, 42(1), 153-182
Marsden, S. (2019). Who Bears the Burden of Enforcement? The Regulation of Workers and Employers in Canada’s Migrant Work Programs, Canadian Lab. & Emp. L.J. 1 (2019) / Canadian Labour and Employment Law Journal, 22(1), 1-46
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Preibisch, K. (2004). Migrant Agricultural Workers and Processes of Social Inclusion in Rural Canada: Encuentros and Desencuentros. Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue Canadienne Des études Latino-américaines Et Caraïbes, 29(57/58), 203-239
Preibisch, K., Grez, E.E. (2010). The Other Side of el Otro Lado: Mexican Migrant Women and Labor Flexibility in Canadian Agriculture, Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 35(2), 289-316
Preibisch, K., Otero, G. (2014). Does Citizenship Status Matter in Canadian Agriculture? Workplace Health and Safety for Migrant and Immigrant Laborers, Rural Sociology. 79(2), 2014, 174–199, DOI: 10.1111/ruso.12043
Shantz. J. (2015). 'Slave-like conditions': Abuse of foreign workers in Canada. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 27(3), 233-239.
Silverman, S.J., Hari, A. (2016). Troubling the Fields: Choice, Consent, and Coercion of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers, International Migration, 54(5), doi: 10.1111/imig.12266
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) (2020, August 14) The Status of Migrant Farm Workers in Canada. UFCW Canada and The Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA).http://www.ufcw.ca/templates/ufcwcanada/images/awa/publications/UFCW-Canada-Status-of-Migrant-Workers-Report-2020.pdf