Canada’s Temporary Labor Migration Policy: The Case of Mexican Seasonal Agricultural Workers

Abstract

The article analyzes Canadian temporary foreign worker migration policies through the prism of Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), one of the largest and oldest seasonal worker programs in Canada’s postwar immigration policies, whose main participants are seasonal farmworker migrants from Mexico. The article outlines the premises of Canadian labor migration policies and presents a brief history of Mexican migrations to Canada. Most importantly, however, it focuses on the functioning of SAWP, presenting the program’s positive impact as well as its shortages and failures through the lens of experiences of its Mexican participants. The summary of this text proposes certain reforms and changes to SAWP that might help eliminate some of the program’s deficiencies.