Exploitable and deportable by design: Why migrant workers’ housing is harmful to their health

Canada’s treatment of migrant workers is drawing international scrutiny after UN investigator Tomoya Obokata warned that its Temporary Foreign Worker Program “serves as a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery, as it institutionalizes asymmetries of power that favour employers and prevent workers from exercising their rights.”

Migrants, activists, and researchers, however, have known for decades that this program makes workers readily exploitable and deportable by design.

When we speak with racialized, low-wage migrants from the Global South, they often tell us their greatest concern is overcrowded and substandard housing. In our latest study, we interviewed over 150 migrant agricultural workers in Ontario and BC about how their housing impacted their health. 

These workers explained that because their boss is typically also their landlord, they felt obligated to silently tolerate poor housing conditions. Consequently, workers have little choice but to live amid such things as rodent infestations, a lack of cooling and ventilation during extreme heat and nearby pesticide storage. Complaining could not only cost them their job, but could lead to eviction, deportation and loss of future employment in Canada.

Typically, migrant farmworkers are housed on farms, where their employer may also live and work. This gives employers arbitrary power to implement paternalistic ‘house rules’ like prohibiting alcohol or visitors. It also makes workers in remote rural areas highly dependent on bosses for transportation to buy groceries and visit the doctor. For that reason, some workers delay or avoid medical treatment because they don’t want to divulge their private health information to their bosses.

For example, Devon, a farmworker from Jamaica who was interviewed for our study, described how he tried to advocate for his housing and health, only to face a condescending, victim-blaming attitude from his employer.

“If you’re sick, you cannot tell the boss because if you do tell him that you’re sick, he comes and he tells you, ‘Oh you’re dirty. You’re cooking dirty food,’ and all that stuff. So, they discriminate [against] you as a Black person working. I mean, a lot of discrimination,” Devon said.

Workers like Devon are often under intense pressure to support their families back home, where unemployment and poverty loom large.

Yet farmworkers in our study did not see themselves as passive victims and they didn’t want charity. They wanted the practical ability to reject substandard housing and dangerous working conditions.

However, they are up against well-organized industry lobby groups that refuse to treat migrants like their peers or equals and prevent them from having a collective voice on decisions like contract negotiations.

Ontario farmworkers cannot legally join a union. And in BC, farmworkers who were seen as being ‘union sympathizers’ have historically faced backlash. That said, a recent wave of unionization at BC mushroom farms is a promising sign of change for workers who contribute vitally to Canadian food security.

Farmworkers also can’t count on government officials to support their rights. In our research, workers told us bosses were sometimes alerted in advance about inspections, which gave them time to generate the façade of decent housing. 

To prevent migrants from being treated like second-class citizens, the federal government could grant permanent immigration status on arrival. Provincial governments can strengthen inspections of housing and workplaces, making them more frequent, rigorous and unannounced. 

Canada needs a consistent standard for migrant farmworker housing that significantly raises the bar, ensuring there is potable water, an adequate ratio of workers to washrooms and off-farm accommodation that is closer to municipal services.

Ultimately, migrants also need solidarity from everyday Canadians. We have seen that some politicians scapegoat migrants and tap into ugly expressions of xenophobia. But most Canadians recognize that migrants are vital members of our communities who deserve fair treatment like any other worker.

Topics: Economy, Employment & labour, Immigrants & refugees, Racism & racial justice