Event Title
Labouring in rural space: the physical & social exclusion of Mexican migrant workers
Description
In recent years, the labour markets of countries of the Global North have necessitated influxes of migrant workers in order to overcome demographic deficits and fill essential employment vacancies. In few places is this more pronounced than in Canada, where thousands of foreign agricultural workers are flown in annually though increasingly ingrained transnational migration channels to supplement the domestic workforce. By adopting a rights-based perspective with emphasis on the scale of the individual, this presentation will examine manners in which Mexican migrant workers in southwestern Ontario's Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) are physically and socially excluded from Canadian society. To do this, we introduce the notion of ruralily as an enabler of exclusion. Next, we draw upon relevant literature to examine how exclusionary process are facilitated through structural, mobility, identity, and communication barriers, along with entrenched discrimination by 'host' societies. Finally, we argue that these forms of physical and social exclusion are deliberate, acting to perpetuate insecurity and exploitation in order to ensure the highest amount of revenue
Document Type
Event
Start Date
8-3-2008 8:00 AM
Subject - LCSH
Migrant labor--Social aspects--Canada; Marginality, Social--Canada; Social isolation--Canada
End Date
8-3-2008 5:00 PM
Session
Rural Geographies
Genre/Form
abstracts (summaries)
Type
event
Geographic Coverage
Ontario; Canada
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Keywords
insecurity, migrant workers, physical & social exclusion, rural landscapes, transnationalism
Labouring in rural space: the physical & social exclusion of Mexican migrant workers
In recent years, the labour markets of countries of the Global North have necessitated influxes of migrant workers in order to overcome demographic deficits and fill essential employment vacancies. In few places is this more pronounced than in Canada, where thousands of foreign agricultural workers are flown in annually though increasingly ingrained transnational migration channels to supplement the domestic workforce. By adopting a rights-based perspective with emphasis on the scale of the individual, this presentation will examine manners in which Mexican migrant workers in southwestern Ontario's Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) are physically and socially excluded from Canadian society. To do this, we introduce the notion of ruralily as an enabler of exclusion. Next, we draw upon relevant literature to examine how exclusionary process are facilitated through structural, mobility, identity, and communication barriers, along with entrenched discrimination by 'host' societies. Finally, we argue that these forms of physical and social exclusion are deliberate, acting to perpetuate insecurity and exploitation in order to ensure the highest amount of revenue