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- Title
Migrant worker experiences in Atlantic Canadian fish processing plants.
- Authors
Marschke, Melissa; Kehoe, Courtney; Vandergeest, Peter
- Abstract
Low‐skilled migrant workers provide an important labour source in Atlantic Canada's seafood industry. This research unpacks the experiences of 22 workers from Thailand and the Philippines working in one Atlantic Canadian seafood processing company. We pay particular attention to migration routes, labour conditions, and worker mobility, along with worker reflections on their experiences landing a Canadian job. We also consider the perceptions of migrant workers among company staff. We argue that despite the various unfreedoms associated with migrant worker programs, migrant workers in this particular facility have demonstrated agency in negotiating the program to their advantages. The success of the workers, however, is contingent on a conjuncture of elements that are not necessarily found elsewhere in the seafood processing industry. Worker experiences, both with other Canadian employers and elsewhere, offer a stark contrast to their current situation: migrant workers often experience significant unfreedoms to gain relatively free working conditions. Key Messages: Migrant workers play an important role in Atlantic Canadian seafood plants.Migrant workers demonstrate considerable agency in the context we studied.Even so, migrant workers experience significant unfreedoms to gain relatively free working conditions.
- Subjects
CANADA; FOREIGN workers; FISHERY processing plants; PRECARITY; EXPLOITATION of humans
- Publication
Canadian Geographer, 2018, Vol 62, Issue 4, p482
- ISSN
0008-3658
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/cag.12466