Tomorrow we're all going to the harvest : temporary foreign worker programs and neoliberal political economy / by Leigh Binford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Binford, Leigh, 1948-

Series:

Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture

Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long series in Latin American and Latino art and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Agricultural laborers, Foreign--Canada.

Agricultural laborers, Foreign.

Foreign workers--Government policy--Canada.

Foreign workers.

Foreign workers, Mexican--Canada.

Foreign workers, Mexican.

Canada--Emigration and immigration--Economic aspects.

Canada.

Mexico--Emigration and immigration--Economic aspects.

Mexico.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (300 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

From its inception in 1966, the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) has grown to employ approximately 20,000 workers annually, the majority from Mexico. The program has been hailed as a model that alleviates human rights concerns because, under contract, SAWP workers travel legally, receive health benefits, contribute to pensions, are represented by Canadian consular officials, and rate the program favorably. Tomorrow We’re All Going to the Harvest takes us behind the ideology and examines the daily lives of SAWP workers from Tlaxcala, Mexico (one of the leading sending states), observing the great personal and family price paid in order to experience a temporary rise in a standard of living. The book also observes the disparities of a gutted Mexican countryside versus the flourishing agriculture in Canada, where farm labor demand remains high. Drawn from extensive surveys and nearly two hundred interviews, ethnographic work in Ontario (destination of over 77 percent of migrants in the author’s sample), and quantitative data, this is much more than a case study; it situates the Tlaxcala-Canada exchange within the broader issues of migration, economics, and cultural currents. Bringing to light the historical genesis of “complementary” labor markets and the contradictory positioning of Mexican government representatives, Leigh Binford also explores the language barriers and nonexistent worker networks in Canada, as well as the physical realities of the work itself, making this book a complete portrait of a provocative segment of migrant labor.

Contents:

Agricultural crisis, migration, and contract labor: Tlaxcala, Mexico, and Ontario, Canada

The dual process of constructing Mexican contract workers

"Tomorrow we're all going to the harvest": case studies of contract labor migration

Interrogating racialized global labor supply: Caribbean and Mexican workers in Canada's SAWP (by Kerry Preibisch and Leigh Binford)

The seasonal agricultural worker program and Mexican development

The political economy of contract labor in neoliberal North America: cheap labor and organized labor

Globalization and temporary migrants: post-national citizens, realpolitik, and disposable labor power.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-292-74381-5

OCLC:

816132452