Tortillas and tomatoes : transmigrant Mexican harvesters in Canada / Tanya Basok.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Basok, Tanya, 1958-

Series:

McGill-Queen's studies in ethnic history.

McGill-Queen's studies in ethnic history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Foreign workers, Mexican--Ontario.

Foreign workers, Mexican.

Agricultural laborers, Foreign--Ontario.

Agricultural laborers, Foreign.

Physical Description:

xx, 168 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Based on interviews with Leamington greenhouse growers and migrant Mexican workers, Tanya Basok offers a timely analysis of why the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program is needed. She argues that while Mexican workers do not necessarily constitute cheap labour for Canadian growers, they are vital for the survival of some agricultural sectors because they are always available for work, even on holidays and weekends, or when exhausted, sick, or injured. Basok exposes the mechanisms that make Mexican seasonal workers unfree and shows that the workers' virtual inability to refuse the employer's demand for their labour is related not only to economic need but to the rigid control exercised by the Mexican Ministry of Labour and Social Planning and Canadian growers over workers' participation in the Canadian guest worker program, as well as the paternalistic relationship between the Mexican harvesters and their Canadian employers.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Tables and Figures

Preface

Migrant Labour: A Structural Necessity?

Canadian Growers

The Farmers’ Affliction

Labour Problems: The Leamington Story

Vulnerable Labour in a Vulnerable Sector

The Greenhouse Industry in Leamington

Mexican Harvesters

From Mexico with Two Hands

Captive Labour

The Migrant Syndrome

Summary and Conclusion

Postscript

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

ncludes index.

Includes bibliographical references: p. [155]-164.

ISBN:

1-282-86030-5

9786612860300

0-7735-7004-7

OCLC:

929120885