The COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate impact on migrant agricultural workers admitted to Canada under temporary visas. Long-standing concerns about migrant workers’ health and safety, inadequate housing, and exposure to employers’ abuse and possible deportation received widespread public and government attention during the pandemic. In this chapter, we examine how Canadian-based civil society organizations (CSOs) responded to the challenges faced by a transnational labor force in the context of COVID-19 and explore various scales of their activism, from local to transnational. We begin by briefly outlining what critical junctures, such as the COVID-19 crisis, mean for migrant activism before proceeding to consider two key narrative frames employed by migrant civil society organizations: “essential worker” and “health injustice.” We seek to draw attention to both the manner in which the pandemic exacerbated existing injustices, but also may have provided new windows of opportunity for activism in defence of workers’ rights.

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Transnational Activism and Temporary Agricultural Workers in Canada During the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Christina Gabriel,
  • Laura Macdonald

摘要

The COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate impact on migrant agricultural workers admitted to Canada under temporary visas. Long-standing concerns about migrant workers’ health and safety, inadequate housing, and exposure to employers’ abuse and possible deportation received widespread public and government attention during the pandemic. In this chapter, we examine how Canadian-based civil society organizations (CSOs) responded to the challenges faced by a transnational labor force in the context of COVID-19 and explore various scales of their activism, from local to transnational. We begin by briefly outlining what critical junctures, such as the COVID-19 crisis, mean for migrant activism before proceeding to consider two key narrative frames employed by migrant civil society organizations: “essential worker” and “health injustice.” We seek to draw attention to both the manner in which the pandemic exacerbated existing injustices, but also may have provided new windows of opportunity for activism in defence of workers’ rights.