Baja Bernie - 8-16-2007 at 09:06 AM
August 15, 2007
Immigration/Labor News
Canada-Mexico Guestworker Program Under Fire
For some rural Mexicans, working in Canada is a viable
alternative to the low pay of Mexico's northern borderlands
or the dangerous crossing into the United States. Similar
to the old Bracero Program between the United States and
Mexico, Mexican farmworkers sign temporary contracts to
work legally in Canadian agriculture. According to a
Mexican congressional report, an estimated 15,000 Mexicans
labor as agricultural guestworkers for up to eight months a
stint in Canada. Now, the attractiveness of the Canadian
option might be fading too.
Amid growing reports of abuses, a group of Mexican
legislators is demanding that President Felipe Calderon
raise the issue of working conditions when he talks with
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper as part of the North
American Leaders' Summit in Canada this month.
"We know that in October 2006, while he was president-
elect, President Calderon expressed his disposition to
expand the guestworker program for Canada to the service
and construction sectors," said Edmundo Ramirez Martinez, a
representative for the Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI) in the lower house of the Mexican Congress. "Before
(President Calderon) does this, he should analyze how our
countrymen our treated."
Recently touring Ontario, Quebec and other parts of Canada,
a group of Mexican legislators encountered complaints
related to the working and living conditions of
guestworkers.
Federal Congressman Camerino Marquez Madrid of the
Democratic Party of the Revolution (PRD) charged that
isolated workers lack access to the Canadian health system,
worker's compensation and interpreters. He said workers
were subject to firings without proper recourse.
Legislators also found that sending remittances from Canada
was both difficult and costly.
Congressman Ramirez contended that Mexican consulates in
Canada are negligent in upholding the rights of their
citizens, functioning instead like a "giant immigrant
smuggling operation" in recruiting and contracting
guestworkers.
Reminiscent of the old Bracero Program, reports indicate
that the official Canada-Mexico program serves as a cover
for deceitful labor contractors and extra-legal
relationships. Last June, for instance, a group of
indigenous Mexicans from the municipality of Tlapa,
Guerrero, agreed to work in Canada without a contract.
In the run-up to the trinational Canadian summit, the PRI
and PRD representatives in the lower house of the Mexican
Congress urged President Calderon to discuss the treatment
of guestworkers with his Canadian counterpart.
Sources: El Universal/Notimex, August 12, 2007. El
Sur/Agencia Reforma,
July 2, 2007.
Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico