Need for Rights-Enabling Seasonal Migration Programmes
With the increasing working-age populations in high-income countries and a parallel surge in young workers in low-income nations, the demand for seasonal migration programs is rapidly on the rise. Despite being at the helm of a multi-decade, global trend of human movement, these schemes have remained politically intractable and churned adverse outcomes for workers. This is due to the heightened risk of labour exploitation faced by migrant workers, including issues of long working hours for little pay, payment of recruitment fees by workers resulting into a cycle of debt bondage, and asymmetry in information among workers.
Consider Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP), which employs tens of thousands of workers from Mexico and the Caribbean to meet labour needs in core sectors of economic production. Despite their decades-long contributions, SAWP workers face significant challenges. They are denied permanent settlement, lack basic labour protections, and remain dependant on employer goodwill. [1] This dependence fosters exploitative practices, with workers subjected to long hours and precarious conditions without recourse for collective bargaining or adequate legal protection. The UK Seasonal Worker Program faces similar issues. A report done by the UK Home Office on seasonal worker schemes uncover allegations of mistreatment of migrant workers so egregious that ‘the government could be found in breach of its obligations to prevent modern slavery.’ [2]
As the link between global income inequality and demographic differentials strengthens, it is important to make a shift away from prioritising the enforcement of immigration controls at all costs to sufficiently supporting the enforcement of workers’ rights.[3] Well-designed, resource-intensive migration systems offer a scalable solution, alleviating burdens on migrant workers while fostering economic growth and building trust among stakeholders within labour migration systems.
Below mentioned are a few actionable measures that may be taken to strengthen migration channels to keep workers and their rights at the centre of these policies:
The immigration status of ‘low skilled’ workers is an inherent feature of the programme, which legally constructs workers as ‘temporary’ even though the need for their labour is structural and permanent. Instead of treating workers as disposable sources of labour, as a first step, this gap between policy and practice must be addressed by governments, so worker voices are heard, addressed and remediation facilitated.
Apart from unannounced inspection of the sites in which workers work by relevant authorities, governments must adopt laws that grant workers effective access to information, legal assistance, and avenues for complaint against exploitative employers, including the right to unionise. If local grievance mechanisms are in place, and able to effectively resolve worker grievances, migrant workers would not have to autonomously bear the costs of judicial processes and lengthy court proceedings. This also involves developing support mechanisms through temporary residence permits in case migrant workers wish to pursue legal action and sanctioning mechanisms such as corporate liability and compensation funds.
Bilateral and multilateral donors should be encouraged to prioritise labour migration as a strategy to combat poverty, inequality, and human trafficking. This includes expanding funding for pilot programs, innovation grants, and credit guarantees to catalyse impact driven, rights-enabling migration initiatives.
There is a renewed opportunity for stakeholders to revamp migration systems and tighten loose ends to regularise efficient migration of workers. Without concrete action, we risk perpetuating a vicious cycle where unregulated migration fuels public resistance to legal migration, which in turn exacerbates the problem by driving more individuals towards irregular migration channels.
[1] https://minorityrights.org/minority-and-indigenous-trends-2022-focus-on-work/
[2] https://www.freedomunited.org/news/modern-slavery-seasonal-worker-scheme/
[3] https://www.workrightscentre.org/media/1367/final-systemic-drivers-of-migrant-worker-exploitation.pdf