Article: The recruitment of Guatemalan agricultural workers by Canadian employers: mapping the web of a transnational network Journal: International Journal of Migration and Border Studies (IJMBS) 2014 Vol.1 No.3 pp.291 - 302 Abstract: For the past two decades, the number of immigrants admitted to Canada has remained relatively stable while the number of workers admitted with a temporary work permit has steadily increased. This phenomenon is explained by a shift of the Canadian public policies that foresees the management of labour migration. Given their foreignness, the conditions through which temporary foreign workers are employed are a result of the 'dialogue' between labour law and the rules issued by immigration law. Different tensions stem from the coexistence of these two regulatory sets which do not ensure the same functions, are not aimed at the same purpose and are not developed nor implemented by the same actors. This paper will expose the results of a field study conducted between 2012 and 2013. Our research allowed us to better understand the context in which Guatemalan seasonal agricultural workers hired via the agricultural stream of the Canadian temporary foreign workers program are recruited. This research also sheds light on the complex and highly ramified transnational network that allow these workers to be hired by employers in Canada and which exercises a definite influence on the parties to the employment contract. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: The recruitment of Guatemalan agricultural workers by Canadian employers: mapping the web of a transnational network

Authors: Dalia Gesualdi-Fecteau

Addresses: Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada

Abstract: For the past two decades, the number of immigrants admitted to Canada has remained relatively stable while the number of workers admitted with a temporary work permit has steadily increased. This phenomenon is explained by a shift of the Canadian public policies that foresees the management of labour migration. Given their foreignness, the conditions through which temporary foreign workers are employed are a result of the 'dialogue' between labour law and the rules issued by immigration law. Different tensions stem from the coexistence of these two regulatory sets which do not ensure the same functions, are not aimed at the same purpose and are not developed nor implemented by the same actors. This paper will expose the results of a field study conducted between 2012 and 2013. Our research allowed us to better understand the context in which Guatemalan seasonal agricultural workers hired via the agricultural stream of the Canadian temporary foreign workers program are recruited. This research also sheds light on the complex and highly ramified transnational network that allow these workers to be hired by employers in Canada and which exercises a definite influence on the parties to the employment contract.

Keywords: temporary foreign workers; seasonal agricultural workers; Canada; Guatemala; recruitment networks; recruitment process; system of actors; temporary migration programmes; TMPs; temporary work permits; transnational networks; labour migration management; labour law; immigration law.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMBS.2014.068967

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 2014 Vol.1 No.3, pp.291 - 302

Received: 11 Jan 2014
Accepted: 09 Sep 2014
Published online: 30 Apr 2015 *

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Title: The recruitment of Guatemalan agricultural workers by Canadian employers: mapping the web of a transnational network

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