GeoJournal https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-020-10238-9 (0123456789().,-volV)( 0123456789().,-volV) Spaces of alienation in the tobacco fields: the case of migrant workers in Ontario, Canada Robert Michael Bridi Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020 Abstract In his book, Seventeen Contradictions and precarious work, and the intermediation in labor the End of Capitalism, Harvey (2014: 220 italics in markets further intensify their alienation experiences. original) identified the alienation of workers among the most ‘‘dangerous, if not potentially fatal, contra- Keywords Alienation Á Migrant worker Á dictions’’ of capitalism that generates a sense of Precariousness Á Labor geography Á SAWP powerlessness and self-estrangement. In this article, I examine the alienation of migrant workers participat- ing in the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). I argue that conditions internal to Introduction the production process (the interaction between workers and their productive activities, the product The increasing role of temporary migrant workers in of their labor, and the character of their social the economies of countries in the global North is interactions) and external conditions associated with facilitated by international labor migration programs temporary migration (the institutional arrangements that provide vulnerable workers, willing to endure low that guide the SAWP, deregulated labor regimes, and pay, poor working conditions, and incongruous the interlocking spaces that link the movements of employment practices (Hennebry 2008). Annually, people) alienate workers. My analysis is based on approximately 40,000 temporary migrant agricultural original empirical evidence from in-depth interviews workers from Mexico and countries in the Caribbean with Mexican and Jamaican workers and farmers in arrive in Canada through the Seasonal Agricultural Ontario, Canada. My findings show that migrant Worker Program (SAWP) (Employment and Social workers in tobacco farming are alienated from the Development Canada 2016a). Most of the migrant productive activities in which they are involved, the workers participating in the SAWP have been pro- product that they produce, and their fellow workers pelled from rural areas in Mexico and Jamaica because and employers. Moreover, temporary migration, of high levels of unemployment and poverty due to losses in export markets and disinvestment in small- scale agriculture (Angelucci and Conforti 2010; Bello R. M. Bridi (&) 2009; Pechlaner and Otero 2010). The SAWP allows Geography and Urban Sustainability Department, College employers to hire migrant workers when Canadian of Humanities and Social Sciences, United Arab Emirates citizens and permanent residents are not available. The University, P. O. Box 15551, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates program operates according to bilateral agreements e-mail: [email protected] 123 GeoJournal between Canada and the participating countries. in capitalist society (the inherent contradiction Workers are at least 18 years of age, have experience between work as a process of human development in farming, are citizens of one of the participating and self-realization and its alienated form given countries, and are able to satisfy Canadian immigra- capitalist social relations), I demonstrate the interre- tion laws and the laws of their home countries. lationship between such dynamics and the contexts in Migrant workers are employed on Canadian farms which they occur (the adoption of neoliberal policies between six weeks and eight months performing tasks of deregulation, privatization, marketization, and in primary agriculture (Employment and Social attacks on labor by governments in the zones of Development Canada 2016b). precarity that comprise the reconfigured spaces of Harvey (2014: 220 italics in original) referred to the capital and work in late capitalism). Several questions alienation of workers as a ‘‘dangerous, if not poten- animate the study: what are the internal dynamics of tially fatal’’ contradiction. He asserted, ‘‘the worker is the production process more generally and tobacco estranged from his or her product as well as from other farming more specifically that alienate workers? How workers, from nature and all other aspects of social does the social interaction between workers and their life…The deprivation and dispossession are experi- productive activity, the product they produce, and enced and internalized as a sense of loss and sorrow at their fellow workers and employers produce alien- the frustration of the worker’s own creative instincts. ation? To what extent do conditions that are external to Ultimately the worker stops being melancholic and production, such as deregulated labor regimes and morose and gets angry at the immediate sources of his precarious work, competitive global markets, and or her alienation’’ (Harvey 2014: 267–268). The temporary migration intensify workers’ alienating interaction among these dynamics generates a sense experiences? of powerlesness and self-estrangement. Moreover, The study contributes to the broader literature on broader issues related to temporary migration, precar- alienation, the SAWP, and labor geography in several iousness, and intermediation in labor markets (Coe ways: first, classic works on alienation primarily 2013) intensify the alienating experiences of migrant focused on philosophical contributions with no workers. Their displacement from land, the disinte- engagement in empirical research. While such studies gration of the agricultural sectors in their home made many important theoretical interventions, they countries, the lack of civil and labor rights in the host were mostly abstract with few insights about concrete countries, the ensuing threat of deportation, and reality. The present study seeks to contribute to more cultural estrangement further reinforce their vulnera- current studies that draw on the philosophical concept bilities (Ferguson and McNally 2015). and make it operational as a research problematic thus In this article, I examine the alienation of migrant extending what previously was largely a theoretical workers participating in the SAWP. I argue that debate unto new empirical territory. conditions internal to the production process and Second, more current studies on alienation have external conditions associated with temporary migra- focused on the industrial and service sectors, tion alienate workers. This is manifested, on the one oppressed groups of people, and the alienating expe- hand, by the interaction between workers and their riences of everyday life. This study provides a productive activities, which are necessary for their different scholarly perspective by drawing attention (re)production, the product of their labor which they to the alienation of migrant workers in the agricultural produce primarily for the benefit of the farmers, and sector of economies in the global North. Also, scholars the character of their social interactions which pit conducting research on the SAWP and labor geogra- worker against worker and worker against farmer; and phers have not adequately addressed issues related to on the other hand, by the institutional arrangements the alienation of migrant workers. This study and bureaucratic practices that guide the SAWP, addresses this gap by examining and discussing Mexico’s and Jamaica’s deregulated labor regimes, several factors related to the alienation of migrant and the interlocking spaces in the geography and agricultural workers participating in a temporary political economy of capitalism that link the move- foreign worker program. ments of people. While the study highlights the Third, the academic literature that focuses on alienation of workers in reference to the form of labor alienation, for the most part, abstracts from broader 123 GeoJournal social, economic, and political processes at the internationally recognized practices for temporary national and international scales. Although some migration programs. These studies investigated the authors discuss such processes, there is no extant ways international human rights protections may be work giving a systematic analysis of their significance extended to non-citizen migrants and the organiza- in relation to the alienation of workers. The study is a tional strategies that activists employed to ensure that preliminary exploration of this query. For this task, I labor and civil rights are afforded to migrant workers develop an understanding of alienation as the interre- (Basok and Carasco 2010; Choudry and Thomas 2013; lationship between workplace dynamics and broader Faraday et al. 2012; Gabriel and MacDonald 2011; social processes in the geography and political econ- Hennebry and Preibisch 2012). omy of capitalism. This enables one to specify what is The social oppressions of race and gender and their significantly different about the alienation of migrant implications for the SAWP have been assessed. Some agricultural workers and to understand how and why authors probed the racist Canadian immigration poli- such differences arise. It also enables us to understand cies (Perry 2012; Preibisch and Binford 2007; Walia the similarities and differences between the alienation 2010), the gendered aspects of migrant work (Grez of migrant agricultural workers and workers in 2018; Preibisch and Grez 2010), issues surrounding general. (non)citizenship and the exclusion of migrant workers The article is organized in the following way. In the from labor protection legislation (Goldring and Lan-