Foreign workers help keep Canadian farms running, with a little TeaMWork
Far from home, without their loved ones and families, temporary foreign workers tend the crops that make it to the dinner tables of Canadians across this vast nation. The work can be hard, the hours long, but these tight-knit groups power through.
These workers are grateful for the opportunity to travel to Canada, and to earn a paycheck that they would be unlikely to be able to generate in their home country. Many of these foreign workers are farmers in their home nations, and spend part of their year working on farms here to save up for their families and to afford better equipment for their farms back home.
According to the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, Canadian farmers employ roughly 60,000 temporary foreign farm workers, one quarter of the industry’s workforce. Statistics Canada has surmised that 80 per cent of that workforce comes from three countries: Mexico, Guatemala, and Jamaica.
In 2022, the agriculture sector in Canada had among the highest job vacancy rates in the land at 7.4 per cent, per the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council. When Canadians cannot be found to fill these roles, farmers are led to explore other options for labour, like the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). Without workers from these programs, our farmers simply cannot provide the food for our kitchen tables, as there would be no one to do the work.
Here in the Windsor-Essex region, temporary foreign workers, especially in the Leamington and Kingsville area, with its prominent agricultural sector, make the world go round.
However, these workers, far from home, are just like us—especially in terms of their mental health. Working long hours, meeting deadlines, combined with isolation from their community, at large, and their families, these things begin to wear on a person.
“It is a unique experience, beautiful and very difficult at the same time,” reflects Yolanda, a foreign worker from Mexico. “Making the decision to migrate is very, very difficult—a goal that does not allow us to give up.”
TeaMWork Is Here To Help
In partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association of Windsor-Essex, the Windsor Essex Local Immigration Partnership, and the Government of Canada, Workforce WindsorEssex is spearheading a program called TeaMWork to help both temporary foreign workers and their employers deal with the rigours of fostering relationships between the two groups, easing the burden of visas, and offering services and mental health support to the workers.
“At Workforce WindsorEssex, we are proud to work with organizations across Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent, and Sarnia-Lambton on the TeaMWork Project,” states TeaMWork project supervisor Monica Champagne. “Funded by Employment and Social Development Canada’s Migrant Worker Support Program, TeaMWork helps workers learn about their rights and responsibilities in Canada, gain access to supports and services available to them, and support them through emergency situations. Perhaps most importantly, TeaMWork helps to welcome them to their communities and let them know how much we value their contributions to the cultural landscape of this area, and to food security and the economy.”
TeaMWork, or Together Empowering Access for Migrant Workers Outreach, Resources and Knowledge, was formed, in part, by the creation of the Migrant Worker Support Program as part of the 2021 Federal Budget.
“Our role is to provide workplace outreach support to not only the migrant workers, but their employers as well,” explains CMHA-WECB workplace outreach worker Leanne Laramie. “We work on promoting psychological health and safety in the workplace and we can provide that in a variety of ways, like through workshops, one-on-one education sessions, we can provide individual, confidential, and free counselling support to the migrant workers, and also to act as a resource and connection for them, if they are having financial difficulties or are experiencing difficulty with their visas, we can point them in the right direction.”
Foreign workers often don’t know the ins and outs of gaining permission to work in Canada. TeaMWork is here to lend a hand.
Fresh Off The Boat
“When workers come to Canada, they don’t always know how the systems work or what is available to them,” explains Champagne. “Employers work really hard to support their workforce, but it can be a lot to manage. That’s where we come in. TeaMWork supports both the workers and the employers, ensuring everyone has the information and resources they need to thrive while they are here.”
Carrie Davis, another CMHA-WECB workplace outreach worker, says that the biggest challenges they hear from the workers is the difficulty of being away from home, running into language barriers, and understanding what resources are available to them.
“The farms we’ve been to, truthfully, the living conditions are fairly good,” says Davis. “They have a good, close-knit group among the lot of them. The smaller farms, where there are only 30-35 workers, they spend all of their time together, so they become really good friends with a lot of these people they are here working with, and a lot of them return to the same farm.”
TeaMWork is flexible, providing resources that work around the workers’ long workday, including hosting virtual workshops on a biweekly basis about many different mental health subjects. Through this, they are able to reach as many people and as many farms as possible through TeaMWork’s ability to accommodate their after-hours availability and their ability to provide them with the info they need.
“With the Teamwork Project, in general, there’s been a variety of different partners that are a part of it and it’s definitely been extremely effective in getting them the resources and information that they need,” states Laramie. “Being away from home, in general, I think it does lead to isolation and loneliness, which then leads to depression and anxiety. A lot of them might find unhealthy coping strategies or things to do trying to forget those feelings, and, I think, that’s where we come in. Our main goal is prevention, so we want to help them before they get into, for example, drugs or alcohol addiction, or lose their jobs.”
Businesses Supporting Their Workers
Truly Green Farms in Chatham-Kent has been working with TeaMWork for the benefit of their employees. As a partner of TeaMWork, they have been recognized by the project for their forthcomingness and commitment to improving the lives of their foreign workers.
“At Truly Green, “We put people first” is a guiding principle and core value within our organization, the DNA that defines who we are and what we stand for,” explains Erin Deline, director of employee engagement at Truly Green Farms. “It’s not often, we are lucky enough to partner with an organization who shares the same values that are important to us. The TeaMWork project has been an advantageous resource for our guest workers and supporting staff. They have jumped in and helped where needed, adapted services to meet our workers needs and been an instrumental educational source.”
Truly Green Farms sees the challenges their foreign workers face and are committed to making their experience here in Canada a positive one.
“Guest workers face an elevated risk of mental health not just from the obstacles of unfamiliarity with a different culture,” states Deline. “They face fundamental challenges understanding basic services and overcoming healthcare barriers, which make them a vulnerable group. They face anxieties about the well-being of the friends and family they are required to leave back home and the need to return home urgently on compassionate grounds. TeaMWork has helped us support individuals through these challenging mental health circumstances. They do so much more than bridging the gap, they genuinely care, like they are extended family.”
Working with TeaMWork is paying dividends for the workers who have sought its benefits, leading to better outcomes and experience for these hardworking individuals.
“As an individual seeking better opportunities in life, coming to Canada as a temporary worker has been an absolute blessing,” states Panuwat Wijan, a foreign worker from Thailand. “Not only has it allowed me to earn a more stable and substantial income, but it has also given me the chance to learn the ins and outs of running a farm business in Canada. The experience has been both eye-opening and inspiring, and it has fueled in me a desire to create my own business in this wonderful country.”
TeaMWork takes a community, and our foreigner workers are all the better for it. In turn, so are we. With the help of so many community partners, TeaMWork is helping the local agricultural sector evolve for the better.
“We are very lucky to have many dedicated community partners to work with, including CMHA-WECB, who are very embedded in their communities and know the unique challenges faced by workers and employers in the Agricultural sector,” states Champagne. “Together, this community has already made a measurable, positive impact on the lives of workers.”
For more information on the TeaMWork Project, please visit www.TeaMWorkProject.ca.”
