tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/migrant-labour-29683/articlesMigrant labour – The Conversation2023-07-06T22:14:42Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2088342023-07-06T22:14:42Z2023-07-06T22:14:42ZA century after the Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese women still face challenges in Canada<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535582/original/file-20230704-23-rsezno.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=48%2C252%2C6441%2C4008&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People visit the Paper Trail to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act exhibit at the Chinese Canadian Museum in Vancouver on June 30, 2023. The exhibit features hundreds of special identity documents called C.I. certificates that were issued to Chinese residents by the Canadian government. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This July marks a century since the <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chinese-immigration-act"><em>Chinese Exclusion Act</em></a> was introduced in Canada. On June 23, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2023/06/government-of-canada-commemorates-the-exclusion-of-chinese-immigrants-from-1923-to-1947.html">a plaque was unveiled</a> in the Senate in Ottawa to mark the centenary.</p>
<p>While the act was in force, Chinese immigrants to Canada faced strict restrictions that made it near impossible for many to enter the country. During the 24 years the act was in place, Canada admitted fewer than 50 Chinese people in total. </p>
<p>Canada’s Chinese community has come far since the days of exclusion. People of Chinese origin <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221026/dq221026b-eng.htm">make-up just under five per cent</a> of the population. Toronto recently elected a Chinese-Canadian woman from Hong Kong, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/27/olivia-chow-wins-election-as-torontos-first-chinese-canadian-mayor">Olivia Chow</a>, as mayor. And last year, <a href="https://bc.ctvnews.ca/loud-and-clear-ken-sim-and-abc-party-see-decisive-election-victory-in-vancouver-1.6111087">Ken Sim</a> was elected as Vancouver’s first Chinese-Canadian mayor.</p>
<p>However, this does not mean that Chinese people, and Chinese women in particular, no longer experience racism, sexism and class discrimination in Canada. </p>
<p>The <em>Chinese Exclusion Act</em> and other discriminatory measures had profound and lasting impacts on Chinese women and family formation in Canada. Contemporary issues like accreditation systems, the preference for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2004.06.004">Canadian experience</a> and education and a lack of affordable child care affect Chinese immigrant women and their families today.</p>
<h2>Nation-building and Chinese labour</h2>
<p>Canadian nation-building was a project built on <a href="https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446222225">excluding</a> those who were deemed undesirable. That often meant imposing laws and restrictions that discriminated against <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/timeline/the-indian-act">Indigenous Peoples</a> and other <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19s-impact-on-migrant-workers-adds-urgency-to-calls-for-permanent-status-148237">racialized communities</a>. </p>
<p>However, Canada’s nation-building also required a great deal of cheap labour. From 1880 to 1885, 17,000 Chinese labourers worked under contract to build the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia. Due to the treacherous working conditions, <a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/multiculturalism-anti-racism/chinese-legacy-bc/history/building-the-railway">several hundred Chinese labourers died building the railway</a>.</p>
<p>When the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed in 1885 and cheap Chinese labour was no longer needed, a <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chinese-head-tax-in-canada">head tax</a> of $50 was levied by the state to deter poor labourers from entering Canada. It was later increased to $500 in 1903. </p>
<p>The few who managed to enter <a href="https://cc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/cc%3A318">laboured as indentured workers</a> under contract in order to repay their head tax and travel expenses. The exorbitant tax meant many poor Chinese labourers could not afford to bring their wives and children to Canada.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535614/original/file-20230704-15-zmoq4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of men working on a railway line." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535614/original/file-20230704-15-zmoq4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535614/original/file-20230704-15-zmoq4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535614/original/file-20230704-15-zmoq4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535614/original/file-20230704-15-zmoq4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535614/original/file-20230704-15-zmoq4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535614/original/file-20230704-15-zmoq4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535614/original/file-20230704-15-zmoq4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Chinese labourers at work on the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1884.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Library and Archives Canada)</span></span>
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<p>The head tax was not uniformly imposed on all Chinese immigrants. <a href="https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/38935">Preferential treatment</a> was given to certain classes, such as merchants, diplomats and university students, who were allowed to enter Canada with their wives and children exempt of the tax. <a href="https://cc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/cc%3A323">However, the number of people who were exempted from the tax was minuscule</a>. With few Chinese women around, families could not be formed or settled permanently in Canada, and the Chinese population was effectively kept low.</p>
<h2>The exclusion act</h2>
<p>The racist exclusion of Chinese immigrants culminated in July 1, 1923 with the passing of the <em>Chinese Exclusion Act</em>, which excluded Chinese from entering Canada. The act required all Chinese people to carry identification or risk being fined or even deported.</p>
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Read more:
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535910/original/file-20230705-25-vnrrzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An Asian man holds a green certificate with a black and white photo of a young man in a suit and tie." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535910/original/file-20230705-25-vnrrzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535910/original/file-20230705-25-vnrrzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535910/original/file-20230705-25-vnrrzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535910/original/file-20230705-25-vnrrzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535910/original/file-20230705-25-vnrrzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535910/original/file-20230705-25-vnrrzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535910/original/file-20230705-25-vnrrzm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Matthew Yan, whose father paid a $500 head tax to enter Canada in 1920, holds his father’s identification certificate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The act effectively stopped Chinese people, particularly Chinese women, from coming into Canada. Thus, the <a href="https://humanrights.ca/story/chinese-head-tax-and-chinese-exclusion-act">ratio</a> of Chinese women to Chinese men in Canada remained disproportionate. This has had a tremendous effect on Chinese family formation and community development. </p>
<p>By 1941, there were 20,141 <a href="https://www.readings.com.au/product/9780195412710/9780195412710">separated families</a> in the Chinese community in which the husbands resided in Canada while the wives remained in the home country. In the same year, there were only 1,177 intact Chinese families in Canada where both the husbands and wives resided here.</p>
<h2>Family separations continue</h2>
<p>Recent Chinese immigrants to Canada are often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/22125868-12340084">highly educated and skilled</a>. However, these immigrants often struggle to enter the Canadian labour market due to the devaluation of international credentials and experience.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/ces.2019.0023">Skilled immigrant women</a>, in particular, often have to take on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2004.06.004">part-time, precarious work</a> with <a href="https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/7886">low pay and no job securities</a> for which they are overqualified. Despite the high level of education and prior experience many immigrants bring, they are still treated as a source of cheap labour. </p>
<p>The channelling of immigrants into precarious employment with low pay has a <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/T/bo70030633.html">tremendous impact</a> on their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13229400.2017.1402805">familial relationships and household arrangements</a>. Some families may try to make ends meet by resorting to having one spouse, typically the husband, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487530563-012">return to the home country to work</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/011719689500400207">leaving the wife and children in Canada</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535579/original/file-20230704-15-ebfxia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C905%2C6722%2C3562&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people stand around a plaque. Two of them remove a covering to unveil it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535579/original/file-20230704-15-ebfxia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C905%2C6722%2C3562&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535579/original/file-20230704-15-ebfxia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535579/original/file-20230704-15-ebfxia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535579/original/file-20230704-15-ebfxia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535579/original/file-20230704-15-ebfxia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535579/original/file-20230704-15-ebfxia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535579/original/file-20230704-15-ebfxia.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A commemorative plaque is unveiled during the National Remembrance Ceremony for the 100th Anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act, in the Senate Chamber in Ottawa on June 23, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-a-5th-generation-new-yorker-traces-her-family-history-and-finds-the-roots-of-anti-asian-violence-and-asian-resistance-204721">Listen: A 5th generation New Yorker traces her family history and finds the roots of anti-Asian violence -- and Asian resistance</a>
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<p>In addition, current Canadian immigration policy <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/ces.2019.0023">discriminates against older adults</a>, and many elderly parents are unable to immigrate to Canada with their adult children. As a result, many immigrants lack the support that comes with having parents and other family members close by.</p>
<p>Immigrant women seeking to raise a family in Canada must reckon with a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21699763.2018.1526700">dire shortage of regulated affordable child care facilities</a>, and a lack of subsidized child-care spaces for working mothers in Canada.</p>
<p>Like other women, Chinese immigrant women are responsible for bearing the bulk of the day-to-day housework and caring responsibilities. As a result, they are constantly juggling the <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781551117942/race-and-racism-in-21st-century-canada/">contradictory demands of paid work, housework, and child care</a>, preventing them from obtaining full-time work. </p>
<p>Some women resolve to <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ch77rj.18">send their children back to the home country</a> to be taken care of by grandparents or other family members. That means children can often be separated from their parents for years.</p>
<p>A century ago, Chinese families were separated due to outright racist policies and practices in Canada. Today, Canada’s immigration policies and employment preferences are still excluding immigrants and separating families. </p>
<p>Without an integrative anti-racist, anti-sexist approach and structural changes, many Chinese families in Canada will continue to suffer simply for wanting to call Canada home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208834/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guida Man receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keefer Wong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Chinese Exclusion Act and other discriminatory measures had profound and lasting impacts on Chinese women and families in Canada.Guida Man, Associate Professor, Sociology, York University, CanadaKeefer Wong, PhD Candidate, Sociology, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2036352023-04-25T21:00:49Z2023-04-25T21:00:49ZHow schools and families can take climate action by learning about food systems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522794/original/file-20230425-25-yv0cq7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=265%2C512%2C5159%2C3063&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students and a teacher seen on a rooftop garden at École Secondaire Lacombe Composite High School in Lacombe, Alta., in June 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>News about the climate crisis alerts us to the urgent need for drastic global changes. Given this, it’s not surprising that one study surveying thousands of young people found most respondents were worried about climate change, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3">over 45 per cent said worries about climate change affected them daily</a>. </p>
<p>Young people are experiencing high levels of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30223-0">climate anxiety</a> which is characterized by feelings of fear, worry, despair and guilt and can negatively affect psychosocial health and well-being. </p>
<p>Taking climate action is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101887">one proposed way to reduce climate anxiety</a> by turning negative emotions in response to the reality of urgent challenges into positive action. </p>
<p>Engaging with food systems presents a major opportunity to act on the climate crisis, as they <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/chapter/chapter-5/">contribute 21 to 37 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions</a>. Both home-based discussions with parents or caregivers and school curriculums have a place in helping young people connect relationships with food to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-community-owned-grocery-stores-like-co-ops-are-the-best-recipe-for-revitalizing-food-deserts-122997">advocating for change to food systems</a> or making more sustainable choices to benefit our shared planetary health. </p>
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<img alt="Two girls seen with a sign 'There is no Planet B.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522833/original/file-20230425-16-9z9oyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522833/original/file-20230425-16-9z9oyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522833/original/file-20230425-16-9z9oyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522833/original/file-20230425-16-9z9oyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522833/original/file-20230425-16-9z9oyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522833/original/file-20230425-16-9z9oyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522833/original/file-20230425-16-9z9oyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Focusing food education only on nutrition and cooking doesn’t consider the positive impact people can have on transforming food systems to be more just and environmentally sustainable. Protesters seen at Global Climate Strike protests in New York on Sept. 23, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Brittainy Newman)</span></span>
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<h2>What is a food system?</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.oecd.org/food-systems/">food system</a> includes everything that happens to food from farm to fork. The food system also includes all the people involved in each of those steps, including us. </p>
<p>Every time we eat, we participate in the food system. Yet, due in part to the increased number of steps between farm to fork, and the fact that in our dominant global economy food is positioned as a product to consume, there is a <a href="https://islandpress.org/books/kitchen-literacy">growing disconnect between people and the food system</a>. </p>
<p>This disconnect has both contributed to current issues caused by food systems, and continues to perpetuate them. These issues include <a href="https://pymwymic.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Global-Food-System-Analysis-1.pdf">biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation and global inequalities</a> related to both labour practices and resource extraction.</p>
<h2>Impact of daily choices</h2>
<p>Many of us rarely consider the impact our daily food choices have on the environment. Those that do seldom see our own potential in engaging with and transforming the food system beyond eating on the basis of conscience.</p>
<p>Recognizing our role in the food system can be empowering, as it presents opportunities to act on the climate crisis.</p>
<p>Primary and secondary schools are a logical place to engage students in these issues as they are locations where young people spend most of their day and <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-pandemic-ignoring-science-affects-everyone-citizenship-education-can-help-ensure-that-doesnt-happen-173636">institutions that have goals of</a> <a href="https://bcforhighschool.gov.bc.ca/offshore/bc-curriculum-assessment-overview/the-educated-citizen/">promoting an educated and engaged citizenry</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the potential of educational institutions to engage young people in issues related to food systems, many school <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042019">curriculums around the world</a>, including throughout <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2015.1091440">Canada, fail to do</a> this.</p>
<h2>Beyond nutrition, cooking</h2>
<p>For example, research about primary school curriculums in 11 countries including Australia, England, Japan, Norway and Sweden finds that curriculums tend to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042019">focus on nutrition education or cooking skills</a> with little to no mention of the ways current food systems are destroying our environment or perpetuating gross social injustices. Research about Canadian curriculums has similarly found curriculum policies tend to focus on eating in healthy ways as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2015.1091440">matter of individual choice</a>. </p>
<p>Although much curriculum does not take a holistic approach to food systems education, there are many <a href="https://www.foodspan.org">third-party organizations that have created resources</a> for educators examining food systems in a more comprehensive way.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People seen with grocery carts in a produce section near a fish section." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522829/original/file-20230425-3095-j93b29.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522829/original/file-20230425-3095-j93b29.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522829/original/file-20230425-3095-j93b29.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522829/original/file-20230425-3095-j93b29.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522829/original/file-20230425-3095-j93b29.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522829/original/file-20230425-3095-j93b29.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522829/original/file-20230425-3095-j93b29.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Talking about where food comes from can help young people connect our relationships with food to making more sustainable choices. People seen shopping at the Granville Island Market in Vancouver in July 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Nutrition and cooking are important for individual health. But this limited focus can be disempowering for young people as it does not consider the positive impact people can have on transforming food systems to be more just and environmentally sustainable. </p>
<p>By showing the next generation ways to change our food systems for the better, we can not only reduce climate anxiety, but also ensure the next generation is equipped with the knowledge and skills to create a more just and sustainable future.</p>
<h2>Taking action locally</h2>
<p>So how do we support these important issues in our schools? If you are a concerned parent, you could join the parent advisory committee at your child’s school or write to your school district to find out if there are any positive local initiatives and to express concern.</p>
<p>You could also write to your provincial or territorial legislative representative to advocate for the inclusion of these issues in the curriculum. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-pandemic-recovery-urgently-needs-a-national-school-meal-program-174226">Canada's pandemic recovery urgently needs a national school meal program</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Outside of school, parents or caregivers could find ways to engage children in discussions around food systems that go beyond nutrition. For school projects where a child has a choice about the topic, or as a home project, encourage your child to research different organizations in your area that are involved in sustainable food systems work. Together, visit a local farm or starting a small indoor or outdoor garden.</p>
<h2>How a meal arrives on a plate</h2>
<p>Another activity to start thinking about the global impact of food systems is to explore how a meal comes to be on your plate. You could ask questions like:</p>
<ul>
<li>What are the ingredients? </li>
<li>Where in the world did all those ingredients originate? </li>
<li>Who was involved in growing the ingredients, in transporting them and in creating the food being consumed? </li>
<li>Were all those people treated fairly? </li>
<li>Was the environment harmed in the production of the food? </li>
</ul>
<p>Analyzing even a simple meal can lead to complex thoughts and discussions around food systems and reveal stark social and environmental issues. </p>
<p>By looking beyond nutrition, food can become a powerful tool to empower young people to take climate action which, in turn, can lead to reduced climate anxiety and increased feelings of hope for the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203635/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabrielle Edwards receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). </span></em></p>Both at home and in schools, food can become a powerful tool to empower young people to take climate action, which can lead to reduced climate anxiety and increased feelings of hope for the future.Gabrielle Edwards, PhD Candidate in Curriculum Studies, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2025992023-03-29T21:02:01Z2023-03-29T21:02:01ZInternational students face exploitation in Canada and abroad<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517847/original/file-20230328-3042-49f0b0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C498%2C4438%2C2303&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">International students are a major source of cheap labour for Canada, income for landlords and revenue for post-secondary institutions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Up to <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/03/17/international-student-scandal-outrage-amid-reports-that-hundreds-of-indian-students-in-canada-could-face-deportation-over-bogus-admission-letters.html">700 Indian international students</a> were recently found to have allegedly arrived in Canada with fraudulent admission letters from post-secondary institutions. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada only discovered the letters were fraudulent years after some of the students graduated and had applied for work permits or permanent residence. </p>
<p>The students have been accused of misrepresenting their intentions on their initial applications to come to Canada and could now face deportation. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517846/original/file-20230328-23-7icde2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a dark suit speaking into a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517846/original/file-20230328-23-7icde2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517846/original/file-20230328-23-7icde2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517846/original/file-20230328-23-7icde2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517846/original/file-20230328-23-7icde2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517846/original/file-20230328-23-7icde2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517846/original/file-20230328-23-7icde2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517846/original/file-20230328-23-7icde2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser blamed ‘bad actors’ for taking advantage of international students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many of the students say <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/international-students-immigration-cbsa-ircc-india-1.6782999">they were misled</a> by an immigration consultant in India who handled their visa applications. Students say that once they arrived in Canada, the consultant told them the courses they believed they had been accepted to were full and they needed to enrol at other colleges. Many students did so without knowing that their initial visa applications were based on fraudulent admission letters.</p>
<p>Federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser blamed “<a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/03/17/international-student-scandal-outrage-amid-reports-that-hundreds-of-indian-students-in-canada-could-face-deportation-over-bogus-admission-letters.html">bad actors, particularly from other parts of the world, who are difficult to police from Canada, who seek to take advantage of international students</a>.” </p>
<p>International students are <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-india-canada-international-student-recruitment/">a major source of cheap labour, income for landlords and revenues for post-secondary institutions</a>. And the exploitation and abuse they face does not stop at the border. It continues inside Canada as well. </p>
<h2>Consultants as conduits to migration</h2>
<p>Many immigrants come to Canada through its <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-626-x/11-626-x2020009-eng.htm">two-stage migration</a> process. Individuals arrive as temporary migrants, including international students, then apply for permanent residence once they meet the eligibility requirements. However, this system allows for abuse. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12134-023-01026-8">Research shows</a> two-stage migration can be discriminatory based on race, ethnicity, class and gender.</p>
<p>The number of work permits issued to international students and others coming in through the International Mobility Program has <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2023/03/18/state-of-shock-as-canada-ramps-up-immigration-unsuspecting-newcomers-are-running-into-inflation-shock-from-soaring-prices.html">increased significantly during the last three years</a>, particularly after weekly limits on work hours <a href="https://windsor.ctvnews.ca/after-feds-lift-20-hour-work-rule-for-international-students-immigration-consultant-calls-move-short-sighted-1.6101352">were lifted</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/work-canada/hire-temporary-foreign/international-mobility-program.html">The program</a> allows Canadian employers to hire foreign workers without having to complete a <a href="https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=163&top=17">Labour Market Impact Assessment</a>.</p>
<p>Many international students who want to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/temporary-residents/study-permits/post-graduation-work-permit-program.html">remain and work in Canada</a> after graduating are able to do so due to this program.</p>
<p><a href="https://policyresponse.ca/why-canadas-covid-recovery-needs-to-include-international-students/">International student labour is crucial in the post-pandemic recovery effort</a>. But neglectful governments and post-secondary institutions in Canada have allowed fraudulent immigration consultants, abusive landlords and employers to contribute to taking advantage of international students. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KgeGXXmVFs0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">International students facing deportation say they were duped by immigration consultants.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2022, there were <a href="https://cbie.ca/infographic/">807,750 international students in Canada</a>. Around 40 per cent of them were from India.</p>
<p>Many students who come from villages and remote areas are <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Passages-of-Fortune-Exploring-Dynamics-of-International-Migration-from/Nanda-Veron-Rajan/p/book/9780367336622">unfamiliar with international travel and rely on immigration consultants</a> to fill out applications, arrange the required documents and advocate for them in case their application is refused.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429321306">Research</a> suggests that poorer households with weaker social networks and no family history of migration tend to rely on consultants more often. The same study found that 20 per cent of those who did, felt cheated or deceived by consultants. </p>
<p>These consultants can charge exorbitant fees and persuade students to join colleges rather than universities, promising them a faster track to permanent residency. Students can even end up in debt <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/international-students-canada-immigration-ontario-1.6614238">by relying on these consultants</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://ycar.apps01.yorku.ca/punjabinewcomers/">Tania Das Gupta’s ongoing research</a>, which includes interviews with 15 Punjabi immigrants and 18 community workers who work with new migrants, shows how some prospective international students whose test scores were not high enough for Canadian universities rely on consultants to gain admission to colleges instead. <a href="https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ts/news/canada/2023/03/24/indian-student-fighting-deportation-says-he-was-duped-by-consultant-who-gave-him-bogus-college-admission-letter.html?li_source=LI&li_medium=niagarafallsreview_canada">And sometimes those consultants are unlicensed</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518045/original/file-20230328-16-33wfuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sign at an airport that says Canada Arrivals in English and French." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518045/original/file-20230328-16-33wfuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518045/original/file-20230328-16-33wfuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518045/original/file-20230328-16-33wfuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518045/original/file-20230328-16-33wfuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518045/original/file-20230328-16-33wfuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518045/original/file-20230328-16-33wfuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518045/original/file-20230328-16-33wfuw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2022 there were more than 800,000 international students in Canada, and around 40 per cent of them were from India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Exploitation in Canada</h2>
<p>Many international students have to contend with the high costs of rent in many Canadian cities. But racialized newcomers to Canada also <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/11/30/newcomers-face-alarming-discrimination-in-finding-housing-says-report.html">face discrimination</a> when trying to find a place to live.</p>
<p>Female students who struggle to pay their rent have <a href="https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/douglas-todd-female-foreign-students-endure-harassment-exploitation">suffered sexual harassment and requests for sexual services from landlords</a>. Students also spoke of landlords imposing restrictions on the use of common areas like the kitchen as well as on electricity and water use.</p>
<p>International students often also face <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/12/04/how-canada-can-fix-its-predatory-relationship-with-international-students.html">labour exploitation and wage theft</a>. </p>
<p>Before the pandemic around one-quarter of <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/36-28-0001/2021011/article/00001-eng.htm">international students with part-time jobs worked in the accommodation and food services sectors</a>. During the pandemic, many of these students <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/in-my-opinion/the-pandemic-exposed-the-vulnerability-of-international-students-in-canada/">lost their jobs and faced many challenges finding new jobs or alternative income sources</a>.</p>
<p>The exploitation experienced by international students is concerning. These experiences, combined with the immense pressure to succeed, have contributed to deteriorating mental health conditions leading to some <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/12/04/no-parents-should-have-to-bury-their-child-how-a-canadian-funeral-home-owner-is-trying-to-stop-suicides-among-international-students.html">international students taking their lives</a>.</p>
<p>The Canadian government and post-secondary institutions need to act now and proactively ensure that international students are not being taken advantage of both outside and within Canada.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tania Das Gupta receives funding from Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Partnership Engage Grant. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yvonne Su does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recent reports that 700 international students and graduates could be deported from Canada reveal how the immigration system leaves them open to exploitation.Tania Das Gupta, Professor, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, York University, CanadaYvonne Su, Assistant Professor in the Department of Equity Studies, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1983442023-02-08T13:15:59Z2023-02-08T13:15:59ZFew of South Africa’s chartered accountants are black: hearing their stories suggests what to fix<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506304/original/file-20230125-18-tcfz60.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are ways to make the path to a chartered accountancy qualification less fraught for black candidates.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrey Popov/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Chartered accountants can be found in the upper echelons of organisations all over the world as CEOs, directors and senior managers. They are often responsible for an entity’s finances, managing and reporting how funds are sourced and used, and the tax implications. Others are auditors.</p>
<p>Becoming a chartered accountant (CA) is not easy. In South Africa one must complete both undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications, serve a minimum of three years of articles (a supervised practical learnership) and complete two professional exams. </p>
<p>There is also a big racial disparity in South Africa’s chartered accountancy realm: only 8,610 (17%) of the 51,152 <a href="https://www.saica.org.za/members/member-info/membership-statistics">registered CAs</a> are black. That’s in stark contrast to the country’s demographics; <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1116076/total-population-of-south-africa-by-population-group/">nearly 81%</a> of South Africans are black. </p>
<p>This gap is rooted in history. For most of apartheid’s white-minority rule from 1948 to 1994, black citizens were not allowed to become chartered accountants. The first black man <a href="https://www.saica.org.za/about/overview/our-history">qualified in 1976</a> and the first black woman <a href="https://www.accountancysa.org.za/cover-story-winning-women-nonkululeko-gobodo-casa/">in 1987</a>. Though the profession is now open to all, it’s clear that historical disparities persist. </p>
<p>Most of the scientific literature that examines the challenges faced by aspirant and qualified black CAs is presented through the lens of professional bodies, universities, training firms and scholarship funders. Very few studies directly engage the black aspirants to find out what their lived struggles are. </p>
<p>I wanted to fill this gap because when people can share their own lived experiences, as the scholar Cheryl McEwan <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0305707032000095009?">puts it</a>, “their agency and sense of belonging is restored”. </p>
<p>So, for <a href="https://uir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/29357">my PhD</a>, I interviewed 22 recently qualified black CAs. Their lived experiences brought to light the brutal nature of the challenges they were experiencing – and emphasised that while some of these could be attributed to apartheid’s legacy, others were a manifestation of the complex racial and class divisions in contemporary society. </p>
<p>My findings suggest some easy and practical interventions that can be applied in <a href="http://www.thedtic.gov.za/financial-and-non-financial-support/b-bbee/b-bbee-charters/">the government’s initiatives</a> to transform the profession. The same framework can be applied in higher education and workplace training to promote inclusive learning and training practices. For academics, it lays a foundation for an avenue of research that responds to the practical challenges experienced in the profession. </p>
<h2>No room for failure</h2>
<p>My interviewees all qualified between 2016 and 2022 at different universities across the country. Some had taken more than the average seven years to qualify; a few had temporarily dropped out of their university studies before returning and completing their degrees. </p>
<p>The aspirants spoke of how gaining access to universities accredited by the <a href="https://www.saica.co.za/">South African Institute of Chartered Accountants</a> was a logistical nightmare. Universities must be accredited for their degrees to be recognised by the institute.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/university-transformation-the-wrong-research-questions-are-being-asked-67339">University transformation: the wrong research questions are being asked</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Many of the students were based in townships and rural areas, while the accredited institutions are found in big cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Students had to leave the safety provided by their immediate families and communities. </p>
<p>Because accounting qualifications have high entrance requirements and the aspirants had the necessary aptitude, they got merit scholarships which covered the cost of their relocation. But the terms and conditions of those scholarships left no room for failure, irrespective of the reasons. </p>
<p>One of the interviewees described how and why she lost her funding:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In my third year, I lost my dad and {was} also not feeling well. So, I actually failed my third year. I was on <a href="https://www.saica.org.za/initiatives/thuthuka/apply-to-the-thuthuka-bursary-fund">Thuthuka</a> {a bursary fund} but obviously if you do fail, they do stop your tuition.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She spent time in hospital and lost her funding. She later got a job, funded her part-time studies and eventually qualified.</p>
<h2>An unfamiliar setting</h2>
<p>University settings also presented some challenges.</p>
<p>Despite most students in a class being black, they felt displaced. Interviewees lamented the displays of cultural and language familiarity between white lecturers and white students in class. This reduced the black students to spectators of their tuition rather than active participants. One said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So sometimes I just think the system itself was just not for us … If I can put it that way.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… there is a lot of difference between me and a white person … because our education system doesn’t teach you how to learn. It teaches you how to remember. It’s all good and well, but now when you’re required to apply yourself, you don’t remember how to because you’ve never done it before.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This comment was a reference to the country’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africa-can-disrupt-its-deeply-rooted-educational-inequality-48531">extremely unequal schooling system</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-south-africa-can-disrupt-its-deeply-rooted-educational-inequality-48531">How South Africa can disrupt its deeply rooted educational inequality</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The kind of knowledge they brought into the system was not fit for purpose and the interviewees found themselves constantly challenged even though they were smart. One reflected:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think for me it was an exposure thing. That is why I would do poorly in those tests, or questions, or scenarios I had to solve. I found that for example, if a case study is based on the airline industry, you’re not exposed to that as a black person. So, it makes it difficult to then have that logic, even if something can be very straightforward because you haven’t been in that situation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So, although the aspirants had physically gained access to the qualification, there was constant confirmation that they operated on the periphery of it. </p>
<p>I was struck by how important the interviewees’ families were on these tough, sometimes lonely journeys. They consistently referenced their families as the strong pillars that helped them overcome adversity. </p>
<p>Academic research about accounting doesn’t often recognise the role of community in black people’s successful academic journeys. A better understanding of the role of community could help universities to respond appropriately to their students’ learning needs and should form the basis for free mental health support.</p>
<h2>Towards a new framework</h2>
<p>Based on my research, I propose a new framework that aims to narrow the gap between black students’ lived realities and the accounting qualification offered by universities.</p>
<p>For example, universities might adjust their admission requirement in a way that accounts for the inequity in basic education. They can also teach these students the language of business and collaborate with corporate organisations to aid students’ understanding of business practices in South Africa. </p>
<p>A more inclusive curriculum would also use examples that reflect the whole of society, allowing students from different backgrounds to engage with those examples.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sedzani Musundwa receives postdoctoral funding from BANKSETA. </span></em></p>Smart, capable students struggled to navigate cultural and language norms in university accounting classrooms.Sedzani Musundwa, Senior Lecturer in Financial Accounting, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1948102022-11-29T01:45:38Z2022-11-29T01:45:38ZUnderpaid at home, vulnerable abroad: how seasonal job schemes are draining Pacific nations of vital workers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497743/original/file-20221128-12-qbu5w2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C924%2C3170%2C2255&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The economic impact of COVID on Pacific Island states, combined with major labour shortages in Australia and New Zealand, has created a perfect storm. A mass exodus means Pacific nations are now losing crucial workers at such volume that their own development prospects are being undermined.</p>
<p>For 15 years we’ve been told Pacific seasonal labour schemes offer a “<a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/rural/2021/04/new-report-calls-into-question-benefits-of-recognised-seasonal-employer-scheme.html">triple win</a>” – for Pacific people wanting to earn decent incomes, for their home countries’ revenues and skill base, and for Australian and New Zealand horticulturalists desperate for workers.</p>
<p>Recent developments, however, suggest Pacific labour schemes need a major rethink.</p>
<p>Pacific peoples have long moved across oceans and the world in search of opportunities. But in 2007 New Zealand formalised arrangements with its Recognised Seasonal Employment (<a href="https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/apply-for-a-visa/about-visa/recognised-seasonal-employer-limited-visa">RSE</a>) scheme. This was followed by two schemes in Australia, which in 2022 were merged to form the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (<a href="https://www.palmscheme.gov.au/">PALM</a>) scheme. </p>
<p>Both countries target low- to semi-skilled workers, mainly for seasonal agricultural and horticultural work. The PALM scheme has <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/good-for-australia-government-expands-pacific-island-workers-scheme/rsz504qjz">since expanded</a> to include hospitality, age care and tourism jobs. Predictably, supply has followed demand.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1582101346127212544"}"></div></p>
<h2>Supply and demand</h2>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating effect on Pacific Island economies. For example, more than <a href="https://www.fijitimes.com/more-than-100000-job-losses-due-to-pandemic-says-pm/">100,000</a> Fijians lost their jobs, and the government lost half its tax revenue. Unsurprisingly, when borders began to open from late 2021, Pacific people queued for employment opportunities abroad. </p>
<p>This coincided with a severe labour shortage in a number of sectors in Australia and New Zealand. The New Zealand <a href="https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/45451-Situation-and-Outlook-for-Primary-Industries-SOPI-June-2021">fruit industry</a>, for example, didn’t meet forecast revenue and production levels in 2021, leading to an urgent call for <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/3000-more-rse-workers-ease-workforce-pressures">new intakes</a> of Pacific workers. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-pacific-reset-why-nz-must-prioritise-climate-change-and-labour-mobility-185204">A New Pacific Reset? Why NZ must prioritise climate change and labour mobility</a>
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<p>The subsequent <a href="https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/research-and-statistics/research-reports/recognised-seasonal-employer-rse-scheme#:%7E:text=14%2C400%20for%202020%2F21,19%2C000%20for%202022%2F23.">rise in the RSE quota</a> – from 14,400 in 2020-21 to 19,000 in 2022-23 – has seen more Pacific people than ever leave their own countries to work in New Zealand. </p>
<p>The total number of <a href="https://devpolicy.org/samoas-participation-in-nz-and-australias-pacific-labour-schemes-20221107/">Samoan workers</a> under the Australian and New Zealand work schemes, for example, doubled from 3,114 in 2019-20 to 6,600 in 2021-22. By this September, there were more than <a href="https://devpolicy.org/samoas-participation-in-nz-and-australias-pacific-labour-schemes-20221107/">29,000 PALM workers</a> in Australia, with plans to increase this to 35,000 in 2023.</p>
<h2>One-way traffic</h2>
<p>The flip side is that Pacific Island businesses are now lamenting the loss of experienced and well-trained workers, especially in tourism. Cook Islands faced an acute loss of employees earlier this year, with <a href="https://www.cookislandsnews.com/internal/regional/pacific-islands/cooks-businessman-calls-on-nz-to-put-fiji-on-transit-visa-waiver-list/">700 job vacancies</a> reported in April.</p>
<p>More recently, <a href="https://talamua.com/2022/02/01/government-to-review-rse-scheme-and-impact-on-local-labour-needs/">20 teachers</a> from Samoa joined the fleet of 3,000 workers in Australian labour programmes. The resulting teacher shortage will be felt most by young people in the small nation. Similarly, Fiji has <a href="https://devpolicy.org/brain-drain-3-specific-problems-and-solutions-20221020/">lost 40 mechanics</a> to Australia’s temporary skilled work visa schemes between 2016 and 2021. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fiji-is-officially-open-for-happiness-will-that-apply-to-its-tourism-workers-too-181603">Fiji is officially ‘open for happiness' – will that apply to its tourism workers too?</a>
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<p>Vanuatu is also experiencing a labour shortage, with <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-29/pacific-businesses-hospitality-worker-shortage/101370154">business owners</a> saying they train employees only to see them leave for New Zealand and Australia. A <a href="https://www.dailypost.vu/news/staff-shortages/article_37afa28a-f208-554a-8df8-f6c8d3e03982.html">shortage in chefs</a> threatens the viability of restaurants, but picking fruit overseas can be <a href="https://www.dailypost.vu/news/staff-shortages/article_37afa28a-f208-554a-8df8-f6c8d3e03982.html">more lucrative</a> than working in hospitality at home.</p>
<p>The same is true in Fiji, which has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-29/pacific-businesses-hospitality-worker-shortage/101370154">lost hundreds</a> of front-line tourism workers this year – receptionists, managers and waiters, as well as chefs – which may undermine the country’s efforts to rebuild its tourism industry.</p>
<p>These statistics challenge claims by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs that jobs programmes provide a “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-29/pacific-businesses-hospitality-worker-shortage/101370154">skills dividend</a> to Pacific countries”.</p>
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<h2>Exploitation and poor conditions</h2>
<p>The problem is part of a wider concern over Pacific labour schemes. For years, <a href="https://population.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/NZPR-Vol-44_Friesen.pdf">questions have been asked</a> about whether such schemes truly live up to their aim of providing low-skilled workers with training and development opportunities as well as income. </p>
<p>As various commentators have noted, migrant work can have <a href="https://devpolicy.org/new-zealands-rse-scheme-struggling-against-covid-20210804/">real implications for wellbeing</a> due to long periods of separation from families, as well as mental and physical burnout. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pacific-aviation-is-struggling-to-take-off-after-the-pandemic-how-can-the-blue-continent-stay-connected-187522">Pacific aviation is struggling to take off after the pandemic – how can the ‘blue continent’ stay connected?</a>
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<p>With so many Pacific workers now overseas for long periods, these problems can have longer-term social costs. <a href="https://devpolicy.org/pacific-migrant-workers-and-family-separation-20220816/">Recent research</a> has detailed extramarital affairs, relationship breakdowns, emotional distress, parenting problems, and child welfare issues.</p>
<p>And while Pacific workers can undoubtedly benefit from seasonal employment overseas, there have been serious allegations in New Zealand this year about unacceptable <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/129496019/blatant-exploitation-migrant-workers-packed-in-freezing-damp-rooms-for-150-a-week">working</a> and <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/129976215/migrant-workers-living-at-school-camp-forced-to-endure-unacceptable-conditions-labour-inspectorate">living conditions</a>. As <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/covid-19-and-pacific-labour">one analysis</a> put it, “Vulnerable workers are at risk of exploitation, underpay, and modern slavery conditions.”</p>
<p>Vanuatu’s government launched an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/23/vanuatu-government-launches-inquiry-into-labour-schemes-after-testimony-from-workers-in-australia">enquiry</a> after widespread complaints about treatment of its workers in Australia. Meanwhile, the Samoan government went so far as to temporarily <a href="https://www.samoaobserver.ws/category/samoa/97438">stop seasonal worker flights</a> after concerns were raised about the wellbeing and treatment of workers in Australia.</p>
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<h2>Improvement at home</h2>
<p>While ensuring workers are properly taken care of under the PALM and RSE schemes, Pacific governments also need to look inwards. Their citizens will continue to seek opportunities abroad if they don’t feel they get a fair deal in their own labour markets.</p>
<p>RSE scheme workers are entitled to New Zealand’s <a href="https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/covid-19/covid-19-information-for-employers/migrant-employer-info">minimum hourly wage of NZ$22.10</a>. By comparison, Pacific wages are shockingly low. After a decade’s stagnation, for instance, Fiji has begun an <a href="https://www.fijitimes.com/revised-2021-2022-budget-fiji-announces-4-an-hour-minimum-wage-by-2023/">incremental minimum wage increase</a> – but this will only see the hourly rate rise from FJD$2.68 (NZ$1.96) to FJD$4.00 (NZ$2.92) in 2023. </p>
<p>As well, there are serious concerns about work conditions and employment rights in some countries. Recently, the Fiji Trade Union Congress was <a href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/fiji-trade-unions-will-continue-to-fight-for-permit-to-hold-protest-on-labour-rights/">denied the right to protest</a> for the fifth time. </p>
<p>These issues – on top of ongoing uncertainty around post-pandemic <a href="https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/103408">job security</a> – will have to be addressed if the current cycle of richer economies siphoning off vulnerable workers from the Pacific is to be broken.</p>
<p>Better job opportunities and pathways in Pacific nations are not only vital to their economies, they’re also integral to the development of industries that will be <a href="https://www.cookislandsnews.com/internal/national/travel/put-wellbeing-of-tourism-workers-first-panelist-tells-industry-bosses/">resilient and sustainable</a> in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Apisalome Movono receives funding from the Royal Society Te Aparangi, Marsden Fast Start Grant</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Regina Scheyvens receives funding from Royal Society Te Aparangi through a Marsden grant and James Cook Fellowship.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leilani Faaiuaso does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australian and New Zealand demand for seasonal workers is having a major impact on Pacific nations’ economies. It will be a hard cycle to break.Apisalome Movono, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, Massey UniversityLeilani Faaiuaso, Research Scholar, Massey UniversityRegina Scheyvens, Professor of Development Studies, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1933892022-11-08T20:26:34Z2022-11-08T20:26:34ZTo solve society’s challenges, universities must engage with alternative ways of knowing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494267/original/file-20221108-15137-roymjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=73%2C81%2C5390%2C3243&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Universities must be the space where meaningful engagement with alternative ways of knowing and generating knowledge can take place.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Almost 50 Canadian universities and colleges signed the <a href="https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/principal/sites/utsc.utoronto.ca.principal/files/docs/Scarborough_Charter_EN_Nov2022.pdf">Scarborough Charter on Anti-Black Racism and Black Inclusion in Canadian Higher Education</a>. The charter, which emerged from a <a href="https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/principal/scarborough-charter">national conversation in 2020</a>, acknowledged the ethical responsibility of universities “to give voice to alternative ways of knowing.” </p>
<p>These tools for thought, or “ways of knowing,” are crucial to real problem solving. As the maxim says: <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/you-are-not-so-smart/201203/maslows-hammer">to a person with only a hammer, every problem looks like a nail</a>. But as academics we must look beyond dominant frameworks and knowledge. We must look to alternative ways of knowing.</p>
<p>As experts in ways of knowing, we know that having too much confidence in the idea that particular truths are right, good or natural is a dangerous limitation to our ability to imagine. As education scholar <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/ersc/v6n1/02.pdf">Odora Hoppers writes</a>: </p>
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<p>“When textbooks and formal institutions designated to produce and legitimise knowledge become cognitive regimes that acknowledge only the victor, and defeated knowledges are erased or condemned as unscientific, then we witness a system of complicity in withholding freedom from those who need it the most – those on the receiving end of knowledge apartheid.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Whether it is gun violence, racial inequality, poverty or climate change, when people are exposed to a particular worldview because it is the predominant narrative around them, they lose the ability to see and solve problems in better ways. But, as human beings, we have the power to re-evaluate the way knowledge shapes what we come to know and create entirely different solutions to many of the challenges we face today. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493552/original/file-20221104-25-27t1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bird's eye view of four people sitting at a round table with laptops and notebooks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493552/original/file-20221104-25-27t1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493552/original/file-20221104-25-27t1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493552/original/file-20221104-25-27t1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493552/original/file-20221104-25-27t1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493552/original/file-20221104-25-27t1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493552/original/file-20221104-25-27t1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493552/original/file-20221104-25-27t1j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">By committing to develop alternative ways of knowing, universities can create better solutions to persistent problems.</span>
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<h2>New solutions to persistent problems</h2>
<p>The commitment to develop alternative ways of knowing includes the important mandate to train students for a diverse world and job market, but it is also much broader. It is about giving them the tools to holistically understand the world we live in through nuanced perspectives on the challenges and opportunities we face.</p>
<p>For example, it is impossible to fully comprehend how employment can be exploitative without developing labour studies that understand the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-treat-migrant-workers-who-put-food-on-our-tables-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-4-153275">violence acted upon racialized and migrant workers</a>. If we want to invest in a stronger culture of care, it is necessary to value and invest in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-womens-studies-programs-in-canada-are-more-important-than-ever-188570">women’s and gender studies</a> that have held this work and have interrogated it. </p>
<p>We should support a version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/enhancing-the-involvement-of-people-with-disabilities-in-disability-research-128228">disability studies</a> that stops considering the differently-abled as objects of saviourism and centres them as agents in their own lives and stories. </p>
<p>Canadian universities should place our nation within a larger American story that stretches from Patagonia to the Yukon, rather than presuming us to transcend both geography and our own colonial history. </p>
<p>We imagine universities that invest in these alternatives and necessary ways of knowing. Many well-resourced and respected university disciplines have an ongoing conversation about their lack of diversity and how difficult it is to stop replicating old, broken systems.</p>
<p>But what if change doesn’t come from within? </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493553/original/file-20221104-23-ngmzlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="University students with backpacks walk along a pathway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493553/original/file-20221104-23-ngmzlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493553/original/file-20221104-23-ngmzlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493553/original/file-20221104-23-ngmzlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493553/original/file-20221104-23-ngmzlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493553/original/file-20221104-23-ngmzlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493553/original/file-20221104-23-ngmzlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493553/original/file-20221104-23-ngmzlt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Workplaces, families and civic organizations are seeking meaningful ways to embrace diversity and inclusion. It falls to universities to be that space where meaningful engagement with alternative ways of knowing can take place.</span>
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<h2>Imagine flourishing</h2>
<p>Take Canadian struggles with anti-Black racism, for example. Along with accountability, mutuality and inclusive excellence, the Scarborough Charter <a href="https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/principal/sites/utsc.utoronto.ca.principal/files/docs/Scarborough_Charter_EN_Nov2022.pdf">identified Black flourishing</a> as a core principle of its work. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/afua-cooper-my-30-year-effort-to-bring-black-studies-to-canadian-universities-is-still-an-upward-battle-144401">Black Studies</a> should focus on the study of Black thriving and resilience, not Black deficiency and its remediation. By doing this, the disparities between Black and white Canadians — in professional achievement, educational attainment, family structures and criminal behaviour — are better understood as tensions between two alternative ways of knowing in which one of those ways has been given more social and political power. </p>
<p>But what if traditionally Black ways of working were valued so that outcomes and efficacy were valued over rule compliance? What if historically Black family systems that recognize the community’s responsibility for the child were seen as inherently worthwhile, rather than out of step with notions about the nuclear family? Would that not fundamentally change the landscape of what it is to be Black and what it is to be white in communities across Canada?</p>
<p>However, by merely looking to individual faculties and departments to model diversity, universities perpetuate a deeply limited way of knowing our present and imagining the future. Rather, the university itself must change. </p>
<p>At the University of Windsor, we have worked with faculty members, librarians, staff and senior administrators to reimagine and recreate institutional spaces for building alternative ways of knowing. We have worked to reimagine what solutions look like when they are not designed by the same thinking that created the problem. So we have created an <a href="https://www.uwindsor.ca/faculty/649696/interdisciplinary-and-critical-studies">Interdisciplinary and Critical Studies Department</a>, where we understand disability not as a deficiency in the body, but as a source of strength in the person. And where we theorize queerness in the spirit of pride. We challenge universities to include other perspectives on changing the world because there could be no other way but equitable inclusion.</p>
<p>By doing this, we can meet our <a href="https://www.uwindsor.ca/publicaffairs/2021-11-19/scarborough-charter-commitment-fighting-anti-black-racism-campus">Scarborough Charter commitment</a>, foster better scholarly conversations that include alternative ways of knowing and ultimately improve life for all of us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193389/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Through the Scarborough Charter, many Canadian universities committed to fostering alternative ways of knowing. But more must be done to realize that commitment.Natalie Delia Deckard, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of WindsorMita Williams, Law Librarian (Acting), University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1927492022-10-20T14:07:31Z2022-10-20T14:07:31ZLesotho elections: turnout was down to 38% - new leaders will have to deal with political discontent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490392/original/file-20221018-6100-n3odix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sam Matekane, Lesotho's new prime minister has the daunting job of restoring public trust in politics and government.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Molise Molise/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The southern African kingdom of Lesotho went to the polls on <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/10/millionaire-wins-lesotho-vote-but-no-majority-officials">7 October 2022</a>. Or at least some of its voters did. Turnout was at an all-time <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sdowO4GcCATh1ahqd0YoUldQAbeDvxCPxfXbsF95XKc/edit#gid=1965305309">low of 38%</a> of registered voters. Many are expressing discontent with politics in Lesotho by <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/publication/ad309-election-fatigue-half-basotho-want-different-way-choose-leaders/">refusing to participate</a>. Those that did come out were in an anti-incumbent mood.</p>
<p>This turnout was almost 10 percentage points below the 47% who voted in the last elections in <a href="https://production-new-commonwealth-files.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/migrated/inline/Lesotho%20COG%202017%20-%20Report%20-%20final%20draft.pdf">2017</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://mg.co.za/africa/2022-10-12-who-is-lesothos-new-prime-minister-mogul-sam-matekane/">Sam Ntsokoane Matekane</a>, a wealthy businessman who has never been engaged formally in politics before this year, emerged as the new prime minister. At 64, he’s much younger than the men who have hitherto dominated politics in Lesotho – <a href="https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Tom_Thabane/">Tom Thabane</a> was 81 when he was forced to resign in 2020 after being charged with the murder of his ex-wife; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pakalitha-Mosisili">Pakalitha Mosisili</a> was 72 when he left office for the last time in 2017. Only <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/people-global-african-history/moeketsi-majoro-1961/">Moeketsi Majoro</a> (60), whom Matekane succeeds, is younger than him. </p>
<p>Matekane’s Revolution for Prosperity, a party formed only <a href="https://mg.co.za/africa/2022-10-11-revolution-for-prosperity-wins-lesotho-elections-but-observers-flag-irregularities/">in March</a>, won 56 seats out of 120 in parliament. He combined with two smaller parties, the Movement for Economic Change and the Alliance of Democrats, to form a <a href="https://www.africanews.com/2022/10/11/matekane-announces-three-party-coalition-in-lesotho/">governing coalition</a>. </p>
<p>All the parties that had been in the last parliament lost some seats. The <a href="https://www.thepost.co.ls/comment/news-pst/why-abc-lost-the-elections-2/">All Basotho Convention</a>, the party occupying the prime minister’s office from 2017 to 2022, fell from 48 seats to eight.</p>
<p>The last parliament failed to pass a series of <a href="https://theconversation.com/lesotho-bungles-political-reforms-risking-fresh-bout-of-instability-after-2022-poll-191778">political and security reforms</a>. Those bills would have ended parliamentary representation for tiny parties and curbed the power of the prime minister. The prime minister’s power to appoint the judiciary, for one thing, means that Basotho perceive politics as a rigged game in favour of those with <a href="https://lestimes.com/thabane-maesaiah-walk-free/">power and connections</a>. Voters hope Matekane’s coalition will prioritise passing reforms.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lesotho-elections-newcomers-score-impressive-win-but-politics-will-still-be-unstable-192466">Lesotho elections: newcomers score impressive win, but politics will still be unstable</a>
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<p>Matekane’s victory is, perhaps, Lesotho’s last and best chance to actually enact the <a href="https://theconversation.com/lesotho-bungles-political-reforms-risking-fresh-bout-of-instability-after-2022-poll-191778">political reforms</a> that will allow the country to move forward from a decade of political malaise and non-governance. Voters are tired of the old politicians and their unwillingness and inability to solve the pressing problems of poverty, crumbling infrastructure and social service under-investment. </p>
<h2>Hope amid disillusion</h2>
<p>While Matekane’s party won a majority of the directly elected seats, it still polled under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Lesotho_general_election">40% of the total vote</a>. This is because Lesotho, a country of about 2.1 million people, has <a href="https://www.iec.org.ls/political-parties/">65 registered political parties</a>. No party can command a majority. This has led in the recent past (2012-2022) to ever-shifting coalitions and repeated changes of government. Hence, general <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/publication/pp57-declining-trust-basotho-perceptions-government-corruption-and-performance-drive/">disillusionment</a>.</p>
<p>The election turfed out many established politicians, with only the main opposition <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Democratic-Congress">Democratic Congress</a> reaching <a href="https://www.thepost.co.ls/comment/news-pst/why-the-dc-misfired/">double-digit numbers</a> of parliamentary seats.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-lesothos-in-such-a-mess-and-what-can-be-done-about-it-79678">Why Lesotho's in such a mess and what can be done about it</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>The Revolution for Prosperity party poached a few established politicians to run, but largely relies on the <a href="https://www.theafricareport.com/250918/lesothos-sam-matekane-from-farmer-to-richest-man-to-prime-minister/">rags-to-riches story</a> of founder Matekane for its appeal. One of 14 children in his family, he was born in a rural village in the mountains near the town of Mantsonyane. </p>
<p>He left school before completing secondary education and built a business empire. Starting in road construction and mining transport, the company diversified into real estate, aviation and more. Matekane himself kept a low profile for many years, but in the past few years has increased his <a href="https://publiceyenews.com/matekane-wins-forbes-award/">public visibility through charitable giving</a> and as chair of a private sector group working to get more COVID-19 vaccinations to Lesotho. </p>
<p>Matekane will be challenged to work within a parliamentary system where he, as prime minister, will have plenty of power but not absolute control as he did in business. The art of compromise will be one he needs to master, and quickly. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-lesotho-can-teach-eswatini-and-south-africa-about-key-political-reforms-184260">What Lesotho can teach Eswatini and South Africa about key political reforms</a>
</strong>
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<p>He has come to office saying the right things about ending corruption, making government more transparent, and reforming a political system prone to gridlock and quick shifts of government. If he manages to finally pass the national reforms that stalled in the last parliament, the weary electorate in Lesotho will likely reward his party handsomely. </p>
<p>If, however, his party falls into infighting, the electorate could continue to lose hope in democracy as a <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/publication/ad535-basotho-approach-election-with-grim-outlook-on-economy-and-democracy/">means of governance</a>.</p>
<h2>Headwinds</h2>
<p>The party’s inability to win an outright majority means another coalition. Its partner Alliance of Democrats is led by long-time politician <a href="https://prabook.com/web/monyane.moleleki/2086119">Monyane Moleleki</a>, who said in April that <a href="https://www.thepost.co.ls/news/i-made-matekane-rich-moleleki/">he had “made” Matekane</a> by steering his companies’ government contracts. </p>
<p>The other coalition party, the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MovementforEconomicChange/">Movement for Economic Change</a>, is led by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/selibeselibe.mochoboroane/">Selibe Mochoboroane</a>, who currently faces <a href="https://www.newsdayonline.co.ls/mochoboroane-charged-for-treason-and-murder/">treason charges</a> related to the 2014 coup attempt.</p>
<p>Both leaders are seen as linked with the fractious coalition politics of the 2012-2022 period. Some Basotho are disappointed that Matekane had to include them in government.</p>
<p>The bigger question is whether the Revolution for Prosperity party can push through amendments to the constitution. They were mandated by the <a href="https://www.sadc.int/">Southern African Development Community</a> after repeated attempts to settle Lesotho’s political feuds dragged on for <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/sadc-shouldnt-scrap-lesotho-from-its-agenda-just-yet">much of 2017-2022</a>. </p>
<p>The last parliament then <a href="https://theconversation.com/lesotho-due-to-hold-elections-despite-lack-of-progress-on-key-political-reforms-185542">failed to pass them</a>. They would have limited the power of parties and individual members of parliament. The new coalition promised to quickly pass them. Its popularity, somewhat ironically, will rest on curbing its own powers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-efforts-to-stabilise-lesotho-have-failed-less-intervention-may-be-more-effective-137499">South Africa's efforts to stabilise Lesotho have failed. Less intervention may be more effective</a>
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<p>No matter what the government does, the Lesotho populace is hurting from the continued effects of the COVID pandemic. The border shutdown during the pandemic meant hardship for much of the population which is still largely dependent on <a href="https://migrants-refugees.va/country-profile/lesotho/">migrant labour</a> to South Africa. The textile factories in Maseru have retrenched around 20,000 workers, leaving only about <a href="https://lesothoexpress.com/more-bad-news-for-factory-workers/">30,000 employed</a> there now. There are few other secondary industries. Government is the major employer, and Matekane said he would bring <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/Lestimes/status/1579868917069414400">“austerity”</a> to the national government.</p>
<h2>Daunting task</h2>
<p>Unable to change the country’s fundamental vulnerability to shifts in the global and regional economy, Matekane has few economic levers to pull. He will have to rely on his own personal persuasiveness. Even more difficult, he needs to get parliamentarians to limit their own personal power, and convince citizens he has changed the system. </p>
<hr>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/zakes-mda-on-his-latest-novel-set-in-lesothos-musical-gang-wars-170839">Zakes Mda on his latest novel, set in Lesotho's musical gang wars</a>
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<p>Many Basotho put their faith in the local champion from Mantsonyane who beat the odds to become the country’s richest man. His term as prime minister could bring about a more stable and better-governed Lesotho.</p>
<p><em>Headline changed.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192749/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Aerni-Flessner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Unable to change the country’s vulnerability to shifts in the global and regional economy, the new prime minister Matekane has few economic levers to pull.John Aerni-Flessner, Associate Professor of African History, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1885342022-08-11T09:54:02Z2022-08-11T09:54:02ZMarikana massacre: South Africa needs to build a society that’s decent and doesn’t humiliate people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478528/original/file-20220810-24-9clt4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hundreds of people gather on the small hill were some of the Marikana miners were shot by police in 2012.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPAS/Stringer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On 16 August mine workers, activists and no doubt a few politicians will gather on the now <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Small-Koppie-Marikana-Massacre/dp/1611862760">infamous rock outcrop</a> near the former Lonmin Platinum mine in Marikana, North West province, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/german/latestnews/archive/oneyearafterthemarikanamassacre.html">Marikana massacre</a>. This was the most lethal use of force by the South African police since the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising">1976 Soweto uprising</a> against the then apartheid regime. At least 138 people died <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-epochal-1976-uprisings-shouldnt-be-reduced-to-a-symbolic-ritual-185073">in three days</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, the Marikana massacre was so brutal that it has been likened to the 1960 <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-08-14-marikana-the-unfolding-of-a-never-ending-tragedy/">Sharpeville Massacre</a>, where apartheid police shot unarmed civilians in their backs as they fled, killing 69. They were protesting against <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/pass-laws-south-africa-1800-1994">identity documents</a> that black people were forced to carry, restricting their movement. </p>
<p>Between 12 and 16 August 2012 a total of 47 people died. Among them were 34 miners from the Lonmin Platinum mine shot by police. Another 10, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/marikana-massacre-16-august-2012">including two policemen and two mine security guards</a>, were killed by protesting mineworkers. Three others died after the strike had ended. In addition, 78 miners were injured. Most of them were shot with R5 military style assault rifles by police officers and security officers from the Lonmin Mine.</p>
<p>This year, the commemoration of the event coincides with my <a href="https://blogs.sun.ac.za/inaugural-lectures/event/prof-dion-forster-2/">professorial inaugural lecture</a> at the Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University. How does my work as a public theologian and ethicist link with violence and the unnecessary loss of life that took place in Marikana?</p>
<p>It transpired as I was conducting some research for my inaugural lecture. I came across a detail in interviews with the striking miners that I had not seen before. Central to the mineworkers’ demands was an appeal to <em>decency</em>.</p>
<p>I wish to take my cue from the philosopher <a href="https://www.ias.edu/scholars/avishai-margalit">Avishai Margalit</a>, who, in his book <a href="https://amzn.to/3PciSIT">The Decent Society</a>, asserts that (p.1)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a decent society is one whose institutions do not humiliate people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He argues that it is the confronting of societal evil that brings us to a politics of decency.</p>
<p>Based on my research into the massacre and its aftermath, I believe that the urgent task in South Africa is to learn to live more “decently in an indecent society” – and never to forget Marikana.</p>
<h2>What is decency?</h2>
<p>The tradition of the <a href="https://blogs.sun.ac.za/inaugural-lectures/">professorial inaugural lecture</a> is that when one is promoted to full professor one should have something to “profess”. Having spent years reading, listening, reflecting, teaching and writing, one would have a body of work, and perhaps even a few ideas, to share.</p>
<p>I really struggled to discern what to say. After all, what would be fitting, responsible, or proper, for a white male ethicist to “profess” in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in 2022? My struggle deepened as I reflected on the indecent, and racist, act of a white student <a href="https://mg.co.za/opinion/2022-05-19-the-urine-affair-race-reflections-through-the-stellenbosch-incident/">urinating</a> on the belongings of a black student at the university. He has since been <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2022/07/21/stellenbosch-university-expels-theuns-du-toit-over-urinating-incident">expelled</a>.</p>
<p>When the university set the date of my lecture for 16 August 2022, I realised that it coincided with the 10th anniversary of the Marikana massacre. I had <a href="https://doi.org/10.4102/ve.v38i1.1665">previously written</a> about the massacre and its iconic leader, <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/mgcineni-noki">Mgcineni Noki</a>.</p>
<p>That article argued that religious people and faith communities must once again take up the struggle for justice in South Africa as a primary concern. Moreover, two of my PhD students, Jayson Gribble and Jaco Botha, had <a href="https://doi.org/10.18820/9781928480532/06">conducted research</a> on the Marikana massacre. So I was relatively familiar with this painful event in the country’s history. However, as I was reading interviews with the miners I came across something that I had not seen before. It shook me.</p>
<p>In her <a href="https://amzn.to/3zLZpsA">book</a> Marikana: Voices from South Africa’s Mining Massacre, <a href="https://www.uj.ac.za/members/prof-kate-formerly-peter-alexander/">Kate Alexander</a> records (p. 25) that the striking miners</p>
<blockquote>
<p>wanted their employer, Lonmin, to listen to their case for a <em>decent wage</em>. But this threatened a system of labour relations that had boosted profits for Lonmin, and had protected the privileges of the dominant union, the National Union of Mineworkers. It was decided to deploy ‘maximum force’ against the workers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many South Africans have become accustomed to the phrase a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2016.1154671">living wage</a>”, as used in labour relations. It refers to a minimum income that allows workers to subsist. It’s a brutal society in which people would settle for mere living as an acceptable standard. </p>
<p>At Marikana, the workers were clear: they were advocating not only for a “living wage”; they were holding their employer to a higher standard. They wanted a “decent wage”, and they hoped that the rights accorded to them in a democratic South Africa would protect them in their cause.</p>
<p>They wanted to secure a standard of living that could deconstruct the historical indecencies of migrant labour, the separation of families, living in poverty and being humiliated and dehumanised by rich and powerful people and institutions. To them that amounted to <a href="https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/marikana-miners-strike-better-wages-2012">at least R12,500</a> (US$758 at today’s exchange rate) a month.</p>
<p>Let us pause for a moment to reflect on this word: “decent”. </p>
<p>What might it mean in the South African context? What might it mean on the 10th anniversary of the Marikana massacre?</p>
<p>Decency for the victims of the Marikana massacre was about more than just meeting their bare needs for survival. Yet, while they were striking for decency, their employer, and the nation, enacted the most violent of institutional humiliations upon them. They were killed in an indecent manner. To date there have still <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/marikana-massacre-children-of-miners-killed-still-waiting-for-justice-to-be-served-eight-years-on-20200813">not been any prosecutions</a> of the police and security officers who killed the miners.</p>
<p>Sadly, South Africa and South Africans seem to be slipping ever more deeply into indecency, as shown by the recent <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/brutal-gang-rape-shocks-south-africa-/6682434.html">gang rape of eight women</a> in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg. </p>
<p>The country has one of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/rape-is-endemic-in-south-africa-why-the-anc-government-keeps-missing-the-mark-188235">highest rates</a> of rape and gender-based violence in the world.</p>
<h2>In search of saints</h2>
<p>The American novelist <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2778055.Kurt_Vonnegut_Jr_">Kurt Vonnegut</a> was once asked how he made sense of living through one of the most difficult and violent times in that country’s history. The 1970s saw the peak of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War">Vietnam war</a>, <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1971/demo/p60-77.html#:%7E:text=In%201970%2C%20about%2025.5%20million,level%20were%20roughly%20the%20same.">rising poverty</a>, <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality#:%7E:text=Beginning%20in%20the%201970s%2C%20economic,top%20continued%20to%20grow%20strongly.">increasing economic inequality</a>, <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/richard-nixon-committed-far-greater-crimes-than-the-watergate-break-in-1.1433510">political corruption</a> under President Richard Nixon, and the deepening of American racial injustice. <a href="https://amzn.to/3BRUjhe">He replied</a> (p. viii),</p>
<blockquote>
<p>what made living almost worthwhile for me were the saints I met. They could be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If someone were to ask me the same question, I would have to say that I am looking for some ordinary “saints”. In fact, I do see them from time to time. They are people behaving decently amid the indecencies of society. </p>
<p>They are <a href="https://giftofthegivers.org/hunger-alleviation/food-parcels/36513/">feeding</a> the hungry, advocating for <a href="https://berthafoundation.org/activists/">justice</a>, <a href="https://www.ijr.org.za/2022/07/18/women-peace-and-security/">working</a> for <a href="https://avreq.sun.ac.za/people/ms-ayanda-nyoka/">peace</a>, and holding the powerful <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/state-capture-culprits-have-blood-on-their-hands-says-cape-town-church-20220415">to account</a>. </p>
<p>South Africa needs more people, and collectives, who are committed to living decently, whose commitment is to undo the systemic humiliation caused by the nation’s political and economic institutions, which is shamefully overlooked by its citizens. This is an urgent task.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188534/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dion Forster receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF). </span></em></p>The country urgently needs more people who are committed to living decently to undo the systemic humiliation caused by political and economic institutions.Dion Forster, Full Professor of Ethics and Head of Department, Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology, Director of the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1860432022-07-12T17:00:22Z2022-07-12T17:00:22ZFor migrant farm workers, housing is not just a determinant of health, but a determinant of death<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473223/original/file-20220708-15-6bkhj8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=116%2C0%2C2878%2C1854&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Migrant farm workers were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 because of poor housing conditions. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/for-migrant-farm-workers--housing-is-not-just-a-determinant-of-health--but-a-determinant-of-death" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Imagine if, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — before vaccines were available — you had to share a cramped bunkhouse with a dozen co-workers. Imagine if your employer forbid you from having personal visitors, or if you had to ask your boss for permission to visit the doctor. </p>
<p>Agricultural workers hired through the <a href="https://doi.org/10.48416/ijsaf.v26i2.57">Temporary Foreign Worker Program</a> regularly confront these dynamics while they leave their families behind in countries like Mexico and Jamaica for months or even years at a time to work in Canada. Frequently, they live <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-018-0583-z">on their employer’s property</a>. These housing conditions are <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/08d0341f5c6078fd91a2d53da293df5a/1?cbl=43874&pq-origsite=gscholar">inconsistent</a>, often <a href="https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2020.093.016">overcrowded</a> and sometimes <a href="https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1430">grossly substandard</a>. </p>
<p>But this month, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2022/04/government-of-canada-announces-workforce-solutions-road-map--further-changes-to-the-temporary-foreign-worker-program-to-address-labour-shortages-ac.html">the federal government is holding a roundtable</a> to improve migrant farm workers’ employer-provided housing. This is a crucial opportunity to tackle persistent problems.</p>
<h2>COVID-19 revealed dangers of poor housing</h2>
<p>When COVID-19 hit migrant farm workers disproportionately hard in 2020, many Canadians <a href="https://www.tvo.org/article/has-ontario-changed-its-approach-to-migrant-worker-housing">recognized the connection</a> between farm workers’ poor housing and the avoidable health challenges they often face. Our own research shows housing conditions played a major role in the <a href="http://www.migrantworker.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Jan.29_Coroner-Study-Key-Findings-and-Recs_Final.pdf">untimely death of several farm workers</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473226/original/file-20220708-27-b88nnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rows of green plants with a farm vehicle and a worker with a shovel in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473226/original/file-20220708-27-b88nnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473226/original/file-20220708-27-b88nnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473226/original/file-20220708-27-b88nnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473226/original/file-20220708-27-b88nnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473226/original/file-20220708-27-b88nnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473226/original/file-20220708-27-b88nnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473226/original/file-20220708-27-b88nnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers do maintenance at an Ontario asparagus farm temporarily shut down after 164 migrant workers tested positive for COVID-19 in June 2020 .</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Policymakers are increasingly recognizing that housing is a significant <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112571">determinant of health</a>. But for migrant agricultural workers, housing is also a significant <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2022.2053735">determinant of death</a>. </p>
<p>Before the pandemic, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2020/05/11/a-study-urged-better-standards-for-migrant-workers-housing-nothing-was-done-now-covid-19-has-struck.html">agricultural industry groups pushed back</a> against creating national housing standards for workers. The federal government <a href="http://www.nationalhomeinspector.org/NHICCreportRsum.pdf">commissioned a study</a> in 2018 by the National Home Inspector Certification Council, a <a href="https://nationalhomeinspector.org/index.html">non-profit organization that certifies housing inspection credentials</a>. The study concluded that the quality of housing for migrant farm workers lacked uniformity, and the investigators recommended standardized criteria. </p>
<p>Yet four years later, the government has made sluggish progress towards enforceable national housing standards. </p>
<h2>Key housing issues</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.migrantworker.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Caxaj-Weiler-2022-Research-Brief-Ministerial-Roundtable-on-TFWP-Housing-Standards.pdf">Our research in British Columbia and Ontario</a>, including interviews with over 50 migrant agricultural workers, identified several key housing issues:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Water, food and sanitation</strong>: Lack of access to clean drinking water and insufficient toilets, showers and handwashing stations are common concerns raised by migrant workers. Inadequate refrigeration, food storage and stoves were also often reported. This has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12342">serious consequences for the type of food workers can cook and store, and their nutrition</a>. Because of limited laundry, cooking and washroom facilities, some workers spend their days off waiting in line for a turn at these basic amenities. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Heating, cooling and electricity</strong>: Some workers told us that on a cold winter’s night, they gather around a space heater or oven door to stay warm. In the summer heat, one worker told us that trying to sleep after a long shift is a “living hell” due to a lack of ventilation and air conditioning in the trailer he shares with another worker. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Exposure to pests, hazards and disrepair</strong>: The 2018 report commissioned by the federal government found that 40 per cent of workers’ housing was reported by employers as “dual purpose.” This means living quarters also functioned as workplace facilities (for example, granaries, garages, etc.). This finding suggests many workers may live in close proximity to agricultural chemicals and other hazards, which echoes findings from <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/610779561?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true">previous research</a>. Lack of maintenance is also common.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Overcrowding and lack of privacy</strong>: One study reported the ratio of workers to functioning toilets on one farm was <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41800632?socuuid=3a6811a3-abd3-42a0-ae76-e360d25a858e">45 to two</a>. Echoing this research, overcrowding and cramped living quarters were among the most common complaints made by participants in our own study. During COVID-19, these cramped living quarters <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/ces.2021.0010">amplified uncertainty</a> and anxiety for workers. A lack of personal space also undermines workers’ basic need for privacy and intimacy. One interviewee noted, “you can’t even wish your wife a good night,” without someone overhearing. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Isolation and employer control</strong>: Migrant agricultural workers tend to live in rural areas <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2016.1202752">far away from basic services and community activities</a> outside of work (such as religious services). <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/fermin-soto-sanchez-1.6491715">Recent</a> farm worker <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2016.1261683">deaths</a> from motor vehicles point to the lack of public and safe active transportation in workers’ neighbourhoods. Workers have told us they may be required to bike one- or two-hour round trips to access services or participate in social events. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Workers also face <a href="https://www.alternateroutes.ca/index.php/ar/article/view/22448">explicit restrictions on their freedom</a>. Among the rules some workers are expected to conform to while living in Canada include curfews, prohibitions on visitors and being locked into their living quarters. Workers are often hesitant to report illegal behaviours by their employer for fear it may put their <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152643">livelihoods in jeopardy</a>.</p>
<h2>Action to ensure safe housing</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A line of people wearing face masks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473227/original/file-20220708-24-2iih28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473227/original/file-20220708-24-2iih28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473227/original/file-20220708-24-2iih28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473227/original/file-20220708-24-2iih28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473227/original/file-20220708-24-2iih28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473227/original/file-20220708-24-2iih28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473227/original/file-20220708-24-2iih28.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrant workers from Mexico maintain social distancing as they wait to be transported to Québec farms after arriving at Trudeau Airport in Montréal in April 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Migrant agricultural workers deserve to live with the same health, safety, and dignity owed to any Canadian worker. The federal government should take the following actions immediately:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Consistent national housing standards</strong>. The federal government should co-ordinate among all levels of government so that workers no longer fall through the jurisdictional cracks. <a href="http://www.migrantworker.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Submission_National_Consultation_Housing_MWHEWG_2020.pagenumberscorrected-WEBSITE.pdf">Standards should be significantly raised</a> for physical housing conditions (e.g., no bunk beds), health and safety, freedom from employer control and security of tenure.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Proactive, unannounced and thorough housing inspections</strong> to <a href="https://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/docs/parl_oag_202112_02_e.pdf">ensure standards on paper are enforced in practice</a>. Workers need accessible channels to report problems while being protected from employer backlash, alongside the freedom to collectively organize. Penalties for non-compliance should be high enough to promote deterrence.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Government-funded housing</strong> (for example, in residential areas, with safe transportation to farms) would help <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12804">promote inclusion</a> and access to community services, while reducing inappropriate employer restrictions or control.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Permanent residency, open work permits and a fair grievance procedure</strong> before facing deportation would allow workers to refuse unsafe housing and poor work conditions, which often go hand-in-hand. A secure immigration status would also give workers the option of bringing their families with them. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The federal government’s upcoming roundtable is an urgent opportunity to raise the bar on dignified housing and living conditions for these members of our communities. Canada should stop expecting low-wage, racialized migrant workers to bear the brunt of preventable illness and death.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186043/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>C. Susana Caxaj's research is currently funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Her work has previously been funded by the Vancouver Foundation and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). She is a member of the Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anelyse Weiler has received funding from SSHRC. Her work has previously been funded by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. She is affiliated with the BC Employment Standards Coalition, Worker Solidarity Network, and Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group.</span></em></p>Poor housing put migrant workers at risk for COVID-19. A federal government consultation on national housing standards is a crucial opportunity to support migrant workers’ health, safety and dignity.C. Susana Caxaj, Assistant Professor, Nursing, Western UniversityAnelyse Weiler, Assistant Professor, Sociology, University of VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1841812022-06-01T08:38:19Z2022-06-01T08:38:19ZTribute to renowned South African economist Francis Wilson<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466297/original/file-20220531-24-miye0u.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Francis Wilson: an academic who never fitted easily into any school of thought or belonged in anyone’s camp.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo courtesy UCT News</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2016, South African economist Francis Wilson was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Cape Town. Nominators of a person for this highest honorary degree get to select from one of two criteria:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>On grounds of exceptional scholarship in accordance with the ideals and principles of the university</p></li>
<li><p>On grounds of exceptional other achievement or public service in accordance with the ideals and principles of the university.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Those nominating Francis, <a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2022-04-29-francis-wilson-a-heart-on-fire-with-a-mind-on-ice">who passed away in April 2022</a>, ticked both boxes. And as the nomination wended its way through the notoriously fractious processes of senate and council there was no contesting this.</p>
<p>Francis made a unique contribution to documenting and analysing key historical and contemporary social issues affecting South African society. Even more rare was how he used his research and that of others to promote social change for good in South Africa. </p>
<p>The heart of his contribution lies, quite uniquely, in the space between the two hononary doctorate criteria. He had a lifetime of exceptional contributions to scholarship and of taking these into the public domain to fight for a just society.</p>
<h2>Rock-solid research</h2>
<p>Francis returned to South Africa – and the University of Cape Town – after completing a PhD in Cambridge. In 1971 and 1972 he published three pieces of research that individually and collectively have been immensely influential. </p>
<p>In 1971 <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Oxford-History-South-Africa-Vol/dp/0195013107">Farming 1866-1966</a> was published as a chapter in the Oxford History of South Africa. Then, in 1972, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Labour-South-African-1911-1969-Studies/dp/0521175097">Labour in the South African Gold Mines 1911-1969</a> was published by Cambridge University Press out of his PhD. Finally, a book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Migrant-Labour-South-Africa-Churches/dp/0869750178">Migrant Labour in South Africa</a> was published. </p>
<p>Taken together these works tell a connected story of the economics of the gold mines and their need for cheap labour, the decimation of rural life in South Africa to effect this supply of migrant labour, and the terrible social consequences of this system for these migrants and their households.</p>
<p>Francis’ academic leadership and his broader contributions were founded on his work as a researcher. He was an extraordinarily thoughtful and creative researcher. Along with this talent, he always invested the considerable time and intellectual perspiration required to craft his research. He valued the honing that came with writing and rewriting and so demanded this discipline of himself. He knew that his research was a foundation stone for his broader contributions, giving him confidence about what needed to be said and what needed to be done. </p>
<p>This was an unflinching lifelong commitment to the hard work of careful scholarship.</p>
<p>Francis’ research produced rock-solid evidence detailing fundamental prevailing realities. Many have referred to his famous series on real wages by race in Labour in the South African Gold Mines as an example of the loud power of his work. He found, after painstaking examination of Chamber of Mines reports over 55 years, that black miners’ wages had actually declined in real terms. </p>
<p>All of us who aspire to produce such research have to confront questions about why we produce this work in the first place and what we are going to do with it. For Francis it was self-evident that it was his privilege and purpose to produce such research for it to have larger impact.</p>
<h2>Breaking new ground</h2>
<p>In 1975 Francis launched the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/saldru-clippings-collection-1975-2000">Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit</a> at the University of Cape Town. The founding grant was from the mining giant Anglo American. Given his work up to this point, this is more than ironic. It has to serve as an early example of Francis’ absolutely unique spirit and gift of communication and engagement.</p>
<p>Francis led the unit into new research areas such as farm labour and health. He also became a convener of research processes. </p>
<p>By the end of the 1970s, an extraordinary array of young anti-apartheid activists had flowed into the unit’s safe space, even seeking shelter from the physical and psychological brutality of the security police. Francis and Dudley Horner, his co-leader in fashioning the unit, were very comfortable with this. But they were equally clear that this remained a research unit, albeit a rather special one. </p>
<p>Francis and the unit had established legitimacy with political groups operating outside of the apartheid parliamentary structures as well as with foreign donors, who saw in both strong beacons of credible research on key South African issues.</p>
<p>When in 1982, the Carnegie Corporation decided to fund <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/second-carnegie-report-poverty-south-africa-released">the 2nd Carnegie Inquiry into Poverty and Development in South Africa</a>, Francis was asked to direct this Inquiry with the unit serving as the base institution.</p>
<p>In the initial years of the Carnegie Inquiry leading up the conference of September 1984, Francis went the length and breadth of South Africa speaking to people about its purpose. He visited academics, as well as community groups, NGOs, private sector groupings and committed individuals who were trying to make a difference in their own way.</p>
<p>There were close to 400 presentations at the 1984 conference and a photographic exhibition. Soon after the conference, 380 working papers were printed and distributed widely across the country and internationally. In 1986 Omar Badsha’s photographs were published as a <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/south-africa-condoned-heart-twenty-south-african-photographers-edited-omar-badsha">book</a> with a text written by Francis Wilson.</p>
<p>This collective effort presented a formidable and graphic documentation of the structural impoverishment of black South Africans under apartheid – a massive contribution worth honouring in and of itself.</p>
<p>The consolidation of the 380 working papers was undertaken by Francis and Dr <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/oral_hist/carnegie/video-interviews/#ramphele">Mamphela Ramphele</a>. The 1989 book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Uprooting-Poverty-South-African-Challenge/dp/0864860722">Uprooting Poverty: The South African Challenge</a>, is a landmark study of poverty in South Africa. It offers a textured account of the harsh life for ordinary South Africans in the 1980s and is probably South Africa’s most well-known book on poverty. In many senses, the post-apartheid research thrust starts with this work.</p>
<h2>The post-apartheid era</h2>
<p>By 1992 the ANC policy desk was preparing to take office and had begun formulating policy to govern. A particular concern was the need for a national household living standards survey that produced baseline evidence of the state of the nation at that time. </p>
<p>Once more it was Francis and the unit who were approached to partner the World Bank in producing these data. The apartheid state had refused to include the entire country in its censuses. This damage to the national statistical system made drawing a credible, nationally representative sample very difficult. It required first-rate application of the art and science of survey sampling.</p>
<p>South Africa’s national living standards measurement survey, the Project to Support Living Standards and Development, undertook its fieldwork in the second half of 1993. It used a set of regionally credible survey groups to implement and oversee the quality of this national effort. The results of the survey were released to the public at a conference less than a year later in September 1994. This turn-around time from the field to public release remains one of the fastest on record for the hundreds of World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study surveys that have been conducted across the globe.</p>
<p>These 1993 data were used intensively in the 1990s for research and policy purposes, including several influential papers on South Africa’s social grants that motivated the consequent expansion of this grant system into one of the largest in the world. They continue to be used to detail the state of the nation at the advent of the post-apartheid period.</p>
<p>Over the next 20 years Francis worked as a zealous advocate in the cause of the public release of survey data. He was the founding director of DataFirst in 2001, a research data service dedicated to giving open access to data from South Africa and other African countries. Today its data are available <a href="https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za">online</a>, along with available accompanying documentation. This promotes access and appropriate use.</p>
<h2>Profound legacy</h2>
<p>In the early 2000s Francis handed over the directorship and leadership of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit to me and a group of economists in the School of Economics in order for him to found and grow DataFirst. But he did not ever retire from the unit. </p>
<p>Many of us had the privilege of working alongside Francis for a very long time as colleagues and friends. We all benefited many times from the magic of engaging with him. He inspired us. </p>
<p>Francis was genial, engaging, inspiring and energising for all. This makes it very easy to assume that his contributions and achievements flowed naturally, even effortlessly. This was not the case. This tribute has drawn attention to the fact that he was very serious about his scholarship and committing the time, care, and perspiration required to undertake this research. As he told some of us, he followed the dictum of John Maynard Keynes on his chosen field, economics: it is a method rather than a doctrine – a way of understanding and explaining the world. </p>
<p>Francis accumulated evidence and then sought to be true to it, to struggle with its awkwardness and its refusal to accommodate simple, hydraulic explanations. While his research has been invaluable to all, Francis never fitted easily into any school of thought or belonged snuggly in anyone’s camp.</p>
<p>In the fraught world of apartheid South Africa, today in contemporary South Africa, and in between, this has been an uncomfortable and somewhat lonely walk. Despite the importance of his work on the decimation of black agriculture in South Africa’s rural peripheries and the creation of a black labour supply for the mines to the emerging radical historiography of the 1970 and 1980s, he did not fit or sit comfortably in this school. </p>
<p>Over the past decade, people in power, nearly all of whom knew Francis and some of whom said that they had been inspired by him, were enacting policies that did not pass the test of being in the best interests of all in this country when benchmarked by available data or by Francis’ boots on the ground.</p>
<p>Francis’ unshakeable credibility and the respect that he showed to all were essential in navigating some of this awkwardness. Yet his chosen path was not an easy walk.</p>
<p>One of his most precious gifts to us in the unit was that he shared this aspect of himself, perhaps as a way of steeling us for the stresses accompanying this way in the world. He was open about the fact that there were times when this had been too much for him; when he just would not have coped or been able to continue on his mission without his own muse and mainstay, his precious wife, Lindy.</p>
<p>Together they found a way around the obstacles. In his life he ticked many boxes, way beyond the two criteria stipulated for an Honorary Doctorate. All of us in the unit and many others have benefited from his personal and intellectual legacy and are deeply grateful for his life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184181/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Murray Leibbrandt is the Director of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town and UNU-WIDER Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow.</span></em></p>He used his powerful research to promote social change for justice in South Africa.Murray Leibbrandt, NRF Chair in Poverty and Inequality Research; Director of the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1785932022-03-14T15:57:12Z2022-03-14T15:57:12ZIt’s not just that Canadian restaurant workers have left — many have yet to arrive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451413/original/file-20220310-13-112dp51.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2990%2C1856&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Although the pandemic was an accelerant, labour shortages have plagued the hospitality industry for years.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent media reporting about the hospitality industry has been dominated by stories about <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/10/13/restaurant-workers-fled-to-white-collar-jobs-during-the-pandemic-report-finds.html">mass resignations and workers leaving for white-collar jobs</a>. </p>
<p>Many sources cite a combination of <a href="https://monitormag.ca/articles/tipping-point-pandemic-forced-restaurant-and-bar-workers-into-better-paying-jobs-2">low wages</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/worker-shortage-or-poor-work-conditions-heres-whats-really-vexing-canadian-restaurants-167614">instability</a> and the <a href="https://nowtoronto.com/food-and-drink/food/toronto-restaurants-have-a-hiring-problem-and-it-goes-way-beyond-cerb">lack of a decent working environment</a> as factors pushing workers out of restaurants and into better paying, more secure jobs. </p>
<p>While repeated pandemic lockdowns and closures have pushed workers to find jobs in different sectors, this version of the story ignores that <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/campaigns/immigration-matters/growing-canada-future/food-services.html">one in four restaurant workers are immigrants</a> and that border closures over the past two years have meant that many potential immigrants <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/covid-19-prompted-thousands-of-new-migrants-to-canada-to-return-home-1.5337132?cache=%3FclipId%3D2079986">have not been able to enter Canada</a>.</p>
<p>Contrary to the headlines, our <a href="https://www.ryerson.ca/cerc-migration/research/project-brief/pandemic-kitchen-stories/">ongoing research project</a> — based on interviews with immigrants working in Toronto’s restaurant industry — shows that the overwhelming majority of workers planned to return to the industry as soon as pandemic restrictions were lifted. </p>
<h2>The labour shortage is not new</h2>
<p>Although the pandemic was an accelerant, labour shortages have plagued the hospitality industry for some time. According to Restaurants Canada’s senior economist, Chris Elliott, <a href="https://www.menumag.ca/2022/01/28/on-the-foodservice-labour-shortage/">numbers from Statistics Canada were signaling the trend for years</a>. </p>
<p>Young people generally account for about 40 per cent of all food service workers. In the late 70s and early 80s, 15- to 24-year-olds accounted for about 20 per cent of the overall population in Canada. That number has declined to just 12 per cent. </p>
<p>Before the pandemic, immigration was an important source for filling job vacancies. In contrast, 2020 saw a decrease from 2019 of <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ircc/documents/pdf/english/corporate/publications-manuals/annual-report-2021-en.pdf">145,687 international students</a> alone.</p>
<p>As of December 2021, employment in accommodation and food services remained <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220107/dq220107a-eng.htm">206,000 workers short (16.9 per cent) of its pre-COVID level</a>, even though there are more people working now than there were in February 2020. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ircc/documents/pdf/english/corporate/publications-manuals/annual-report-2021-en.pdf">2021 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration</a>, 2020 saw a record low number of temporary resident visas and electronic travel authorizations delivered as a result of border closures and travel restrictions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Graph showing the amount of temporary residents in Canada." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450117/original/file-20220304-23-4maafv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450117/original/file-20220304-23-4maafv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450117/original/file-20220304-23-4maafv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450117/original/file-20220304-23-4maafv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450117/original/file-20220304-23-4maafv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450117/original/file-20220304-23-4maafv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/450117/original/file-20220304-23-4maafv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Temporary residents coming to Canada, which include visitors, students and temporary foreign workers, must receive either a temporary resident visa or an electronic travel authorization before departure to Canada, with few exceptions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ircc/documents/pdf/english/corporate/publications-manuals/annual-report-2021-en.pdf">(2021 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A recent study published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found that, rather than leaving the labour market, workers are finding jobs in professional services, leading them to conclude that the Canadian economy is seeing a “<a href="https://monitormag.ca/articles/tipping-point-pandemic-forced-restaurant-and-bar-workers-into-better-paying-jobs-2">major sectoral realignment</a>.”</p>
<h2>A highly stratified industry</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/scr/app/cis/summary-sommaire/72">Accommodation and food services</a> is a broad category, including everything from quick service chains to high-end full-service restaurants. Under this large umbrella, the types of jobs and corresponding pay vary widely. While quick service restaurant jobs tend to be minimum wage, wages in full-service restaurants are supplemented by tips. </p>
<p>Although the <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/the-100000-a-year-waitress-isnt-a-myth-some-hard-truths-about-tipping-in-canada">lion’s share of tips go to customer-facing servers</a> — as well as managers and chefs sometimes — bussers, food-runners and cooks all make tips on top of hourly wages.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in an apron stands behind a counter covered in prepared food dishes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451411/original/file-20220310-13-w5bfmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451411/original/file-20220310-13-w5bfmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451411/original/file-20220310-13-w5bfmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451411/original/file-20220310-13-w5bfmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451411/original/file-20220310-13-w5bfmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451411/original/file-20220310-13-w5bfmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451411/original/file-20220310-13-w5bfmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most sources cite a combination of low wages, instability and the lack of a decent working environment as factors pushing workers out of restaurants and into better paying, more secure jobs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Brittainy Newman)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The claim that workers are simply moving to white-collar sectors also obscures structural barriers to being able to freely move between jobs, including racism and discrimination. </p>
<p>Racialized migrants tend to be in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-013-9445-7">back-of-house jobs</a>, such as cooks and light duty cleaners, in comparison to front-of-house jobs like servers and front desk clerks. For example, in Toronto, Filipino workers, Jamaican-born women and Sri Lankan-born men are <a href="http://www.yorku.ca/tiedi/doc/AnalyticalReport29.pdf">more than twice as likely to work these jobs</a> as other immigrants. </p>
<p>For many international students and newcomers without <a href="https://cjsae.library.dal.ca/index.php/cjsae/article/view/1002">recognized foreign credentials</a>, restaurants jobs provide low barriers to entry and flexible hours, where language skills can be honed and the <a href="https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/94782/1/Canadian%20Experience%20employement%20challenges_Sakamoto.pdf">coveted Canadian experience</a> acquired. Many restaurants also sponsor professional cooks, chefs and managers who come to Canada to work in the sector.</p>
<h2>A place of opportunity</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-low-wages-and-instability-to-blame-for-restaurant-industry-labour/">Low wages</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2019.1604326">questionable employment practices and precarity</a> are all part of a reckoning that the restaurant industry as a whole must confront if it is to recover from its <a href="https://tourismhr.ca/labour-market-information/has-covid-affected-canadians-perceptions-of-tourism/">current image crisis</a> and attract workers in the future. </p>
<p>In the meantime, we need to dig deeper and ask more questions, not just about the leavers, but also about the stayers. We know that COVID-19 had a <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-631-x/2020004/s6-eng.htm">disproportionate impact on immigrants and racialized people</a> in Canada. It is vital that the hospitality industry that employs many of them is a place of opportunity rather than a source of oppression and exploitation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178593/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maggie Perzyna receives funding from the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration Program. </span></em></p>The claim that workers are simply moving to white-collar sectors obscures structural barriers to labour mobility, including racism and discrimination.Maggie Perzyna, Senior Research Technician, CERC Migration Program, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1723852021-11-23T06:30:01Z2021-11-23T06:30:01ZNew Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme offers more flexibility … for employers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433309/original/file-20211122-13-1snztkx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C485%2C3000%2C1508&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Australian government has announced a major change to its arrangements for migrant workers from Pacific Island nations (and Timor-Leste), replacing two existing temporary visa schemes with a single scheme, to be known as the<a href="https://www.palmscheme.gov.au/"> Pacific Australia Labour Mobility</a> (PALM) scheme. </p>
<p>The consolidated scheme will come into effect in April 2022. It will replace the Seasonal Worker Programme, which has provided visas of six to nine months’ duration to meet employer needs for “unskilled” labour, mostly in farm harvesting work, and the Pacific Labour Scheme, which has provided visas of one to three years for “low-skilled” and “semi-skilled” workers in rural and regional areas. </p>
<p>The consolidation, <a href="https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/marise-payne/media-release/streamlining-and-strengthening-pacific-labour-new-era">announced today</a>, comes at time when farmers are crying out for more workers while industry and government are under pressure to address structural issues in the existing schemes that have enabled worker mistreatment and wage theft. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="kf2cT" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/kf2cT/6/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>The PALM scheme seems partly designed to respond to these criticisms. The <a href="https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/marise-payne/media-release/streamlining-and-strengthening-pacific-labour-new-era">press release issued</a> by foreign minister Marise Payne and minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja contains vaguely framed assurances of “enhanced worker protections”, including a “compliance and assurance program” (details unknown).</p>
<p>But much clearer is how the scheme will address long-running <em>employer</em> concerns about the existing schemes, by cutting down the paper work and requirements to show they have been unable to fill positions with local workers before applying to recruit migrant workers. </p>
<p>“Flexibility” is the buzzword here – though more for employers than workers. </p>
<h2>What ‘labour mobility’ means</h2>
<p>Back in 2017, pre-pandemic, I sat in a forum hosted by a labour hire agency in the middle of a picking season in north-central Victoria. Speaking to room full of farmers, the agency’s representative talked about how backpackers would leave farms if they weren’t getting paid enough. “This is a challenge”, the representative said. The farmers nodded in agreement. </p>
<p>Farmers I’ve interviewed then and since describe their frustrations with spending days getting a group of workers up to speed, only to have them leave. </p>
<p>This is one reason employers like the Seasonal Worker Programme, which ties the visa holder to the sponsoring employer (typically a labour hire agency). As a packing-shed manager put it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We can get a group of staff and know that they can’t actually go and work anywhere else. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For workers though, this <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-better-working-conditions-not-shaming-for-pacific-islander-farm-workers-171404">tying of visas to a particular employer</a> has been one of the key problems with the existing Pacific worker visa schemes. It limits workers’ ability to complain about exploitative treatment or to leave and find more favourable work. </p>
<p>While the details of the new scheme are sparse, it seems the PALM scheme won’t substantially change this control mechanism. </p>
<p>The “labour mobility” being delivered is not the worker’s choice, but movement between employers “in response to workforce demand”. </p>
<p>That is, where employers struggle to provide the minimum average of 30 hours of work a week required, they (or more likely, the labour hire agencies managing their workforce) will be able to move workers between employers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-better-conditions-not-shaming-for-pacific-farm-workers-171404">Australia needs better conditions, not shaming, for Pacific farm workers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Flexibility for employers</h2>
<p>This kind of increased flexibility has already been instituted under pandemic revisions to the Seasonal Worker Programme rules. Worker “consent” will be required for these moves, but this is hardly the same as allowing workers the capacity to instigate changes of employers themselves. </p>
<p>Thus, while the changes will likely yield some improvements for workers – through reducing situations in which they remain stuck with farmers who have run out of enough work for them – they won’t address the fundamental power disparity embedded in these schemes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Employers like the way the Seasonal Worker Programme ties the visa holder to the sponsoring employer (typically a labour hire agency)." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433391/original/file-20211123-17-wyijs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433391/original/file-20211123-17-wyijs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433391/original/file-20211123-17-wyijs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433391/original/file-20211123-17-wyijs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433391/original/file-20211123-17-wyijs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433391/original/file-20211123-17-wyijs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433391/original/file-20211123-17-wyijs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Employers like the way the Seasonal Worker Programme ties the visa holder to the sponsoring employer (typically a labour hire agency).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another change with PALM will be the capacity for seasonal workers to apply for longer-term visas – up to four years. This too sounds promising. But the framing of the changes again suggests the balance of power will remain firmly with employers. </p>
<p>Workers will be able to apply for these longer-term visas only once they are Australia, and only if recommended by their employers. This will replicate the vulnerability in the existing schemes, by which workers’ chances of staying in the country or qualifying for a future visa are often contingent on the whims of their employer. It’s a powerful disincentive against complaint. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-australia-cares-about-pacific-nations-we-should-also-invest-in-their-care-givers-102780">If Australia cares about Pacific nations, we should also invest in their care givers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Still a recipe for precarious work</h2>
<p>Strengthening worker protections would involve giving workers increased control over the conditions of their labour, and rights not contingent on their employer’s approval. </p>
<p>So what are the strengthened protections for workers under the new scheme? There is little detail beyond generalised references to “welfare and cultural expertise”, “community connections” and “maintaining the paramount importance of worker wellbeing”. </p>
<p>The most concrete change described is establishing a “24/7 helpline” for migrant workers. Exactly what help this will provide remains unclear. A helpline might assist workers facing illegal exploitation. It won’t help much with the unfairness produced by the system working exactly as intended. </p>
<p>With so little detail, the full implications of the new scheme are impossible to gauge. At this point, notwithstanding some nods to worker protection, it looks to be largely a continuation of established patterns, with intensified “flexibility” for industry – a recipe for precarious employment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172385/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Stead receives funding from the Australian Research Council (grant ID DE180101224)</span></em></p>The promise of labour mobility in the Australian government’s new temporary migrant labour scheme is mostly for employers, not workers.Victoria Stead, Senior Research Fellow, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1496922021-01-27T14:28:59Z2021-01-27T14:28:59ZListen to ‘Don’t Call Me Resilient’: Our podcast about race<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380452/original/file-20210125-17-1qo4pw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C32%2C4280%2C2825&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fists raised in solidarity for George Floyd in Charlotte, N.C.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/qT7fZVbDcqE">(Unsplash/Clay Banks)</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe height="480px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/fb609e39-d729-4a54-860a-8a411be157ae?dark=true&show=true"></iframe>
<p>Today, we are launching <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em>, a new podcast about race and racism.</p>
<p>If you’ve struggled with how to understand what is going on around you when it comes to race and racism and how and why it matters, our new podcast, <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em>, can help with that. </p>
<p>Resilient is a beautiful word and yet, as our podcast title says, don’t call me that. Why? </p>
<p>I’ve read and heard many hopeful stories over the past year about people being resilient in the face of adversity. With millions of tragic deaths due to COVID-19 worldwide, as well as job losses, illness and the psychological impact of a racial reckoning, many people are dealing with trauma in resilient ways.</p>
<p>We should always celebrate resilience: the human ability to recover or adjust to difficult conditions. But for many marginalized people, including Black, Indigenous and racialized people, being labelled resilient — especially by policy-makers — has other implications. The focus on resilience and applauding people for being resilient makes it too easy for policy-makers to avoid looking for real solutions. </p>
<p>Our society is marked by <a href="https://theconversation.com/unmasking-the-racial-politics-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-139011">deep systemic divides</a> and many are recognizing this fact in new ways. People of colour have to deal with racism every day — <a href="https://theconversation.com/microaggressions-arent-just-innocent-blunders-new-research-links-them-with-racial-bias-145894">be it microaggressions at work</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/beware-of-bias-training-addressing-systemic-racism-is-not-an-easy-fix-142587">the larger impacts of systemic racism</a> that can create life and death situations. These issues are constant. And the only way to survive is to be resilient.</p>
<p>In response to President Barack Obama’s call to be resilient after the devastating impact of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, activist and lawyer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4itfAVq19U&ab_channel=AlJazeeraEnglish%22%22">Tracie Washington told Al Jazeera’s <em>Fault Lines</em></a>: “Stop calling me resilient…. Because every time you say, ‘Oh, they’re resilient,’ that means you can do something else to me. I am not resilient.” </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247816684763">Maria Kaika</a> at the University of Manchester picked up on that discussion:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If we took Tracie Washington’s objection seriously, we would stop focusing on how to make citizens more resilient ‘no matter what stresses they encounter,’ as this would only mean that they can take more suffering, deprivation or environmental degradation in the future … focus instead on [trying] to change these factors.…”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Today, we are launching <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em>, a new podcast about race and racism in which we discuss solutions in the way Washington and Kaika are suggesting. We take listeners deep into conversations with scholars and activists who view the world through an anti-racist lens. </p>
<p>We explore these critical issues — from dealing with the pain of racism, to inequity in our schools, to Indigenous land rights — in a way that is intimate, authentic and at times, uncomfortable. Instead of calling those who’ve survived the pain of systemic racism “resilient,” this podcast goes in search of solutions for those things no one should have to be resilient for.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380890/original/file-20210127-17-6kdlu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman stands at a police barrier on the street. Two white police offers in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380890/original/file-20210127-17-6kdlu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380890/original/file-20210127-17-6kdlu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380890/original/file-20210127-17-6kdlu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380890/original/file-20210127-17-6kdlu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380890/original/file-20210127-17-6kdlu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380890/original/file-20210127-17-6kdlu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380890/original/file-20210127-17-6kdlu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vinita Srivastava, host of ‘Don’t Call Me Resilient’ has been a journalist for over 20 years: here she is reporting from New York City, in the mid-‘90s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our trailer, I refer to myself as Sister Killjoy: I first read this term in Ama Ata Aidoo’s novel, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17449857808588504"><em>Our Sister Killjoy</em></a>. </p>
<h2>Listen wherever you get your podcasts</h2>
<p>The first episode of <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> went live on Feb. 3, 2021. You can listen to all of the episodes or subscribe on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>. <a href="mailto:theculturedesk@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/a184135b-bffb-4837-93b9-fbec5c3e8e1e?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-572" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/572/661898416fdc21fc4fdef6a5379efd7cac19d9d5/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Season 1: Race 101</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-call-me-resilient-a-new-podcast-from-the-conversation-149692"><strong>Season 1 Trailer: Don’t Call Me Resilient</strong></a>
Don’t Call Me Resilient is a provocative new podcast about race from The Conversation. Host Vinita Srivastava takes you deep into conversations with scholars and activists who view the world, its problems, and the way forward through an anti-racist lens. Instead of calling those who have survived the pain of systemic racism “resilient,” this podcast goes in search of solutions for the things no one should have to be resilient for.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-in-a-word-how-to-confront-150-years-of-racial-stereotypes-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-1-153790"><strong>EP 1: What’s in a word? How to confront 150 years of racial stereotypes</strong></a>
We keep hearing stories about white and non-Black people – including academics – somehow thinking it’s ok to use the n-word. Ryerson University Professor Cheryl Thompson, author of ‘Uncle: Race, Nostalgia and the Politics of Loyalty,’ joins us to discuss how North American society spent the last 150 years creating racist stereotypes and language, how they continue to persist today – and what we might do to help stop it.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-deal-with-the-pain-of-racism-and-become-a-better-advocate-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-2-154631"><strong>EP 2: How to deal with the pain of racism – and become a better advocate</strong></a>
A global protest movement calling for an end to racism and police brutality sparked new conversations about race. But it also surfaced a lot of pain for those who deal daily with racism. Where do we go from here? The writer, activist and Zen priest Reverend angel Kyodo williams speaks about the pain of racism, and how she uses meditation to combat it – and become a stronger anti-racist activist in America today.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-spark-change-within-our-unequal-education-system-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-3-152355"><strong>EP 3: How to spark change within our unequal education system</strong></a>
Even before COVID-19, education experts were sounding the alarm about the future of racialized children in our schools. And the COVID-19 pandemic has only underscored – even deepened – the divide. Carl James, professor of education at York University and Kulsoom Anwer, a high school teacher who works out of one of Toronto’s most marginalized neighborhoods, Jane and Finch, join us to discuss the injustices and inequalities in the education system – and the way forward.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-treat-migrant-workers-who-put-food-on-our-tables-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-4-153275"><strong>EP 4: How we treat migrant workers who put food on our tables</strong></a>
Documentary filmmaker and OCAD University associate professor Min Sook Lee has been documenting the voices of migrant farm workers in Canada for two decades. What she has to say about how these workers have been treated during COVID-19 shatters any remaining myths about “Canada the Good.” How do we treat the workers that put food on our tables?</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/black-health-matters-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-5-155950"><strong>EP 5: Black health matters</strong></a>
When COVID-19 first appeared, some said it was the great equalizer. But the facts quickly revealed a grim reality: COVID-19 disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous, poor and racialized communities. Roberta K. Timothy, assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, joins us to talk about her global research project, Black Health Matters, and why racial justice is a public health matter.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-land-defenders-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-6-156632"><strong>EP 6: Indigenous land defenders</strong></a>
Two Indigenous land defenders join us to explain why they work to protect land against invasive development and why their work is necessary for everyone’s survival. Ellen Gabriel, a human rights activist and artist well known for her role as a spokesperson during the 1990 Oka crisis, and Anne Spice, a professor at Ryerson University, discuss the importance and urgency of defending land.</p>
<h2>Season 2</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-stories-about-alternate-worlds-can-help-us-imagine-a-better-future-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-7-165933"><strong>EP 7: How stories about alternate worlds can help us imagine a better future: Don’t Call Me Resilient</strong></a>
Stories are a powerful tool to resist oppressive situations. They give writers from marginalized communities a way to imagine alternate realities, and to critique the one we live in. In this episode, Vinita speaks to two storytellers who offer up wonderous “otherworlds” for Indigenous and Black people. Selwyn Seyfu Hinds is an L.A-based screenwriter who wrote for Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone and is currently writing the screenplay for Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black. Daniel Heath Justice is professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous literature and expressive culture at the University of British Columbia.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/stolen-identities-what-does-it-mean-to-be-indigenous-dont-call-me-resilient-podcast-ep-8-166248"><strong>EP 8: Stolen identities: What does it mean to be Indigenous?</strong></a>
Over the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of high-profile figures accused of falsely claiming Indigenous identity, of being “Pretendians.” These cases have become big news stories, but they have big real-life consequences, too. Misidentifying as Indigenous can have financial and social consequences, with the misdirection of funds, jobs or grants meant for Indigenous peoples. Vinita delves into it all with two researchers who look at identity and belonging in Indigenous communities: Veldon Coburn from the University of Ottawa and Celeste Pedri-Spade from Queen’s University.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/model-minority-blues-the-mental-health-consequences-of-being-a-model-citizen-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-9-166620"><strong>EP 9: Model minority blues: The mental health consequences of being a model citizen</strong></a>
The pandemic has taken a toll on our collective mental health. But according to a recent Statistics Canada report, South Asians reported a steeper decline than any other diaspora in Canada. Why? The idea of being a model minority — of having to live up to exacting high standards — is a big part of it. Two long-time researchers and activists join Vinita for an intimate conversation about that and other reasons why South Asians are struggling so badly, and what can be done about it. Maneet Chahal is co-founder of SOCH, one of the few mental health organizations specifically for South Asians. Satwinder Bains is the director of the South Asian Studies Institute and professor of social cultural media studies at the University of the Fraser Valley.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/being-watched-mass-surveillance-amplifies-racist-policing-and-threatens-the-right-to-protest-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-10-167522"><strong>EP 10: Being Watched: How surveillance amplifies racist policing and threatens the right to protest</strong></a>
Many of us know our personal data is being collected online and used against us – to get us to buy certain things or vote a certain way. But for marginalized communities, the collection of data and photos has much bigger implications. Vinita is joined by two researchers who are calling for new protections for the most vulnerable populations. Yuan Stevens is the Policy Lead in the Technology, Cybersecurity and Democracy Programme at the Ryerson Leadership Lab and Wendy Hui Kyong Chun is professor and Canada 150 Research Chair in new media at Simon Fraser University.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-pollution-is-as-much-about-colonialism-as-chemicals-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-11-170696"><strong>EP 11: Why pollution is as much about colonialism as chemicals</strong></a>.
The state of our environment just keeps getting scarier and scarier, yet it feels like we have yet to find a way forward. Two Indigenous scholars who run labs to address the climate crisis say bringing an Indigenous understanding to environmental justice could help us get unstuck. A big part of that is seeing pollution through a new lens – one that acknowledges it is as much about racism and colonialism as it is toxic chemicals. Vinita talks to Michelle Murphy, Professor and Canada Research Chair in science and technology studies and leader at the University of Toronto’s Environmental Data Justice Lab. Also joining is Max Liboiron, author of Pollution is Colonialism, and associate professor in geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/making-our-food-fairer-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-12-171554">EP 12: Making our food fairer </a></strong>
One out of every eight households in Canada is food insecure. For racialized Canadians, that number is higher – two to three times the national average. In this episode, Vinita asks what is happening with our food systems, and what we can do to make them fairer with two women who have been tackling this issue for years. Melana Roberts is Chair of Food Secure Canada and one of the leaders behind Canada’s first Black food sovereignty plan. Also joining the conversation is Tabitha Robin Martens, assistant professor at UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems. Martens researches Indigenous food sovereignty and works with Cree communities to bolster traditional land uses.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/will-smiths-oscar-slap-reveals-fault-lines-as-he-defends-jada-pinkett-smith-against-chris-rock-podcast-180280"><strong>Bonus EP 13 Will Smith’s Oscar slap reveals fault lines as he defends Jada Pinkett against Chris Rock</strong></a>
In this special edition, we chat with Cheryl Thompson, professor of performance about how “the slap heard around the world” is part of a layered story of racism, sexism, power and performance.</p>
<h2>Season 3: Refusal and resistance</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/unmarked-graves-of-215-indigenous-children-were-found-in-kamloops-a-year-ago-whats-happened-since-podcast-182728"><strong>EP 14: Unmarked graves of 215 Indigenous children were found in Kamloops a year ago: What’s happened since?</strong></a>
It’s been a year since the unmarked graves of 215 Indigenous children— some of them as young as three years old—were found on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. In this episode, Vinita speaks to Veldon Coburn, assistant professor at the Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies at the University of Ottawa about what happened, the widespread grief and outcry and the immediate political response, but also, how none of that lasted despite communities continuing to find bodies. Joining Vinita on the episode is Haley Lewis, Don’t Call Me Resilient producer and culture and society editor at The Conversation Canada. Lewis is mixed Kanyen'keha:ká from Tyendinaga and led our coverage of the findings last year. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/niqab-bans-boost-hate-crimes-against-muslims-and-legalize-islamophobia-podcast-180012"><strong>EP 15 Niqab bans boost hate crimes against Muslims and legalize Islamophobia</strong></a>
Last year, as a Muslim Canadian family took their evening stroll during the lockdown in London, Ont., a white man rammed his pickup truck into them. Four of the five family members were killed. The incident sparked horror and outrage. But the truth is, anti-Muslim sentiment has been on the steady rise in the 20 years since 9/11. According to a report from July 2021 by the National Council of Canadian Muslims, more Muslims have been killed in Canada in targeted attacks and hate crimes than in any other G7 country. Our guest today says that instead of deterring anti-Muslim hate, Canadian laws are actually making it worse - in essence, legalizing Islamophobia. Natasha Bakht is an award-winning legal scholar who has spent the past five years researching the rise in anti-Muslim attitudes in North America. She is a professor in the faculty of law at the University of Ottawa and the author of In Your Face: Law, Justice, and Niqab Wearing Women in Canada.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/tiktok-is-more-than-just-a-frivolous-app-for-lip-syncing-and-dancing-podcast-182264"><strong>EP 16 TikTok is more than just a frivolous app for lip-synching and dancing</strong></a><br>
TikTok started off as a platform to create musical, lip-syncing and dance videos. And right now, it’s not just popular, it’s the most downloaded app in the world. It’s not just fun and games though: TikTok has also become a platform to learn and expose yourself to new ideas. As TikTok is helping its users build strong communities, it’s also important to explore how the app’s algorithm is treating marginalized folks and their stories. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/diamond-mines-are-not-a-girls-best-friend-podcast-183972"><strong>EP 17: Diamond mines are not a girl’s best friend</strong></a>
When you think diamonds, you probably think of romance, weddings and Valentine’s Day. And it’s no accident we think this way: A century of marketing has convinced us that diamonds symbolize love. In Canada, glossy magazine ads celebrate the “purity” of Northern Canadian diamonds as an ethical alternative to conflict diamonds. And Canada has become the third-largest diamond producer in the world. But this marketing strategy hides enormous social problems that people living near the mines say they’ve experienced. This includes some of Canada’s highest rates of violence against women. The story our guests tell today is not one of numbers. Instead, they’re sharing narratives gathered and collected through interviews and sharing circles about how lives have changed after the mines opened. Our guests today are: Rebecca Hall, assistant professor of Global Development Studies at Queen’s University and the author of Refracted Economies: Diamond Mining and Social Reproduction in the North and Della Green, former Victim Services Coordinator, at The Native Women’s Association of the Northwest Territories</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-you-shouldnt-be-afraid-of-critical-race-theory-podcast-183973"><strong>EP 18 Why you shouldn’t be afraid of Critical Race Theory</strong></a>
Today we explore how applying critical race theory in classrooms across Canada helps both students and teachers. Teresa Fowler, assistant professor of Education at Concordia University of Edmonton joins us. So does Dwayne Brown, a PhD student in Education at York University, and a grade seven teacher with the Toronto District School Board. Both Brown and Fowler use critical race theory in their classrooms every day, and say that it helps them to see and evaluate their own biases—while also making students feel truly included in their own education.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-powerful-sounds-of-protest-amplify-resistance-podcast-182263"><strong>EP 19 The powerful sounds of protest amplify voices of resistance</strong></a>
How can a convo about marginalized voices and soundscapes of resistance amplify voices of resistance? How do sonic media practitioners use the practice of field recording as a form of protest and resistance. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/has-the-meaning-behind-the-canadian-flag-changed-podcast-183974"><strong>EP 20 Has the meaning behind the Canadian flag changed?</strong></a>
As we approach Canada Day — and the prospect of the return of “freedom” protests in Ottawa — let’s consider the meaning and symbolism of the Canadian flag. After weeks of the so-called freedom convoy last winter, many of us took a hard look at the symbolism of the Canadian flag and its recent association with white supremacy. Some felt a new fear or anger at what they feel the flag represents. But other communities have always felt this way about the Canadian flag. Other movements like Resistance150, Idle No More, Pride and Black Lives Matter have also raised awareness about challenges to Canadian nationalism and belonging. Both of our guests have studied multiculturalism, citizenship and belonging. Daniel McNeil looks at history and culture and the complexities of global Black communities. He is a professor and Queen’s National Scholar Chair in Black Studies at Queen’s University. Lucy El-Sherif is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto in ethnic and pluralism studies. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/about-the-queen-and-the-crowns-crimes-or-how-to-talk-about-the-unmourned-podcast-191141"><strong>Bonus EP 21: About the Queen, the Crown’s crimes and how to talk about the unmourned</strong> </a>
In the middle of the tremendous outpouring of love and grief for the Queen and the monarchy she represented, not everyone wants to take a moment of silence. And there are a lot of reasons why.</p>
<h2>Season 4: Challenges and hope</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-unfairness-of-the-climate-crisis-podcast-192469"><strong>EP 22 The unfairness of the climate crisis</strong></a>
Western industries and governments have refused to accept responsibility for climate change despite being the main drivers of it. Meanwhile, the Global South and Black and Indigenous communities globally have continued to bear the brunt of its impact. As world leaders gather in Egypt for COP27 — the United Nations Climate Change Conference — will this inequity finally be addressed? Join Vinita and Yvonne Su, Assistant Professor in the Department of Equity Studies at York University, to discuss our responsibilities towards those worst affected by climate change. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-isnt-anyone-talking-about-who-gets-long-covid-podcast-191659"><strong>EP 23 Why isn’t anyone talking about <em>who</em> gets long COVID?</strong></a>
Long COVID has been called a mass-disabling event. It hits one in every five people, and hits Black and Latinx women especially hard. Vinita dives into why that is - and why we’re not talking about it - with Margot Gage Witvliet, who has insights into long COVID both as a Black woman who has been suffering the effects of it, and as a social epidemiologist who studies it. Margot is an assistant professor at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. She has presented her long COVID findings to the United States Task Force on equity and COVID and runs an online support and advocacy group for BIPOC women living with long COVID.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-decolonize-journalism-podcast-192467"><strong>EP 24 How to decolonize journalism</strong></a>
For decades, Canadian media have covered Indigenous communities with a heavy reliance on stereotypes - casting Indigenous peoples as victims or warriors. This deep-seated bias in the news can have unsettling consequences for both how a community perceives itself as well as how others perceive them. Award-winning Anishinaabe journalist and longtime CBC reporter Duncan McCue is trying to change that both in the classroom and in the newsroom. He joins Vinita to talk about what Canadian media could be doing better.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-corporate-diversity-statements-are-backfiring-podcast-190726"><strong>EP 25: Why corporate diversity statements are backfiring</strong></a>
Companies have amped up their rhetoric about equity and inclusion, many churning out diversity statements. But Vinita’s guest today says their promises to promote anti-racist cultures without action plans can lead to greater blocks to success for racialized employees. Sonia Kang is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources Management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management - and one of Canada’s leading experts on identity, diversity and inclusion in the workplace.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-can-we-slow-down-youth-gun-violence-podcast-194145">EP 26 How can we slow down youth gun violence?</a></strong>
In 2007, 15-year-old Jordan Manners became the first student to be shot and killed inside a Toronto school. Since then, youth violence hasn’t let up in Canada’s largest city. In fact, it’s getting worse. Devon Jones and Ardavan Eizadirad say it’s a major problem that needs a more holistic approach. Ardavan is an assistant professor in the Department of Education at Wilfrid Laurier University who studies the root causes of gun violence. He and Devon run Y.A.A.C.E. –a community organization started by Devon that tackles the root causes of youth gun violence in Toronto. They join Vinita to talk about what has been going wrong and how to get it right.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-so-funny-about-race-podcast-192470">EP 27 What’s so funny about race?</a></strong>
A lot of comedians we know and love put race, ethnicity and cultural stereotypes at the centre of their comedy. This gives us - the audience - reason to laugh…and a way to release some of the tensions around race. Where is the line between a lighthearted joke and deep-rooted racism? And how far is too far? Vinita gets into it with Faiza Hirji, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Media Arts at McMaster University and stand-up comedian Andrea Jin. They look at how comedy can be an easier way to talk about difficult issues,, and at how we can find a way to laugh with each other, rather than at each other. </p>
<h2>Season 5</h2>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/roxham-road-asylum-seekers-wont-just-get-turned-back-theyll-get-forced-underground-podcast-202699">EP 28 Roxham Road: Asylum seekers won’t just get turned back, they’ll get forced underground</a></strong>
Before the Safe Third Country Agreement, which was signed in 2002, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., both countries could reject asylum seekers at official border crossings. But there was a small loophole that provided a slim window for people desperately looking for a way into Canada. People who crossed at unofficial border crossings could still claim asylum. In this episode, migration expert Christina Clark-Kazak explains the devastating consequences of last week’s meeting between United States President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The meeting resulted in significant changes to a cross-border agreement and has already impacted the lives of thousands of asylum seekers attempting to make a life in Canada.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-vatican-just-renounced-a-500-year-old-doctrine-that-justified-colonial-land-theft-now-what-podcast-203229">EP 29 The Vatican just renounced a 500-year-old doctrine that justified colonial land theft … Now what?</a></strong>
The Vatican finally distanced itself from the Doctrine of Discovery — a hundreds of years old decree that justified land theft and enslavement of people who were not Christian. In this episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, political and Indigenous studies scholar Veldon Coburn explains why the Vatican’s repudiation of the Doctrine is a huge symbolic victory. We also examine what this repudiation may mean for members of Indigenous Nations, what prompted this renouncement, and what still needs to happen.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/fast-fashion-why-garment-workers-lives-are-still-in-danger-10-years-after-rana-plaza-podcast-203122">EP 30 Fast Fashion: Why garment workers’ lives are still in danger 10 years after Rana Plaza</a></strong>
Ten years ago this month, much attention turned to the global garment industry when a group of garment factories collapsed at Rana Plaza near Dhaka, Bangladesh. The accident, called a “mass industrial homicide” by unions in Bangladesh, killed 1,124 people and injured at least 2,500 more. Most of the people who went to work that day were young women, almost all were supporting families with their wages and all were at the bottom of the global production chain. This week on Don’t Call Me Resilient, we look back at the Rana Plaza disaster to explore how much — or how little — has changed for garment worker conditions since.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/will-the-brilliance-of-netflixs-beef-be-lost-in-the-shadow-of-a-sexual-assault-controversy-podcast-203321">EP 31 Will the brilliance of Netflix’s ‘Beef’ be lost in the shadow of a sexual assault controversy?</a></strong>
Beef is a dark comedy series created by Lee Sung Jin. It follows two L.A. strangers, courageously played by Ali Wong and Steven Yeun, who get into a road rage incident — and end up in an escalating feud. But over the weekend, a Twitter storm erupted after a podcast episode featuring supporting actor David Choe resurfaced. In the 2014 podcast, Choe vividly relays a sexual assault story where he is the perpetrator. Choe has apologized since and has also said the story was made up. This week on Don’t Call Me Resilient, Michelle Cho, an assistant professor of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto and Bianca Mabute-Louie, a PhD student in Sociology at Rice University; join Vinita to explore the advances Beef has made in television, the limits of those advancements and ask whether the brilliance of Beef will be overshadowed by Choe’s controversial history.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-crown-jewels-tell-us-about-exploitation-and-the-quest-for-reparations-podcast-204000">EP 32 What the Crown Jewels tell us about exploitation and the quest for reparations</a></strong>
Much of what was called the British Empire was built from stolen riches — globally — and much of that was from India. In fact, India was such an abundant contributor to the Crown that at the time of its occupation of South Asia, Britain called India the Jewel in its Crown. India was called this because of its location — easy access to the silk route, but mostly because of its vast human and natural resources: things like cotton, and tea and of course its abundance of jewels. Joining Vinita to explore the history and meaning behind these jewels is Annie St. John-Stark, assistant professor of British history at Thompson Rivers University and Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra, instructor of history at both the University of the Fraser Valley and the University of British Columbia. </p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/will-a-un-resolution-to-commemorate-the-expulsion-of-palestinians-from-their-lands-change-the-narrative-listen-204799">EP 33 Will a UN resolution to commemorate the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands change the narrative?</a></strong>
Seventy-six years ago, starting on May 15, Palestinians were driven off their land. This event is what Palestinians have come to refer to as the Nakba. In Arabic, Nakba means catastrophe. The UN’s recent resolution to recognize Nakba Day on May 15, to mark the anniversary of the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948, helps to acknowledge past traumas but does the resolution have other implications? On this week’s episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, we meet up with M. Muhannad Ayyash, professor of sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary to help unpack some of the meanings behind this resolution.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-60-per-cent-of-incarcerated-women-are-mothers-listen-204020">EP 34 More than 60 per cent of incarcerated women are mothers</a></strong>
Mother’s Day is just a few days away. It can be a complicated day. For some, it could mean a bouquet of flowers or a breakfast in bed. For others, it can mean mourning the loss of a loved one or dealing with a haunted past. And still — for others — like the 66 per cent of incarcerated women in prison who are mothers, it can mean something else entirely. On this episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, we are joined by Rai Reece, professor at Toronto Metropolitan University who researches prisons and feminist criminology. Lorraine Pinnock also joins us. She is the Ontario Coordinator for the Walls to Bridges program which helps women with education when transitioning out of the system. </p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/decolonize-your-garden-this-long-weekend-dig-into-the-complicated-roots-of-gardening-listen-205720">EP 35 Decolonize your garden: This long weekend, dig into the complicated roots of gardening</a></strong>
The May long weekend is the unofficial start of summer. And for those of you with home gardens or access to community space, this is the weekend to dust off your gardening tools and visit the garden centre for the growing season ahead. As we approach the start of gardening season, it’s good time to ask some questions about its origins. In this episode we explore the complicated roots of the garden, including who gets to garden. We also discuss practical tips about what to plant with an eye to Indigenous knowledge. We speak with researcher Jacqueline L. Scott and also chat with community activist, Carolynne Crawley, who leads workshops that integrate Indigenous teachings into practice.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-a-5th-generation-new-yorker-traces-her-family-history-and-finds-the-roots-of-anti-asian-violence-and-asian-resistance-204721">EP 36 A 5th generation New Yorker traces her family history and finds the roots of anti-Asian violence – and Asian resistance</a></strong>
<em>Mott Street: A Chinese American Family’s Story of Exclusion and Homecoming</em> artfully explores themes of exclusion as it relates to all Chinese Americans. These themes resonate personally for the author Ava Chin, with her father a “crown prince” of Chinatown that she didn’t meet until adulthood. Chin reveals personal family stories against the backdrop of the U.S. eugenics movement and draws a connecting line between the current rise in violence against Asians in North America and anti-immigration laws more than 100 years old. In this episode, author and CUNY professor Ava Chin, a 5th generation Chinese New Yorker, discusses her new book.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-trans-scholar-and-activist-explains-why-trans-rights-are-under-attack-206259">EP 37 Trans scholar and activist explains why trans rights are under attack</a></strong>
Lately we’ve seen an aggressive push to implement anti-trans legislation across the United States. What do things look like in Canada? Are we a safe haven or are we following some of the same trends? Recently, a petition signed by over 160,000 people asked the Canadian government to extend asylum to trans and gender non-conforming people from nations in the West, previously considered safe. To get a better understanding of trans histories in Canada, we are joined by Syrus Marcus Ware, an artist, activist and assistant professor at the School of the Arts at McMaster University. He is a co-curator of Blockorama/Blackness Yes! and a co-editor of Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-indian-pm-modi-is-expected-to-get-a-rockstar-welcome-in-the-u-s-how-much-is-the-diaspora-fuelling-him-206260">EP 38 Indian PM Modi is expected to get a rockstar welcome in the U.S. How much is the diaspora fuelling him?</a></strong>
On June 22, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first official state visit to the United States. And if his visits to Australia last month, to Canada in 2015 and to Texas in 2019 were any indication, he was given a rockstar welcome. U.S. President Joe Biden had already joked that he wanted Modi’s autograph because so many people want to see the Indian PM while he’s in the United States. In this episode, Anjali Arondekar, professor of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz joins the podcast to answer important questions about Modi’s support. We are asking how important is that diaspora? With India having one of the highest remittance rates in the world, how much does overseas support contribute to Modi’s popularity and success? And what kind of an impact could a progressive element of that diaspora have on Indian politics?</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-why-preserving-indigenous-languages-is-so-critical-to-culture-204348">EP 39 Why preserving Indigenous languages is so critical to culture</a></strong>
Language is much more than a way to communicate with words. This is especially true if you have had your language forcibly removed from you, like the thousands of Indigenous children who survived Canada’s colonial assimilation project. Languages hold within them philosophies, worldviews, culture and identity. As we look ahead to National Indigenous Peoples Day, guest host Prof. Veldon Coburn speaks with Prof. Frank Deer, Canada Research Chair and associate dean of Indigenous Education at the University of Manitoba to tackle the issue of disappearing Indigenous languages and delve into how much more needs to be done to revitalize them and why doing so is critical.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-widespread-use-of-ozempic-for-weight-loss-could-change-how-we-view-fatness-206457">EP 40 Widespread use of Ozempic for weight loss could change how we view fatness</a></strong>
It seems like everywhere you look these days, on TikTok, on the sides of buses, in news headlines, you see Ozempic, the drug originally created as a diabetes treatment, but now being used as a weight-loss method. While Ozempic may just be the next in a long line of get-thin-quick fads, it’s already causing a lot of issues, many of which are especially felt by racialized communities. As the use of Ozempic, a drug for diabetes, slams into the mainstream as a weight-loss method, Fat and disability studies professor Fady Shanouda, who examines anti-fat bias in medicine looks into the drug’s use impact our concept of fatness, how fatness intersects with race and class and how the craze for Ozempic deepen racial and class disparities?</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-indiana-joness-last-ride-a-legacy-to-celebrate-or-bury-208557">EP 41 Indiana Jones’s last ride: A legacy to celebrate or bury?</a></strong>
As the Indiana Jones series comes to an end, we explore Indy’s complicated legacy — and his famous line: “it belongs in a museum.” Will Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny reflect the changes in anthropology departments and the growing movements from Indigenous and Global South communities to return stolen objects and ancestors from western museums? Will it consider that Eurocentric notions of what holds heritage has finally expanded beyond the artifact? Historian Christopher Heaney professor of Latin American History at Penn State University joins Vinita to unpack everything Indiana Jones.</p>
<h2>Season 6</h2>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-the-search-for-the-unmarked-graves-of-children-lost-to-indian-residential-schools-214437">EP 42 Inside the search for the unmarked graves of children lost to Indian Residential Schools</a></strong>
More than 150,000 Indigenous children from across Canada were forced to attend Indian Residential Schools. And as we know, many never made it home.Now, there are ongoing efforts to find the final resting places of those missing children.As we approach the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we take you inside the ongoing quest to document the children who died in Canada’s Indian Residential Schools system. On this episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, we speak to Terri Cardinal, director of Indigenous initiatives at MacEwan University, about the work she did to uncover the unmarked graves of those who died at the Blue Quills Residential School in Alberta.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-brown-and-black-people-supporting-the-far-right-214800">EP 43 Why are brown and Black people supporting the far right?</a></strong>
But at last week’s GOP primary presidential debates, three of the seven people on stage were candidates of colour. Racialized citizens also have been drawn to far-right politics, including key players in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol and recent racist attacks. Which begs the question: Why are racialized people upholding white supremacist ideologies that work against them? Daniel Martinez HoSang, a professor of Ethnicity, Race and Migration and American Studies at Yale University, has been exploring this question for a long time. He is the author with Joseph Lowndes of Producers, Parasites, Patriots, Race, and the New Right Wing Politics of Precarity. HoSang sat down with us to discuss what they call the politics of multicultural white supremacy.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/detangling-the-roots-and-health-risks-of-hair-relaxers-215413">EP 44 Detangling the roots and health risks of hair relaxers
</a></strong>
For decades, Black women have been using hair relaxers to help them “fit into” global mainstream workplaces and the European standards of beauty that continue to dominate them. More recently, research has linked these relaxers to cancer and reproductive health issues — and a spate of lawsuits across the United States, and at least one in Canada, have been brought by Black women against the makers of these relaxants.
In this reflective and personal episode of Don’t Call Me Resilient, Prof. Cheryl Thompson of Toronto Metropolitan University and author of Beauty in a Box untangles the wending history of hair relaxers for Black women — and the health risks now linked to them.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-corporate-landlords-are-eroding-affordable-housing-and-prioritizing-profits-over-human-rights-215582">EP 45 How corporate landlords are eroding affordable housing — and prioritizing profits over human rights</a></strong>
One factor driving the housing crisis across the country is a shift away from publicly built housing toward large corporate-owned buildings where, as today’s guest Prof. Nemoy Lewis puts it, “housing is treated as a commodity, not a human right.” For many people living in Canada, housing has emerged as one of the most challenging issues. This is especially true in our largest cities, where financial stress plagues many households. Today’s guest, Prof. Nemoy Lewis from the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University, discusses the disproportionate impacts these corporate landlords are having on Black and low-income communities — in income-polarized cities that are increasingly accessible to only a small group of wealthy people.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-israel-gaza-conflict-is-so-hard-to-talk-about-216149">EP 46 Why the Israel-Gaza conflict is so hard to talk about</a></strong>
It’s hard to escape the horrific images coming out of the Middle East. And it’s excruciating to take it all in. Many of us have been left with a feeling of helplessness as we watch in horror. For others, this witnessing has brought personal anguish, especially for those with ties to the region. On Don’t Call Me Resilient, our two guests today - Natalie Rothman, a professor of historical and cultural studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough who grew up in Israel and Norma Rantisi, professor of geography and urban planning at Concordia University who has done work in the region and has family in the West Bank - both say our institutions need to make room for a true dialogue. One where decolonization is not a bad word. They say a contextual, historical analysis is crucial to moving forward — both at home and abroad.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-journalists-tell-buffy-sainte-maries-story-matters-explained-by-a-60s-scoop-survivor-216805">EP 47 How journalists tell Buffy Sainte-Marie’s story matters — explained by a ’60s Scoop survivor</a></strong>
Last week, a CBC investigation accused Buffy Sainte-Marie, the legendary singer-songwriter, of lying about her Indigenous roots. Sainte-Marie had already come out on social media ahead of the story and explained she had been claimed by the Piapot Cree First Nation in Saskatchewan. And from earlier conversations on the Don’t Call Me Resilient podcast as well as articles written by expert scholars about so-called “pretendians” — those faking an Indigenous identity — I knew kinship ties were maybe even more important than genealogy tests when it comes to establishing Indigeneity. Lori Campbell, a ’60s Scoop survivor and a VP at the University of Regina, challenges the CBC’s motives in their exposé on the questionable Indigenous roots of Buffy Sainte-Marie, legendary singer-songwriter.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/state-of-georgia-using-extreme-legal-measures-to-quell-cop-city-dissenters-216482">EP 48 State of Georgia using extreme legal measures to quell ‘Cop City’ dissenters</a></strong>
Earlier this week, nearly five dozen people appeared in a courtroom near Atlanta to answer criminal racketeering and domestic terrorism charges brought against them by the state. The charges are related to what’s commonly known as “Cop City,” a $90-million paramilitary police and firefighter training facility planned for 85 acres of forest near Atlanta. Georgia prosecutors are calling the demonstrators “militant anarchists.” But many of those charged say they were simply attending a rally or a concert in support of the Stop Cop City movement. In this episode, we speak with Kamau Franklin, a long-time community organizer and the founder of Community Movement Builders. Also joining us is Zohra Ahmed, assistant professor of law at the University of Georgia. A former public defender in New York, she, too, has been watching this case closely.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/palestine-was-never-a-land-without-a-people-217765">EP 49 Palestine was never a ‘land without a people’</a></strong>
Some of us assume that the violence between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians — a majority of whom are Muslim — is a religious conflict, but a closer look at the history of the last century reveals that the root of the tension between the two communities is more complicated than that. At its root, it’s a conflict between two communities that claim the right to the same land. For millions of Palestinians, it’s about displacement from that land. Modern settlers to Palestine viewed the desert as something they needed to “make bloom.” But it already was, thanks to the long history of Palestinian agricultural systems.
Our guests on this episode have been working on a film about the importance of preserving Palestinian agriculture and food in exile. Elizabeth Vibert, a professor of colonial history at University of Victoria and Salam Guenette is the consulting producer and cultural and language translator for their documentary project. </p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-potential-of-psychedelics-to-heal-our-racial-traumas-218233">EP 50 The potential of psychedelics to heal our racial traumas
</a></strong>
Judging from the colourful signs advertising mushrooms that we are seeing on our streets and the presence of psychedelics in pop culture, we are in the middle of a psychedelic renaissance. For example, in the TV program Transplant, a Syrian Canadian doctor experiencing trauma is treated by his psychiatrist with psilocybin therapy. On a more official front, the Canadian Senate recommended the federal government fast-track a research program into how psychedelics can help veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD covers a range of issues, including racial trauma, which is the conversation Vinita has with Clinical psychologist and professor Monnica Williams.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-school-aged-boys-so-attracted-to-hateful-ideologies-218700">EP 51 Why are school-aged boys so attracted to hateful ideologies?</a></strong>
Anecdotally, and in polls conducted by Angus Reid and the Girl Guides of Canada, school-aged children are expressing concern about the sexist, homophobic and racist attitudes they are experiencing in their classrooms. And the research supports them: experts say the rise in far-right ideologies globally has impacted school-age students.Teresa Fowler of Concordia University of Edmonton and Lance McCready of University of Toronto look at the current rise of white supremacy and how that rise has filtered down into the attitudes of school-aged boys.</p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/dear-politicians-to-solve-our-food-bank-crisis-curb-corporate-greed-and-implement-a-basic-income-219086">EP 52 Dear politicians: To solve our food bank crisis, curb corporate greed and implement a basic income</a></strong>
Have you noticed the line ups for the food banks in your city? (Or have you had to join one?) They are getting longer in a way we’ve never seen before. According to the stats, the number of people using food banks has doubled since last year and one in 10 people now rely on food banks in Toronto. Our guest on this episode is Elaine Power, professor of health studies at Queen’s University and co-author of The Case for Basic Income: Freedom, Security, Justice. She has spent years working on this issue and says reducing food insecurity requires our political and business leaders to address the root causes — including the ability of household incomes to meet basic needs. </p>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/american-fiction-is-a-scathing-satire-that-challenges-pop-culture-stereotypes-of-blackness-217988">EP 53 ‘American Fiction’ is a scathing satire that challenges pop-culture stereotypes of Blackness</a></strong>
The lead character of the new movie American Fiction is Monk. He’s a Black man but never feels ‘Black’ enough: he graduated from Harvard, his siblings are doctors, he doesn’t play basketball and he writes literary novels. Prof. Vershawn Ashanti Young of University of Waterloo and Prof. Anthony Stewart of Bucknell University join forces to break down the many layers of Monk’s story and why Black stereotypes remain so persistent in pop culture.</p>
<p><em>Season 6 credits: Vinita Srivastava is the host and executive producer. Our associate producer and audience development consultant is Ateqah Khaki. Our associate producer is Danielle Piper. Our assistant producer is Kikachi Memeh. Rehmatullah Sheikh is our sound editor. Our consulting producer is Jennifer Moroz. Theme music: Zaki Ibrahim, Something in the Water.</em></p>
<p><em>Season 5 credits: Vinita Srivastava is the host and executive producer. Our Associate Porducer and audience development consultant is Ateqah Khaki. Our assistant producer is Kikachi Memeh. Rehmatullah Sheikh is our sound editor. Our consulting producer is Jennifer Moroz. Theme music: Zaki Ibrahim, Something in the Water.</em></p>
<p><em>Season 4 credits: Vinita Srivastava is the host and executive producer. Our associate producer is Dannielle Piper. Our assistant producer is Rithika Shenoy. Rehmatullah Sheikh is our sound editor. Our audience development consultant is Ateqah Khaki. Our consulting producer is Jennifer Moroz. Theme music: Zaki Ibrahim, Something in the Water.</em></p>
<p><em>Season 3 credits: Vinita Srivastava is the host and producer. Our coproducer and audio editor is Lygia Navarro. Reza Daya is our sound designer. Our consulting producer is Jennifer Moroz. Vaishanavi Dandekar is an assistant proudcer. Lisa Varano is our audience development editor and Scott White is the CEO of The Conversation Canada. Theme music: Zaki Ibrahim, Something in the Water.</em></p>
<p><em>Season 2 credits: Vinita Srivastava is the host and producer. Our coproducer is Susana Ferreira. Our associate producer is Ibrahim Daair. Reza Dahya is our sound producer. Our consulting producer is Jennifer Moroz. Lisa Varano is our audience development editor and Scott White is the CEO of The Conversation Canada. Theme music: Zaki Ibrahim, Something in the Water.</em> </p>
<p><em>Season 1 credits: Our coproducer is Nahid Buie. Assistant producers are: Ibrahim Daair, Anowa Quarcoo, Latifa Abdin. Sound engineer: Reza Dahya. Audience development: Lisa Varano. Theme music by <a href="https://sixshooterrecords.com/artists/zaki-ibrahim/">Zaki Ibrahim</a>. Logo by Zoe Jazz. Our CEO is Scott White. Jennifer Moroz is our consulting producer. Launch team: Imriel Morgan/<a href="https://contentisqueen.org/">Content is Queen</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient is a production of The Conversation Canada. This podcast was produced with a grant for Journalism Innovation from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</em> </p>
<p><em>This is a corrected version of story originally published on Jan. 27. 2021. The earlier story said Tracie Washington’s words came in response to a post-Katrina environment strategy for the city of New Orleans. Instead, they were said in response to President Obama’s call for resilience after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149692/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Don’t Call Me Resilient is a provocative podcast about race that goes in search of solutions for those things no one should have to be resilient for.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1418242020-07-02T14:03:26Z2020-07-02T14:03:26ZWorking and living practices may explain Leicester’s coronavirus spike<p>Following a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases, Leicester has become the first city in the UK to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-53229371">enter a full local lockdown</a>. All non-essential shops and schools have been closed, and the government’s plan to reopen pubs and restaurants has been postponed. The city has recorded more than 900 new COVID-19 cases over the last two weeks.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X20903095">Our research</a> suggests that the many small-unit garment businesses and numerous roadside hand car washes may have contributed to the spike in cases. Cramped high-density living conditions, inappropriate social distancing and continued business operation during the lockdown may also have played a part. It should also be noted that Leicester has a high <a href="https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-020-01640-8">BAME population who may be particularly at risk</a>.</p>
<p>At the heart of this problem are employers that use informal business and employment practices. They often operate beyond government regulatory institutions, imposing norms and values that erode accepted business and labour practices. They operate in plain sight, but often fail to comply with employment law, workplace health and safety rules, and environmental regulations. </p>
<p>Workers, in turn, tolerate such business models out of necessity, despite the insecurity, irregular working hours, low wages and lack of holiday pay. Unfortunately, it may be that they are now having to tolerate an increased risk of contracting COVID-19.</p>
<h2>The need to work undermines control measures</h2>
<p>Employers who use predominantly informalised business and employment practices –that is, those who don’t pay the right taxes, underpay employees, fail to pay holiday and sick pay, and generally ignore all relevant laws and regulations related to employment – annually generate <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/12/13/Explaining-the-Shadow-Economy-in-Europe-Size-Causes-and-Policy-Options-48821">12% of Britain’s GDP</a>. They are not uncommon, and include both permissible businesses that are being run illegally as well as wholly criminal industries, such as making or selling counterfeiting goods, and drug dealing. Such businesses sustain <a href="https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/measuring-the-global-shadow-economy-9781784717988.html">2.5 million workers</a>, a number equal to 9% of the formal private-sector working population, and generate <a href="https://pr.euractiv.com/pr/shadow-economy-contributes-over-10-uk-gdp-155969">£223 billion per year</a>. </p>
<p>There are some of these workers in Leicester. Some work in the city’s textile sector, producing, cutting, trimming and packing garments. There are also people in the city – as across the East Midlands and the wider UK – who wash cars, manicure nails, deliver takeaway food or do day-rate work in food processing. </p>
<p>It’s difficult to say with certainty how large the city’s informal sector is, but our research tells us that virtually all hand car washes operate informally, failing to observe relevant employment legislation. In Leicester’s textile sector, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333494927_Disconnecting_Labour_The_Labour_Process_in_the_UK_Fast_Fashion_Value_Chain">research by others suggests</a> that there’s subcontracting of work that’s often informal. It’s likely that the size of Leicester’s informal economy matches the average figures cited above, at around 12% of the local economy. </p>
<p>Workers in the informal sector often accept jobs to escape poverty and have little choice in the employment they can take. Many are newly arrived migrants. Others have never entered the formal labour force, despite extensive employment experience. </p>
<p>Most of these informal jobs were classified as nonessential and closed during the pandemic. But it’s clear that in some sectors they remained open or reopened without appropriate COVID-19 measures in the workplace. The recent <a href="https://labourbehindthelabel.org/report-boohoo-covid-19-the-people-behind-the-profit/">Labour Behind the Label</a> report suggests some Leicester employers asked workers to continue working without altering employment conditions to cope with the pandemic, and in some cases while workers exhibited symptoms of ill health. </p>
<p>Citing the same report, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/30/some-leicester-factories-stayed-open-and-forced-staff-to-come-in">Guardian reports</a> that Public Health England found that young male workers in the garment and food processing sector between the ages of 20 and 40 were major transmitters of the virus in Leicester. This is a core demographic of hand car wash workers, too.</p>
<p>Informal business owners also move workers around the country to meet current needs, a practice that – during the pandemic – would have placed workers at additional risk of infection. Yet despite these obvious issues, there has been a willingness to work among the informal workforce. We believe there are several that explain why.</p>
<p>First, some workers fail to qualify for any government schemes to support their roles, precisely because of the informal status of the employment they hold. The much-publicised furlough scheme is only open to formal employees.</p>
<p>Second, some informal workers, documented or undocumented, may have “no recourse to public funds” during periods of limited leave to remain in the UK. This status prevents them from claiming benefits. In our research, we’ve found workers in this category prepared to work at car washes for as little as £3 an hour, which gives a sense of the financial pressures some may be under.</p>
<p>Third, some employers classify workers as self-employed but provide no payslips or invoices, which also means they are unable to claim government support.</p>
<p>Finally, our findings also show that informal workers often <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjir.12286">don’t trust government agencies</a> and that this can be a barrier to them seeking and securing support. Our research has highlighted that some workers are unaware of their rights and believe that regulators are primarily concerned with deporting workers rather than protecting their interests and prosecuting employers. </p>
<h2>Living arrangements may play a role too</h2>
<p>Many such workers live in intergenerational housing where it is difficult to maintain social distancing between those who continue to work and other family members who do not. Often recently arrived migrants also live in houses of multiple occupation, owned by their employers, where social distancing is also difficult to maintain. These are properties rented to three or more people, not from a single household, but who share facilities like the bathroom and kitchen. Without work, they may become heavily indebted, putting them at even greater risk of exploitation. </p>
<p>We also witnessed cramped on-site living conditions for workers at hand car wash sites across the UK during visits with regulators. In many of these places, social distancing and basic hygiene would be difficult – if not impossible – to establish.</p>
<p>Our research shows that we need to be mindful of the issues facing informal workers in Leicester – and throughout the UK – if the first local lockdown is not to be the sign of a wider trend.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141824/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Clark receives funding from the ESRC and research funds from Nottingham Trent University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Huw Fearnall-Williams receives funding from the ESRC and research funds from Nottingham Trent University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Hunter receives funding from Innovate UK, the ESRC and Nottingham Trent University. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rich Pickford receives funding from Nottingham Trent University and the Family Holiday Association. </span></em></p>Cramped living conditions, a lack of social distancing and informal businesses staying open during lockdown may have come together to drive up the city’s infection rate.Ian Clark, Professor in Human Resource Management, Nottingham Trent UniversityHuw Fearnall-Williams, Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management, Nottingham Trent UniversityJames Hunter, Principal Lecturer in Public Policy, Nottingham Trent UniversityRich Pickford, Knowledge Exchange and Impact Officer, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1343242020-04-26T12:01:29Z2020-04-26T12:01:29ZMigrant workers face further social isolation and mental health challenges during coronavirus pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328949/original/file-20200419-152614-90ypqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C232%2C4412%2C2662&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Migrant workers from Mexico maintain social distancing as they wait to be transported to Québec farms after arriving in April at Trudeau Airport in Montréal. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/local-growers-feel-stress-pressure-coping-with-covid-19-pandemic/wcm/07067fd2-eab4-4b39-9c38-b6c3f480c379">When Canada closed its borders to visitors, growers lobbied for migrant workers to be excluded</a> from the restrictions. <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6808130/coronavirus-foreign-workers-blanchet/">The Canadian government agreed</a> and demanded that the newly arrived workers <a href="https://www.facebook.com/fiveoakscentre/photos/pcb.10157765174860804/10157765164385804/?type=3&theater">be placed in a 14-day mandatory quarantine</a>. </p>
<p>Forced to share their living quarters with many other workers, the migrants will be hard-pressed to maintain the social distance required to contain the spread of COVID-19. Canadian growers argue that without migrant workers imported from Mexico, Jamaica and many other world countries, Canadians <a href="https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/border-closure-threatens-growing-season-food-supply-say-producers/">would not have enough food to eat</a>. </p>
<p>But can we adequately protect these essential workers? And will the pandemic enhance other problems migrant workers experience such as xenophobia, social isolation and the resulting mental health issues? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328950/original/file-20200419-152602-9dzrsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328950/original/file-20200419-152602-9dzrsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328950/original/file-20200419-152602-9dzrsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328950/original/file-20200419-152602-9dzrsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328950/original/file-20200419-152602-9dzrsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328950/original/file-20200419-152602-9dzrsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328950/original/file-20200419-152602-9dzrsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328950/original/file-20200419-152602-9dzrsy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrant workers are a sizable part of Canada’s food supply chain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Migrant workers in southwestern Ontario</h2>
<p>According to a recent report by <a href="https://cahrc-ccrha.ca/news-events/news-releases/more-diverse-workforce-essential-success-canadian-agriculture">the Canadian Agricultural Resources Council</a>, employment of temporary migrant workers increased from 45,600 in 2014 to nearly 60,000 in 2017. That means migrant workers made up one-sixth of all jobs in the Canadian agricultural labour force. </p>
<p>Ontario <a href="https://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/border-closure-threatens-growing-season-food-supply-say-producers/">hires 14,000</a> temporary migrants to work in the agricultural sector each season. In southwestern Ontario, Leamington and the neighbouring municipality Kingsville have received an annual intake of <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/migrants/2017/10/09/leamington-is-at-the-frontlines-of-the-boom-in-migrant-workers-heres-how-its-changed.html">5,000 to 6,000 workers</a>, the vast majority of whom are from <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/mexican-workers-victims-abuse-canadian-farms-1.4820458">Mexico</a>. </p>
<p>The growth in the migrant worker population in this area has been triggered by the rapidly growing <a href="http://choosewindsoressex.com/leamington">$1-billion greenhouse industry</a>. With 2,000 acres under glass or plastic, this region represents the largest concentration of greenhouses in North America, according to the <a href="http://choosewindsoressex.com/leamington">municipality of Leamington</a>.</p>
<h2>Overcrowded housing and possible contagion</h2>
<p>While essential for this booming industry, migrant workers are left unprotected from the spread of COVID-19 and its social and emotional spin-offs. Their housing conditions constitute the greatest threat to these workers. </p>
<p>For the past two years, we’ve been speaking to migrant farm workers and community members in southwestern Ontario about social integration. Housing conditions were one of the topics we discussed. In 2017, Leamington’s <a href="https://www.leamington.ca/en/municipal-services/resources/Boarding-House-Study-FINAL-April-18-2018.pdf">243 field and greenhouse parcels</a> required on- or off-site accommodation for migrant farm workers. </p>
<p>Many off-site houses have been illegally converted to boarding houses for migrants. Safety of these houses has been a <a href="https://www.leamington.ca/en/municipal-services/resources/Boarding-House-Study-FINAL-April-18-2018.pdf">concern</a> for the municipality. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322163/original/file-20200322-22622-23s1oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322163/original/file-20200322-22622-23s1oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322163/original/file-20200322-22622-23s1oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322163/original/file-20200322-22622-23s1oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322163/original/file-20200322-22622-23s1oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322163/original/file-20200322-22622-23s1oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322163/original/file-20200322-22622-23s1oc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrant workers in Leamington attending English language classes in a church basement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Tim Brunet)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A Jamaican worker interviewed in our study describes his living conditions: “Eight guys living in one house, four guys per bedroom, just one washroom and one stove.” Of the housing on the farm, a Guatemalan worker said: “The problem is that we are many people living in a single house. At this moment there are 60…. In the rooms with bunk beds.” </p>
<p>Migration researchers <a href="http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0188-70172016000100085">Díaz Mendiburo and McLaughlin</a> found seven housing-related problems that affect migrants’ physical and mental health, with over-crowding being prominent among them. </p>
<p>With extraordinary prescience, a public health worker from Windsor, Ont., interviewed in our study commented on the potential for spreading of infectious diseases in migrant houses: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“If you’re going to put a whole bunch of people living together, sharing a bathroom and sharing a kitchen, infectious, you’re just increasing the risk of infection to spread.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>She then went on to say those who contract infectious diseases are shunned by their co-workers and the isolation may trigger depression.</p>
<h2>Prejudice and social exclusion likely to rise</h2>
<p>The mental health decline among migrant workers is likely to be exacerbated by the fear of contracting or spreading COVID-19. </p>
<p>As we learned from our research, <a href="https://windsorite.ca/2016/07/leamington-launches-new-program-for-cultural-diversity-training/">Leamington promotes cultural diversity</a> but ambivalence, tensions and racism persist. Migrant workers have little time in the day and week to meet their own basic needs, including shopping for food, a task that has generated considerable anxieties. </p>
<p>Even before the pandemic, migrants felt excluded. According to one migrant worker: “People look at you differently. You are stereotyped…. Everyone always judges you.” Says another: “Sometimes you walk into a supermarket and some people feel uncomfortable.” This feeling of being hyper-visible and yet invisible was echoed by one health care worker, “somehow with farm workers and migrant farm workers, they just don’t exist. And they know that.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328951/original/file-20200419-152591-1my1gzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328951/original/file-20200419-152591-1my1gzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328951/original/file-20200419-152591-1my1gzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328951/original/file-20200419-152591-1my1gzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328951/original/file-20200419-152591-1my1gzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328951/original/file-20200419-152591-1my1gzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328951/original/file-20200419-152591-1my1gzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two migrant workers sort and pack peaches in the early morning sun for transport to market from a fruit farm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>There is also a danger that the perception of and attitudes towards migrant workers by the wider community will change for the worse. Cast as workers and not citizens, migrant workers already experience mental health struggles that are, according to health care workers, “situational.” </p>
<p>Similarly, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-05-2017-0018">study of migrant workers</a> in British Columbia found that a sense of unworthiness, loneliness and social isolation engenders depression and anxiety. Depression and anxiety are likely to intensify given the restrictions the pandemic response demands.</p>
<h2>Protecting essential workers</h2>
<p>Migrant workers produce, harvest, slaughter and process the food we eat. As countries close their borders to non-citizens, the value of migrant labour to food production becomes clear. </p>
<p>The United Kingdom even called for a “land army” — evoking the Second World War — of domestic workers to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/20/farmers-call-for-land-army-to-sustain-uk-food-production-during-coronavirus-crisis">replace the 60,000 seasonal workers</a> it relies on yearly. Meanwhile, the United States, which relies on some <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-restricts-visas-farmworkers-raising-concerns-about-food-supply-n1164216">250,000 seasonal workers</a>, has halted its visa program. <a href="https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2020/03/13/for-migrant-workers-in-nc-coronavirus-may-be-hard-to-avoid/">Local agencies</a> there also say that social distancing, health care and risk of coronavirus transmission will be threatened by cramped housing and limited community supports.</p>
<p>Canadians are able to do things like eat, bathe and isolate without fear of deportation. And just like Canadian citizens, migrant workers need ongoing education in social distancing, illness and mental wellness in these difficult times. They all need open access to the internet and information in their own languages to keep abreast of their family’s welfare and to inform themselves in what is an evolving crisis. Their housing arrangements also need to be rethought. </p>
<p>While Canadians are pressed to isolate at home, for migrant workers, housing is not a home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tanya Basok and Glynis George have received funding from the MITACS Partnership Grant program to conduct this research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glynis George has received funding from MITACS for this project. </span></em></p>The demands of social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic will make it increasingly difficult for migrant agricultural workers to meet their basic needs.Tanya Basok, Professor, University of WindsorGlynis George, Associate professor, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1340092020-04-23T18:59:49Z2020-04-23T18:59:49ZLearning from disasters: Nepal copes with coronavirus pandemic 5 years after earthquake<p>Does one kind of disaster prepare us for another? Five years after devastating earthquakes struck, Nepali citizens and their government are pondering this question while under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. </p>
<p>After the earthquakes in 2015, nearly 9,000 people died, while more than 800,000 lost their homes and 2.8 million were displaced. In many rural areas, the earthquakes compounded the effects of a decade-long civil war that ended in 2006 but left the country in a period of protracted political instability. </p>
<p>Now, Nepal’s nearly 30 million citizens have been mandated to stay at home since March 24, and the tourism trade and other international supply chains upon which the country depends are severely curtailed. Despite relatively few confirmed cases earlier, <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/04/21/government-prepares-to-seal-udayapur-district-following-confirmation-of-11-new-covid-19-cases-in-a-day">the virus is now spreading through many of the country’s districts</a>.</p>
<p>Nepal’s experience with these cascading upheavals can help us understand how multiple vulnerabilities may not only challenge communities, but also help them generate complex approaches to anticipating and mitigating systemic disruptions. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/03/what-really-doomed-americas-coronavirus-response/608596/">These are skills needed to tackle the pandemic everywhere</a>.</p>
<h2>Labour shortages and reconstruction finance</h2>
<p>Each disaster is different, but they can reveal systemic patterns in their aftermaths. In Nepal, the civil conflict, the earthquake and now the pandemic have all occurred during rapid economic and social transformation, including Nepal’s shift from an agrarian to a cash economy, and the expansion of labour migration. </p>
<p>When disaster hits, those who are already most precariously positioned within these large-scale processes of transformation may suffer most. In each of Nepal’s three crises, top-down response mechanisms have fallen short in engaging its most vulnerable citizens.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C129%2C1022%2C642&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329268/original/file-20200420-152614-1n988p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A couple in Dolakha, Nepal, grind millet in front of their newly reconstructed home, wearing masks as per public health directive, in April 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kedar Thami)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Sustainable peace remains far from reality. This is partly because some of the most affected populations were not substantively included in the peace process after the civil war. <a href="https://thehimalayantimes.com/kathmandu/nhrc-decision-too-little-too-late-conflict-victims/">(Nepal’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has never completed its task)</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, earthquake-affected people were not fully included in planning reconstruction policies, such as the choice of materials and housing designs. <a href="https://sway.soscbaha.org/blogs/rebuilding-homes-houses-jeevan-baniya/">Many are dissatisfied with the reconstruction approach and the houses they had to build</a>. </p>
<p>Civil war and political instability <a href="https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nsc_research/28">pushed more people into migration</a>, <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/region/sar/publication/climbing-higher-toward-a-middle-income-country">leading to remittances now making up 30 per cent of the country’s GDP</a>. </p>
<p>This migration likely reduced the earthquake death toll, and foreign remittances helped fund reconstruction. Now, remittances are in jeopardy as the COVID-19 crisis slows economies and international labour flows are halted.</p>
<h2>Lessons from Nepal’s reconstruction program</h2>
<p><a href="https://elmnr.arts.ubc.ca/">Our research</a> shows that <a href="https://soscbaha.org/publication/reconstructing-nepal-post-earthquake-experiences-from-bhaktapur-dhading-and-sindhupalchowk">private housing reconstruction grants and loans were key to the rebuilding process</a>. As governments around the world are now offering unprecedented subsidy programs to large portions of their populations, the experience of <a href="http://www.nra.gov.np/en">Nepal’s National Reconstruction Authority (NRA)</a> in disbursing private housing reconstruction grants could provide some useful lessons. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/two-years-after-the-earthquake-why-has-nepal-failed-to-recover-77552">Two years after the earthquake, why has Nepal failed to recover?</a>
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<p>First, rapidly setting up disbursement authorities and channels are key. But vested political interests can overshadow the immediate needs of disaster response. It took about six months for the NRA to be officially mandated and operational. The delay was due to conflicts among the political parties. </p>
<p>Second, payments must be significant and easy to receive. Payments that are too low simply go into daily survival expenses. While welcome, they did not enable homeowners to complete reconstruction. Most families had to supplement with remittances or other income. </p>
<p>Five years after the disaster, the formal reconstruction completion rate hovers at about 65 per cent. Many remain unable to complete reconstruction or <a href="https://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IRM-Round-5-Early-Findings-Brief_3.24.20.pdf">continue to live in vulnerable structures</a>. </p>
<p>Stringent building codes enforced by engineers — in a place where most homeowners had previously built their own residence without needing a building permit — drastically slowed down the disbursement process, as many people could not meet the design requirements due to lack of capital, materials or skilled labour. Regulations were eventually relaxed to enable people to complete their houses and receive the full amount of the grant.</p>
<p>Women and members of historically marginalized groups faced disproportionate challenges in accessing such resources to build their homes. Although gender equality and social inclusion provisions were emphasized in reconstruction policy documents, implementation has been lacking on the ground. The NRA lacks any visible evidence of women in leadership roles.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/329806/original/file-20200422-47784-14sioxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Empty streets in Kathmandu during the lockdown, April 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Deepak Thapa)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Third, the informal financial sector was key for accessing loans; although the NRA portrays disbursement through banks as having enhanced transparency and enabling a large section of the rural population to access financial institutions, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2020.1722635">there were significant limitations in this process</a>. </p>
<p>Banks imposed such taxing conditions on borrowers that few accessed official government subsidized loans. <a href="https://soscbaha.org/publication/reconstructing-nepal-bhaktapur">Instead, many turned to informal borrowing from relatives, local private lenders and cooperatives</a>. While flexible and mostly guided through community-based social norms, some of these loans had abusive interest rates.</p>
<p>For those who have nearly completed rebuilding, the present lockdown may present an opportunity to finish domestic projects. With no opportunities for wage labour, some families are using the time at home to add finishing touches to their new residences. But for those who have not been able to complete construction, the lockdown may seem like a cruel joke. How can you stay at home when you do not have one?</p>
<h2>Vulnerability and solidarity</h2>
<p>The informal economic sector has been devastated with the COVID-19 lockdown, increasing risks to those already most in need. Working class people in marginal economic situations and migrants who are not protected by social security have been further marginalized by all three crisis situations. </p>
<p>The country is now experiencing <a href="https://en.setopati.com/social/152651">caravans of internal migrants returning to their villages</a> after losing jobs in Kathmandu and other cities. Likewise, the international migrants who contribute 30 per cent to the country’s GDP are in precarious situations in destination countries - jobless and unable to feed themselves, but also <a href="https://kathmandupost.com/national/2020/04/16/we-don-t-want-to-die-in-this-desert-nepali-workers-in-the-uae-plead-to-be-brought-home">unable to return home</a>.</p>
<p>Yet the closing of borders and drastic reductions in the flow of people does not mean an end to solidarity. On the contrary <a href="https://nrna.respectinc.net/">the Nepali diaspora can and does help</a>, notably through financial contributions, as they did in the wake of the earthquakes. In the pandemic context as well, they have been a lifeline for many. </p>
<p>Five years on, Nepal’s earthquake-affected communities have not returned to their pre-disaster state. Rather, they have fashioned new lives through a combination of creativity, perseverance, careful use of available resources and hard-earned income, with some state and international intervention. Now, the lessons they have learned may have new meaning.</p>
<p><em>Deepak Thapa contributed to this piece. He is Director of Social Science Baha in Kathmandu, Nepal.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Shneiderman receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philippe Le Billon receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeevan Baniya does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nepal’s past dealing with multiple disasters, including the aftermath of its civil war and the massive earthquake of 2015 may have helped the country prepare for the current COVID-19 crisis.Sara Shneiderman, Associate Professor, Anthropology Department and School of Public Policy & Global Affairs, University of British ColumbiaJeevan Baniya, Teaching Faculty, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FoHSS), Tribhuvan UniversityPhilippe Le Billon, Professor, Geography Department and School of Public Policy & Global Affairs, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1308372020-02-24T13:18:00Z2020-02-24T13:18:00ZSouth Africa’s spaza shops: how regulatory avoidance harms informal workers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312791/original/file-20200130-41490-lggoxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African corporates ignore exploitative business practices to get their products onto spaza shelves. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Small informal retailers are a ubiquitous feature of any developing country’s urban landscape. Known as spaza shops in South Africa, they are an important, even vital, component in the townships. Numbering over 100,000 across the nation, they make critical contributions to local food security, self-employment and community cohesion.</p>
<p>In the last decade, the sector has undergone extensive change. A new class of traders has emerged. They have often – but not always – been foreign. For this reason, this changing character of South Africa’s spaza sector has become associated with chauvinistic and xenophobic portrayals of immigrant shopkeepers.</p>
<p>On the one hand, angry locals, often egged on by opportunist politicians, have accused foreign traders of destroying South African livelihoods. On the other hand, those questioning this xenophobia have tended to argue that the new class of traders simply represent ‘better entrepreneurs’ who are out-competing less dynamic traders. </p>
<p>But much more is going on than simply the replacement of locals by foreigners. Rather, the structure of the spaza sector itself is changing.</p>
<p>To get to the bottom of changes taking place the Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation and PLAAS conducted <a href="http://repository.uwc.ac.za/xmlui/handle/10566/4870">business censuses and interviews</a> with 1,100 township grocery retailers across all nine provinces of South Africa.</p>
<p>What we found should give politicians and policy makers pause for thought. Our findings suggest that South Africa’s rule of law is in danger of becoming a casualty in an industry that has rapidly adapted in order to compete and survive.</p>
<h2>Changing retail landscape</h2>
<p>Operating from rural, peri-urban and urban residential townships, virtually all spazas we encountered were unregistered and worked exclusively in cash. That, indeed, is why they are classified as ‘informal’ businesses. </p>
<p>But this classification masked important differences. The shops we visited typically reflected one of two business types. On the one hand, about one-third were ‘survivalist’ owner-operators trading from their homes. These resembled the ‘traditional’ spaza shop. These businesses were informal because they had no choice. They were simply too small, or the owners too poor, to formalise and thereby enter the legal framework.</p>
<p>The remaining two thirds were also informal, but were so by choice. They differed from their survivalist counterparts in that they were larger, operating from dedicated premises. They offered a wider range of stock, gave credit and had business ties with wholesalers. The also employed staff. The field work revealed about 45% of the shop keepers we encountered were in fact employees.</p>
<p>Rather than being owner operators they tended to work for those who owned the larger upstream wholesale business that supplied their outlets with stocks. Some of these upstream warehouses operated in networks with turnovers of hundreds of thousands of Rands per week. We also found extensive South African supermarket chains and shopping-malls in the retail mix. </p>
<p>The rise of these larger vertically integrated spaza outlets and supermarkets has intensified business competition. Many smaller (mostly South African) independent businesses have exited the market. </p>
<p>This new class of informal traders has brought about important social benefits. These include access to a wide variety of cheap consumer goods. But this has come at a cost - especially where the active avoidance regulation has become an explicit business strategy. </p>
<h2>Exploitation</h2>
<p>The spaza employees we encountered predominantly worked in poor conditions. Foreign nationals were particularly vulnerable to exploitation.</p>
<p>More than half of those we interviewed reported working more than 15 hours per day, seven-days-a-week. Some were earning as little as R400 (about US$27,22) per month. Some shop assistants claimed to be working towards becoming shareholders in the business. But more than three quarters of our sample reported being employees only. None had written employment contracts, and all worked for cash wages.</p>
<p>Half of the Cape Town employees we interviewed in a follow-on investigation (and many interviewed elsewhere) reported that employers held back their pay. In some cases, a portion of the wages was paid to the employee and the balance reportedly paid to their family elsewhere (commonly in their home country). </p>
<p>In Cape Town, over half the Ethiopian respondents claimed to be repaying financial debts to their bosses for travel expenses to South Africa. In almost all cases employers retained foreign employees’ passports. Across the sample, 71% of spaza employees were required to sleep in the building, with nearly half sleeping (illegally) in the shopfront.</p>
<p>These conditions clearly violate the country’s <a href="https://www.saica.co.za/Technical/LegalandGovernance/Acts/BasicConditionsofEmploymentAct/tabid/3069/language/en-ZA/Default.aspx">labour laws</a>, which stipulated at the time that retail workers must earn at least R3,701 per month for a 45-hour work week. The law stipulates 12 hours of rest in each 24-hour period, or 36 consecutive rest hours per week, including Sundays, unless agreed in writing.</p>
<p>Further, the working conditions we encountered trigger the great majority of the working conditions identified by the UK Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority as <a href="https://www.gla.gov.uk/who-we-are/modern-slavery/who-we-are-modern-slavery-spot-the-signs">warning flags</a> that people might be working as bonded labour.</p>
<p>If our sample is anything to go by, there may be many thousands of shopkeeper employees who toil behind the sales counter under these circumstances.</p>
<h2>Bypassing laws</h2>
<p>The exploitative nature of employment in the spaza sector directly results from the embrace of informality by operators that are large enough to conform to the rules of the formal sector. We categorise this form of entrepreneurship as ‘informalist’. This is a new form of informality where an otherwise legitimate activity (retailing groceries) relies on labour and retailing practices that evade regulatory oversight. These practices break the law. </p>
<p>Informalist strategies for spaza competitiveness capitalise on the concessions accorded to survivalist enterprises. These include municipal allowances for home-based businesses in townships. But these businesses then bypass other important forms of regulation including labour laws. This brings negative implications for inclusive growth, fair work, and rule-of-law.</p>
<p>An increasing number of politicians have simplified this development. They have done so by stoking social tensions by scapegoating these foreign-national spaza shop workers. As our research shows, these workers are themselves deeply vulnerable. They are operating at the coalface of xenophobic hatred and crime. </p>
<p>One problem is that debates about informal township businesses have been framed in an unhelpful way. For example, it is assumed that the regulatory choice lies between ‘protectionist’ regulations favouring South Africans, or deregulation and tolerance of immigrant entrepreneurs. This approach underestimates the seriousness of the situation that has evolved and misrepresents the nature of the regulatory choices required.</p>
<h2>What’s to be done</h2>
<p>The South African government already has the capacity to create a fair and supportive regulatory framework. All that’s required is for the South African Departments of Labour, Home Affairs, State Security, South African Revenue Service, the South African Police Service, and local municipalities to limit regulatory avoidance in township grocery markets. </p>
<p>Secondly, municipalities must stop succumbing to the corporate developers of shopping malls in the townships. They must also reconsider expansion of supermarket chains into the heart of townships. Both these developments have forced the township grocery sector into a choice between shutting down or embracing informalist business practices. </p>
<p>Responsibility also lies with South Africa’s corporate manufacturers and wholesalers. They have ignored exploitative business practices in order to get their brands and products onto spaza shelves. </p>
<p>One of the losers in this transition have been South Africa’s traditional spaza shops. But they are not the only victims. There are potentially thousands of vulnerable spaza shop employees – South African <em>and</em> foreign – who are labouring under conditions clearly proscribed by South African law.</p>
<p><em>Leif Petersen, a co-director of the <a href="http://livelihoods.org.za/">Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation</a>, was the lead investigator of this project and is a co-author of this article</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130837/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andries du Toit does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Informal retailers that dot South Africa’s townships have changed dramatically, but at great cost - avoidance of regulation and exploitation of employees.Andries du Toit, Director, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1319392020-02-18T11:22:35Z2020-02-18T11:22:35ZDance softly and carry a big voice: understanding Joseph Shabalala<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315738/original/file-20200217-10985-1x43trs.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lars Baron/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Joseph Bekhizizwe Shabalala <a href="https://theconversation.com/of-strong-winds-heavy-hearts-and-joseph-shabalala-telling-the-south-african-story-131848">passed away</a> I stopped in my tracks and just let the sadness pull me down. And then inspiration from his beacon of a life lifted me back up. </p>
<p>Shabalala’s own response to the devastating murder of his wife <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/may/29/guardianobituaries.robindenselow">Nellie</a> in 2002 was the transcendently uplifting album by his ensemble <a href="https://mambazo.com/">Ladysmith Black Mambazo</a> called <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/may/02/popandrock.shopping1">Raise Your Spirit Higher</a>. It won a Grammy in 2003. </p>
<p>What is our response to the great artistic and spiritual hole his loss has left in South Africa? The journalistic tributes have poured in from all over, both at home and abroad. This saves me the labour of reviewing the innumerable highlights of Shabalala’s extraordinary shooting star of a life and career. What does remain for us academic tortoises waddling after the journalist hares is to meditate on the quality and character of his unique personhood and achievement, and their meaning for South Africa and indeed the world. </p>
<h2>Directed by dreams</h2>
<p>To begin at the beginning, Shabalala’s parents were not simply tenant farmers in the district of Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, but more significantly <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/sangoma">Zulu spiritual diviners</a> and herbal doctors. The religious approach of physical and psychological healing as a single unified medical system was inculcated from birth, along with the intense outpouring of singing, drumming, and dancing such treatment requires.</p>
<p>This is important when we consider the role of dreams in Shabalala’s creative autobiography. Dreams are a vital source of inspiration and communication from the netherworld in indigenous southern African religion. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315756/original/file-20200217-10980-1qoupb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315756/original/file-20200217-10980-1qoupb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315756/original/file-20200217-10980-1qoupb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315756/original/file-20200217-10980-1qoupb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315756/original/file-20200217-10980-1qoupb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315756/original/file-20200217-10980-1qoupb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315756/original/file-20200217-10980-1qoupb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/315756/original/file-20200217-10980-1qoupb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ladysmith Black Mambazo perform at Carnegie Hall in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their power carries over into African Christianity, which Shabalala took up devoutly after the early success of Ladysmith Black Mambazo in the 1970s. “The Church of Christ the Dreamer” as playwright and author <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/harold-athol-fugard">Athol Fugard</a> called it in his novel Tsotsi. </p>
<p>Shabalala’s dream of a choir of children singing “in perfect harmony” proved formative in his ensemble’s career. For the rest of his life he dreamt of new songs, new arrangements, techniques, and disciplines that the group developed and performed on stage. Directed by dreams, he was a formidable, uncompromising taskmaster in rehearsal. </p>
<p>This submission to the spirit of musical harmony in dreams helps to explain the secret of Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s success. Regardless of their highly localised genre, they were just so good, and the global audience was absolutely enchanted. I recall listening to them at New York’s cavernous Carnegie Hall in 1988. For three uninterrupted hours, using only their voices and synchronous choreography, they kept the audience spellbound at the edge of their seats in awed, worshipful silence.</p>
<h2>A bridge with the West</h2>
<p>The Africanisation of Christianity, audible in the group’s <a href="https://ums.org/2010/01/14/what-is-isicathamiya/">isicathamiya</a> genre, produced a blend of Christian hymnody and isiZulu male polyphonic vocal traditions. This deep synthesis provided a bridge between Zulu and Western music that Shabalala crossed and re-crossed repeatedly by a variety of routes. </p>
<p>This explains in part the naturalness of his ability to collaborate with an astonishing range of American vocalists and composers, from Paul Simon to Stevie Wonder to Dolly Parton. Another part of the explanation was Shabalala’s overwhelming humanism and dedication to social as well as musical harmony, that touched everyone he encountered.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gYq4gA7r49I?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Dolly Parton famously collaborated with Ladysmith Black Mambazo.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shaped by migration</h2>
<p>A second foundational theme in the life and work of Shabalala was the necessity of labour migration, which he was forced to undertake at a young age following the early death of his father. The hardships of the migrant labour system, which formed the economic foundation of racial capitalism and <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a>, later became a staple of his lyrical composition and landscape of feeling. </p>
<p>The title song of the group’s album <em>Isitimela</em> (Train) thus laments:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Here is the train; it has gone, 0h father it is going to Pietermaritzburg They will weep, they will remain behind, sorrowful over us …
The heavens are trembling.
If you marry a lady, she will remain behind weeping
They will remain behind, sad over us ….</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These hymns of the hardships of migrant labour – like the rock/maskanda of Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu of <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-07-19-00-johnny-clegg-in-retrospect-it-all-began-with-juluka/">Juluka</a> who appeared with them on Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s first overseas tour in 1981 – mounted an implicit political challenge to the white minority government. It transgressed the boundaries of apartheid cultural ideology. </p>
<h2>The face of black South Africa</h2>
<p>Just as importantly, Ladysmith Black Mambazo helped to humanise oppressed black South Africans to a mass audience overseas. The success of Paul Simon’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/apr/19/paul-simon-graceland-acclaim-outrage"><em>Graceland</em></a> album and tours in the mid-1980s led to a successful international touring and recording career for Ladysmith Black Mambazo in their own right. </p>
<p>American audiences who enjoyed the stunning beauty and exotic perfection of Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s intricate vocal harmonies could hardly believe that these were the same sort of people as the unarmed protesters that brutal South African police were shown beating, shooting and teargassing on the evening news. </p>
<p>Suddenly, as their song <em>Homeless</em> from the Graceland album prayerfully intimated, every black life in South Africa’s struggle was a real, human life, one whose loss ought to be prevented. </p>
<p>Of course, in reply to those English-speaking critics who believed they looked in vain for political consciousness in Ladysmith’s songs, Shabalala rightly pointed out that in isiZulu there are subtleties of reference that do not survive translation. And that during the struggle virtually all popular music was held to have a political valence in black communities because politics had become the implicit ground of social discourse. </p>
<p>Finally, Ladysmith’s appropriations of African-American hymnody and gospel are part of a tradition of ‘<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674076068">Black Atlantic</a>’ political cross-fertilisation and aspiration. This receives perhaps its most notable expression in <a href="https://youtu.be/288r0Mo1bFw">Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika</a>, the anthem of the African National Congress that has become the first verse of the <a href="https://www.gov.za/about-sa/national-symbols/national-anthem">national anthem</a> of South Africa.</p>
<h2>A musical Mandela</h2>
<p>Finally, we should pause to consider Shabalala as a kind of musical Nelson Mandela, at once a great talent and a great soul, who humanised South Africans, their troubles and their aspirations, for the world. </p>
<p>Yet he was above all a perfectionist, setting a standard by which our performing artists will continue to be judged by the world audience for a very long time. <em>Phumula ngokuthula, lala ngoxolo mfowethu Bekhizizwe</em> (Rest in peace Bhekizizwe). Because of you, the rest of us have work to do.</p>
<p><em>Some passages are adapted from David B. Coplan’s book <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo5867457.html">In Township Tonight!</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131939/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Coplan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Joseph Shabalala would grow world famous for his music. But it is shaped by the spiritual aspects of his life as much as it is by the hardships of black life - and by his dreams.David Coplan, Professor Emeritus, Social Anthropology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1235762019-10-10T21:06:55Z2019-10-10T21:06:55ZMigrant strawberry pickers face deadly risks living in flammable shacks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296538/original/file-20191010-188802-f38stn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=90%2C312%2C844%2C340&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Migrant workers picking strawberries in Greece live in unhealthy and highly flammable shacks. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each growing season, from October to May, as many as 12,000 undocumented Bangladeshi migrant men work in the agrarian labour market in Greece. </p>
<p>Although they consider Greece a transit stop to other European countries, most end up staying for years. The migrant farm workers say the farmers reap rich profits but are so far unwilling to provide decent housing for them. Nor can the seasonal workers find local accommodation. </p>
<p>The workers are forced to rent unused farmland and build highly inflammable makeshift shacks called <em>barangas</em>. <em>Baranga</em> is a Bangladeshi colloquial term derived from a Greek word, <em>paranga</em>, which translates as “a shack.” Workers construct the <em>barangas</em> out of salvaged plastic sheets, cardboard and reeds. </p>
<p>Greece is the <a href="http://www.worldstopexports.com/top-strawberries-exporters-by-country/">10th biggest exporter</a> of strawberries in the world. Strawberry farming is labour-intensive. Once picked, the fruit perishes quickly. This puts a huge demand on the fast-paced yet careful harvest of unblemished strawberries. Migrant workers form the backbone of this farming, and it’s work that locals appear unwilling to do. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296066/original/file-20191008-128677-1bo3z91.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296066/original/file-20191008-128677-1bo3z91.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296066/original/file-20191008-128677-1bo3z91.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296066/original/file-20191008-128677-1bo3z91.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296066/original/file-20191008-128677-1bo3z91.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296066/original/file-20191008-128677-1bo3z91.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296066/original/file-20191008-128677-1bo3z91.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296066/original/file-20191008-128677-1bo3z91.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘…we earn huge profits for farmers who treat us worse than animals …’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I arrived in the village of Nea Manolada, Greece this past summer to research Bangladeshi migrant men working on strawberry farms. Since 2017, I have studied temporary labour migration of South Asian men from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan in Greece. </p>
<p>A group of Bangladeshi strawberry pickers, living there for eight years, took me on an oral history tour. They pointed to refrigerated trucks used to transport strawberries to wider markets and newly constructed, multi-level farmer’s homes. A young migrant in his early 20s said: “Look how they live in comfort – all due to our hard work. What do we get in return? Discarded plastic sheets as our roof.” </p>
<p>A group of 25 Bangladeshi farm workers in Nea Manolada released this statement:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Sweating our blood in the field, we earn huge profits for farmers who treat us worse than animals. We want people to learn how we live a rough life in <em>barangas</em>.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Captive labour</h2>
<p><a href="https://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=2118">Labour force surveys</a> reveal that more than 50 per cent of agricultural workers in Greece are migrants. Factoring in undocumented migrants, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137509352_6">that figure comes closer to 90 per cent</a>. Strawberry farmers fully exploit migrant willingness to do the dirty, dangerous and demeaning jobs (known as 3D jobs). They give them long work hours, high targeted outputs and depressed wages. </p>
<p>Migrant labour has enabled farmers to undertake a scale increase, expand their agricultural activity by leasing under-utilized farmlands to make larger farms, modernize farming and market their produce to wider markets. </p>
<p>The majority of Nea Manolada’s 700-strong population is engaged in strawberry cultivation, either as independent producers or as sharecroppers. Almost 95 per cent of strawberries grown in Greece come from this region. Since the mid-1970s, this highly profitable cash crop has replaced the traditional potato crop. </p>
<p>The conditions of work can be described as forced or unfree labour. Withholding of wages is a common practice here and tie the workers to the farmers. In 2013, protests by Bangladeshi workers against delayed wages led to Greek farmers <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2013/04/greece-despair-pervades-camps-after-33-migrant-workers-shot-in-manolada/">shooting at them</a>. The workers won a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/30/bangladeshi-strawberry-pickers-shot-at-by-greek-farmers-win-european-rights-case">landmark human rights case</a>, and Greece was forced to pay more than US$648,000 to 42 of them.</p>
<h2>Workers lose everything in frequent fires</h2>
<p>Clusters of 10-17 <em>barangas</em> each house a minimum of 200-350 workers. With a rent of US$33-38 per <em>baranga</em>, a farmer stands to earn US$500-550 per month from just one <em>baranga</em> alone during the season. </p>
<p>When this sum is calculated for housing 12,000 workers for seven months, it reveals that staggering profits are made off the backs of this flexible labour force that is paid a less than minimum wage of <a href="https://wageindicator.org/salary/minimum-wage/greece">US$32 per day</a>. </p>
<p>Agreements are informal, with no receipts. There have even been instances where the failure to pay timely rent has resulted in harassment and intimidation from local police.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296536/original/file-20191010-188840-1b3g26s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296536/original/file-20191010-188840-1b3g26s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296536/original/file-20191010-188840-1b3g26s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296536/original/file-20191010-188840-1b3g26s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296536/original/file-20191010-188840-1b3g26s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296536/original/file-20191010-188840-1b3g26s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296536/original/file-20191010-188840-1b3g26s.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The migrant workers live in highly flammable shacks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Barangas</em> offer no running water, electricity or sanitation facilities. These structures are human tragedies waiting to happen. The danger of the inflammable construction material is heightened with cooking done inside in crude partitioned kitchens, with propane gas cylinders, and lighting provided by candles. Because <em>barangas</em> are located on wastelands with no proper road access, firefighters have difficulty accessing them. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.ekathimerini.com/229395/article/ekathimerini/news/migrant-farm-workers-see-camp-go-up-in-smoke">June 2018</a>, a massive fire broke out in a migrant settlement in Nea Manolada. It spread from one <em>baranga</em> to engulf all before help could arrive. More than 340 Bangladeshi workers lost everything they had, including identification papers, passports, work permits, proof of stay and saved wages. In 2019, seven fires, fuelled by strong winds, charred entire sets of <em>barangas</em> in the same region in a matter of minutes. </p>
<p>So far, no one has died. But the men worry about what might happen if a fire breaks out at night, when everyone is sleeping. Blazes in similar migrant housing <a href="https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/18739/one-migrant-dead-in-fire-at-migrant-ghetto-in-southern-italy">have resulted in fatalities</a>. </p>
<p>Within Canada, fire outbreaks on dormitories for migrant workers <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/4171348/migrant-workers-fire-abbotsford/">are not uncommon</a>. In August 2019, in St. Catharines, Ont., <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5789993/fire-marshal-cause-st-catharines-greenhouse-fire/">a blaze</a> devastated a farm and five residential buildings for migrant workers.</p>
<h2>Constant threat of deportation</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296078/original/file-20191008-128644-6paf3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296078/original/file-20191008-128644-6paf3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296078/original/file-20191008-128644-6paf3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296078/original/file-20191008-128644-6paf3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296078/original/file-20191008-128644-6paf3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296078/original/file-20191008-128644-6paf3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296078/original/file-20191008-128644-6paf3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296078/original/file-20191008-128644-6paf3a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interior of a ‘baranga.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Besides the dangers of fire, <em>barangas</em> present other challenges. They don’t insulate against the elements. In the summer, the temperature inside reaches 50C and in winter, it is below freezing. Thin mattresses and blankets lie on dirt-packed floors covered with a patchwork of cardboard. </p>
<p>Because there’s no electricity, there are no fans or heaters. The men are also unable to charge cell phones, a vital link to their families. As well, dead phones can mean a loss of wages. Each evening, workers wait for the supervisors’ call, asking them to report to work the next day. The only place to charge phones is at ethnic grocery stores or cafes with long queues to do so.</p>
<p>Untreated piped ground water can be used for bathing and washing of clothes but drinking water must be paid for, eating into the meagre monthly wage. Outdoor toilets consist of holes dug in the ground covered with wood slats and plastic sheets wrapped around four poles to provide privacy. “Showers” are open-air platforms. Waste water gathers in pools around the <em>barangas</em>, breeding grounds for mosquitoes and flies. </p>
<p>The negative impact of poor housing on the health of workers has been <a href="https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/26/6/1039/2616278">studied elsewhere</a> The inadequate sanitation, waste-disposal facilities and drainage create ripe conditions for infectious diseases. Frequent diarrhea, fever, asthma and respiratory problems appear widespread. </p>
<p>The workers are deterred from demanding better living conditions because they are undocumented. That means Greek farmers are able to exploit them without fear of reprisals, especially because of the disciplinary practices of border control, and the regime of deportability based on <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085432">migrant “illegality</a>.”</p>
<p>The ever-present threat of potential deportation scares undocumented migrant workers who then discipline themselves as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1642740">efficient but invisible workers</a>. Local authorities, aware of their plight, have turned a blind eye to improving migrant housing, leaving the men with little recourse. </p>
<p>As a labourer in his mid-30s who has been working on the farms for seven years said: “Everyone exploits our desperation to earn wages while profiting from our labour.”</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reena Kukreja does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Greece is the 10th largest exporter of strawberries in the world, but evidence shows that success is due to captive migrant farm labour who work in precarious, unsafe and unhealthy conditions.Reena Kukreja, Assistant Professor, Global Development Studies, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1072962018-11-27T13:15:49Z2018-11-27T13:15:49ZWeighing up South Africa’s family policy: what does and doesn’t work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247021/original/file-20181123-149332-12mxef0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Single parent and extended families are the dominant family forms in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa is one of a small number of developing countries that’s formulated a national policy focused on families. A family policy, broadly defined, refers to everything a government does to promote the well-being of families, such as social grants, family services, or social housing. </p>
<p>The country’s policy – known as the <a href="https://www.westerncape.gov.za/assets/departments/social-development/white_paper_on_families_in_south_africa_2013.pdf">White Paper on Families</a> – has three priorities. They are promoting healthy family life, strengthening the family and preserving the family. The intention of the policy is to promote and support families, many of whom are currently facing huge financial and social pressures. </p>
<p>Implementation of the policy is supposed to result in well-functioning and resilient families able to nurture, support and care for their family members.</p>
<p>But a policy on paper is only as good as its implementation and monitoring. <a href="https://www.uj.ac.za/faculties/humanities/csda/Documents/Family%20Policy%20Report%20Nov%202018%20Web.pdf">Our review</a> of the implementation of the policy suggests the country faces challenges getting it off the ground. The biggest relate to capacity, political will and funding.</p>
<p>We identified some critical gaps that need attention. These include clarification of intended outcomes, the execution of robust monitoring, evaluation and reporting systems, the allocation of realistic budgets, employing staff with the right knowledge and skills, and renewed political will to promote the plan.</p>
<h2>What works and doesn’t</h2>
<p>The White Paper goes some way to acknowledging the historical context and current key factors that negatively affect families in the country. These include the <a href="http://africanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-93">apartheid migrant labour system</a>, which separated families; <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-09-03-more-adults-not-working-than-working-in-south-africa/">massive unemployment</a>, persistently high poverty rates and income inequality, the <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/uploads/pageContent/9234/SABSSMV_Impact_Assessment_Summary_ZA_ADS_cleared_PDFA4.pdf">HIV epidemic</a>, and high levels of interpersonal violence.</p>
<p>It seeks to enable broad family support through the state welfare system as well as non-governmental services. The idea is to ensure that families don’t “get lost” in the maze of social policies, and their well-being is explicitly promoted.</p>
<p>The policy lists a variety of family structures. Nevertheless it remains too skewed towards heterosexual, nuclear, and marriage-based family norms. Another <a href="http://psppdknowledgerepository.org/component/jdownloads/send/9-grantee-research/377-the-family-observatory-for-preventive-and-developmental-social-work-a-qualitative-investigation-into-the-challenges-regarding-the-implementation-of-the-white-paper-on-families-in-south-africa-among-social-work-managers-in-the-public-sector">problem is that</a> it’s vague and contradictory in its formulations. This will make policy implementation more difficult.</p>
<p>More attention needs to be paid to aligning the White Paper with realities of the everyday lives of families. One such reality is that single parent and extended families are the dominant family forms. </p>
<p>Policy improvements also need to focus on the integration of services. And the importance of training, supervision and coaching of both officials and front-line service workers can’t be over emphasised.</p>
<h2>Gaps that need filling</h2>
<p>Our review combined literature and document review, consultation and roundtable reportage. We didn’t find evidence that lessons learnt from training that’s been done at national level has cascaded down to local government levels and non-governmental service agencies. There is no evidence that this is happening to a sufficient degree. Rectifying this is critical.</p>
<p>Clarity of information - on matters like staff numbers and budgets – is also missing. Budgets appear to be inadequate and are not aligned with a strategic plan or an implementation plan. And there doesn’t appear to be a separate budget to implement the policy.</p>
<p>Another area of weakness is that there has been no consistent performance monitoring of staff or evaluation of the programmes against established or standardised metrics. </p>
<p>Family forums – a key tool of the policy – have been established at National and Provincial levels. But there’s no standardised reporting. Where it does exist it’s unaudited, making it difficult to assess what the outputs and outcomes are. Interest in these forums has declined and there is little to no coordination between provincial and local level forums.</p>
<p>We found that South Africa’s approach to family policy fills an important knowledge gap as there is a dearth of research on family policies in the global South compared to the North. But, the broad net that it casts – incorporating other policies of various departments – fails to make clear the synergies and strategies that the country should be working towards. And coordination and integration are left unspecified.</p>
<p>The White Paper endorses a combination of private and public support for families. But it falls short of clearly identifying priorities in promoting family and social cohesion. It also creates a capacity issue for itself – especially in monitoring and evaluation of implementation.</p>
<h2>Empowering families</h2>
<p>Looking forward, an audit of the family-focused interventions and support provided across different parts of the government would, we believe, be a productive first step to assess what family assistance South Africa is currently provided, what resources are allocated for this purpose and how this might be used for maximum effect. Loss of fiscal resources through <a href="https://www.sastatecapture.org.za/">corruption and mismanagement</a> has eroded much needed resources for family well-being. </p>
<p>It would also help develop the right metrics to measure success. </p>
<p>In addition, critical questions need to be asked about what the best ways are to empower families to tackle the country’s inequality gaps. </p>
<p><em>Thomas Englert, a research assistant at the Centre for Social Development in Africa, collaborated on the research and this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107296/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Centre for Social Development in Africa, University of Johannesburg, is funded by the university as well as external donors. This review was funded by the Department of Science and Technology and NRF Research Foundation Centre of Excellence in Human Development at the University of the Witwatersrand. It was done with the cooperation of the National Department of Social Development. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leila Patel receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) for her Chair in Welfare and Social Development and the University of Johannesburg. This review was funded by the Department of Science and Technology and NRF Research Foundation Centre of Excellence in Human Development at the University of the Witwatersrand. It was done with the cooperation of the National Department of Social Development. </span></em></p>More attention needs to be paid to aligning South Africa’s family policy with the realities of everyday life.Tessa Hochfeld, Associate professor, University of JohannesburgLeila Patel, Professor of Social Development Studies, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/957942018-04-30T10:39:50Z2018-04-30T10:39:50ZThe best anthem for Workers’ Day? ‘Stimela’ – a tale about apartheid’s migrant labour system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216813/original/file-20180430-135840-lxpr02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hugh Masekela performing in 2015.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Esa Alexander/The Times</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What is the ultimate song to celebrate Workers’ Day? Many will suggest <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/30230">“The Internationale”</a> which had its roots as a poem written in the aftermath of the Paris Commune in 1871 by Eugène Pottier, a transport worker. Set to music a few years later, it became the anthem for the wider progressive movement. It served as the Soviet Union’s anthem after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, making it more closely associated with the communist movement.</p>
<p>But I would argue that trumpeter Hugh Masekela’s iconic and internationally popular song <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2007/07/hugh-masekela-stimela-coal-train.html">“Stimela”</a> – the coal train – is perhaps a more appropriate anthem for Workers’ Day in southern and Central Africa. The song speaks about local history and the <a href="http://africanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-93">migrant labour system</a> on the mines. </p>
<p>“Stimela” reminds everyone that South Africa’s wealth and infrastructure was built on the back of labour from all over Africa. They were the force that modernised the country. But the song is also internationalist in focus.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Hugh Masekela’s iconic ‘Stimela’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Later recordings of the song typically begin with bass rhythms and percussion mimicking the sound of a train on its tracks. Then the instruments retreat to the background and Masekela announces:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is a train that comes from Namibia and Malawi</p>
<p>there is a train that comes from Zambia and Zimbabwe,</p>
<p>There is a train that comes from Angola and Mozambique,</p>
<p>From Lesotho, from Botswana, from Swaziland,</p>
<p>From all the hinterland of Southern and Central Africa.</p>
<p>This train carries young and old, African men</p>
<p>Who are conscripted to come and work on contract</p>
<p>In the golden mineral mines of Johannesburg</p>
<p>And its surrounding metropolis, sixteen hours or more a day</p>
<p>For almost no pay.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Early morning commute</h2>
<p>Until recently I was responsible for teaching an introductory course in sociology to first year university students. The auditorium in which I delivered the lectures had a beautiful sound system.</p>
<p>I’d plug in my computer and play music before lectures started. The music served two purposes. I liked to imagine that it allowed students to find some calm after their early morning commute from the city’s periphery on dilapidated trains.</p>
<p>It was also a way to introduce debates about key topics covered in the first year course.</p>
<p>I always started the first lecture of the year with Masekela’s “Stimela” because it was the perfect opening to a conversation about the forces that modernised South Africa.</p>
<p>South Africa’s was not a slow, organic growth of <a href="http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10539/8405/ISS-11.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">industrialisation</a> that characterised the European transition from feudalism to industrial capitalism, the great transformation that gave rise to my discipline of sociology, with Karl Marx as one of its key contributors.</p>
<p>The emergence of modern South Africa was brutal in a different way. It came about as a result of the discovery of diamonds and gold, and the need for cheap labour to extract metals from the seams that ran through the Witwatersrand’s rock formations.</p>
<p>This was a story of labour shortages and the intervention of colonial administrations and armies across southern and Central Africa. They dispossessed pastoralists of their land and imposed hut and poll taxes on traditional leaders so that Johannesburg could be supplied with the much needed <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Black-Gold-Mozambican-Proletarian-Peasant/dp/0312083181">“Black Gold”</a>, as journalist-activist <a href="http://www.sacp.org.za/people/slovo/ruth.html">Ruth First</a> described the system.</p>
<p>The song describes what’s on the minds of mining recruits on a steam train as it makes its way to Johannesburg: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>They think about their lands, their herds that were taken away from them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Masekela, writing “Stimela” must have been, in part, a reflection on his own life. Born in the coal mining area called Witbank, he was raised by his grandmother who made her livelihood from a shebeen (an illegal bar) for mineworkers.</p>
<h2>The legacy lives on</h2>
<p>Up until the 1970s, when Masekela composed “Stimela” while he was in exile, South African mineworkers typically spent only a few years on the the mines, saving up money or buying cattle to return to their lands. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/remembering-hugh-masekela-the-horn-player-with-a-shrewd-ear-for-music-of-the-day-86414">Remembering Hugh Masekela: the horn player with a shrewd ear for music of the day</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But the 1970s was time of great change in South Africa’s mining industry.</p>
<p>In 1974 <a href="http://opensaldru.uct.ac.za/bitstream/handle/11090/534/1980_horner_swp29.pdf?sequence=1">72 Malawian mineworkers</a> were killed in an aeroplane crash. A year later, <a href="http://thecommonwealth.org/our-member-countries/mozambique/history">Mozambique</a> became independent. Both Mozambique and Malawi were major suppliers of migrant workers to South African mines and these events put the steady flow of labour at risk.</p>
<p>In the case of Mozambique, the apartheid state was able to strike a deal with the new Mozambican government for the continued supply of labour. But Malawi withdrew permission for the recruitment of workers from their country.</p>
<p>The result was a <a href="http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/sidebar.php?id=65-258-5&page=1">shift</a> to recruiting more South African workers and the emergence of career mine workers with much longer contracts. This change in the mining labour market eventually led to the <a href="http://num.org.za/About-Us/History">founding</a> of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in 1982.</p>
<p>The successful organisation of workers who were at the heart of South Africa’s economy was one of the most important pillars of resistance against apartheid.</p>
<p>Sadly, the mining industry’s contested legacy and its migrant labour system remain challenges in the post-apartheid period. This is evident in a number of ways. The massacre of mineworkers at <a href="http://marikana.mg.co.za/">Marikana</a> in 2012 was a stark reminder of the acute vulnerability and exploitation of workers. </p>
<p>On top of this is the inability of the mining companies and the state to <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_187783/lang--en/index.htm">provide</a> many mine workers – now often employed through subcontractors – with decent housing and services. And finally, the issue of land dispossession still haunts the country, and remains unresolved.</p>
<p>Steam trains no longer crisscross southern Africa. Yet “Stimela” remains as much a song about present and future aspirations, as it does of the past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95794/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andries Bezuidenhout does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The protest song “Stimela” remains as much a song about present and future aspirations, as it is of the past.Andries Bezuidenhout, Professor of Development Studies, University of Fort HareLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/824572017-08-17T16:30:36Z2017-08-17T16:30:36ZNew research pokes holes in the idea that men don’t look after their kids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182074/original/file-20170815-16750-dkx6kx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Men who had to take responsibility for younger siblings growing up were not concerned about conforming to dominant ideas about manhood.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa has one of the highest rates of absent fathers in sub-Saharan Africa. As many as 60% of children in the country under the age of 10 don’t live with their <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/uploads/pageContent/3337/2013febFamily%20Policy.pdf">biological fathers</a>, the second highest rate of absence in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3710932/#S3title">sub-Saharan Africa</a> after Namibia. This compares to one third in the <a href="http://www.fatherhood.org/fatherhood-data-statistics">US</a>.</p>
<p>South Africa’s statistics are influenced by the history of migrant labour. Expropriation of the land of black Africans by colonial authorities, coupled with the levying of taxes, forced men (and later, women) to move to the growing cities to earn an income, while their wives and children stayed in the rural reserves or <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3710932/#S3title">“homelands”</a>.</p>
<p>But there are other factors at play too. These include gender norms about childcare and the different roles attached to fathers and mothers. These norms also generally lead to men – even if they are physically present – making minimal contributions to unpaid care and household work.</p>
<p>A large volume of research – including the Centre for Social Development in Africa’s <a href="https://www.uj.ac.za/faculties/humanities/csda/Documents/Absent-fathers-full-report%202013.pdf">“ATM Fathers”</a> – has shown that among both men and women, fathers are widely considered as primarily being responsible for supporting the family financially. These attitudes frequently lead men – or enable them – to sidestep non-financial care responsibilities. </p>
<p>But in a context of <a href="http://www.fin24.com/Economy/jobs-not-grants-only-way-out-of-poverty-says-pali-lehohla-20170807">widespread unemployment</a>, inability to earn an income and fulfil the “provider” role often leads men to <a href="https://www.uj.ac.za/faculties/humanities/csda/Documents/Absent-fathers-full-report%202013.pdf">abandon their children</a>. This leaves women with the double burden of being the sole breadwinner as well as the person primarily responsible for unpaid care and household work. This, in turn, reinforces gender inequality as women have less time to pursue market work, education, leisure and civic life, and are expected to sacrifice their own interests for those of children.</p>
<p>But there are men who choose to be involved fully in the care of their children despite economic difficulty. We have done research into the reasons for this involvement, and the different forms that it takes. The <a href="https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/338575">initial research</a> has been done by <a href="https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/342417">Masters students</a> Manon van der Meer and Hylke Hoornstra, and forms part of my PhD which is due to be published early next year. We also examined men’s attitudes towards gender, and how they define their masculine and paternal identities in the context of caring for children. </p>
<p>We found that a significant number of men are doing this in progressive ways - ‘doing’ fatherhood and manhood in ways that differ from the patriarchal archetypes that sustain gender inequality. Their examples point to the possibility of creating a more gender equal society.</p>
<h2>The research</h2>
<p>The first group of men we interviewed were fathers working in low income jobs in Johannesburg – mostly security guards and fast food restaurant staff. All were cohabiting with their partners and children. Almost all emphasised that providing for the family financially was central to their definitions of a good father. Given their low-paying jobs, they were constantly worried about their inability to do this which often led to feelings of inadequacy as a father.</p>
<p>But most men saw their father roles as encompassing more than just financial provision. Almost all spoke of a need to be available emotionally for their children, and to spend time with them. Most also had no problem with performing care work (such as changing nappies, bathing children, helping children with schoolwork) or household work (cleaning, cooking, laundry, and ironing). But importantly, most saw the mother as primarily responsible for this work, only stepping in to help when asked or required. This was frequently related to gendered ideas about competence: that women were naturally more suited to these tasks.</p>
<p>The second group of men we interviewed were receiving a <a href="http://www.gov.za/services/child-care-social-benefits/child-support-grant">child support grant</a> on behalf of their children. The grant is a means tested monthly cash transfer provided to low-income caregivers to support childcare, and has a value of R380 (around US$29). This group makes up only a fraction of those who get the grants – 98% are women according to data provided by the South African Social Security Agency. </p>
<p>Most of the men we interviewed in Soweto had applied for the grant because a female partner had passed away, or because their female partner was not a South African citizen.</p>
<p>Almost all the men were unemployed. Most put far less emphasis on providing financial support. They considered “being there” for their children – by providing love, guidance and protection – a key component of their masculine and paternal identities. </p>
<p>They frequently described taking care of their children, and not abandoning them or being otherwise neglectful, as central to what it means to be a man.</p>
<p>As with the first group, many in the second group also subscribed to dominant gender norms about who should do what in the household. Care and household work were viewed primarily as mothers’ or women’s responsibility. Nonetheless, almost all regularly carried out these tasks, even those who were either living with female partners or who could rely on the support of female relatives - thus revealing a discrepancy between their beliefs and how they behaved. </p>
<p>Most men in both groups spoke about the pressure to conform to social expectations and the sanctions imposed on them if they didn’t. Sanctions could take the form of disapproval when they were seen to be doing “women’s work”. Also, some men who received the child grant said they were seen as “undateable” by women they encountered at the local social grant offices. </p>
<p>All men said they experienced some form of pressure. But some seemed less bothered by it than others. This was particularly true of those who held gender-equal ideas about “male” and “female” responsibility. Men who had always done this work – for example those who were brought up by single mothers, or who had to take responsibility for younger siblings growing up – were similarly unconcerned about conforming to dominant ideas of what it means to “be a man”.</p>
<h2>Doing gender differently</h2>
<p>Fathers in South Africa are often denigrated for being un-involved and neglectful. But this research sheds light on fathers who, despite significant economic and social pressure, choose to remain involved in meaningful ways in the lives of their children, and to incorporate traditionally feminine behaviours and roles into their own masculine and paternal identities for the well-being of their children. </p>
<p>We hope that the research findings will inspire other men to “do gender” differently – for the benefit of their children and South African women.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zoheb Khan receives funding from the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>About 60% of children in South Africa under 10 years don’t live with their biological fathers. But research sheds light on those who despite the pressures remain involved in their children’s lives.Zoheb Khan, Researcher, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/781502017-05-25T15:51:52Z2017-05-25T15:51:52ZDebt bondage, domestic servitude and indentured labour still a problem in the world’s richest nations<p>Slavery has been illegal in every country since the last country to do so, Mauritania, criminalised the practice in 2007. But while slavery is illegal, it has not disappeared. Contemporary slavery in the form of indentured labour, debt bondage or domestic servitude still exists in many places – including the richest countries of the world. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/">startling personal piece</a>, US journalist Alex Tizon recalled how when he grew up in the Philippines, an impoverished young woman named Eudoica Pulido, known as Lola, was brought to live with the family as their domestic help. Emigrating with them to the US, with no room of her own, no pay, and no way of returning to her homeland, she suffered verbal and physical abuse from Tizon’s parents. Others were told she was a visiting relative, and she had no one to turn to for help save for her employers’ children. She was effectively the family’s slave. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170666/original/file-20170523-5743-10n8f28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170666/original/file-20170523-5743-10n8f28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170666/original/file-20170523-5743-10n8f28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170666/original/file-20170523-5743-10n8f28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170666/original/file-20170523-5743-10n8f28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=798&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170666/original/file-20170523-5743-10n8f28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170666/original/file-20170523-5743-10n8f28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170666/original/file-20170523-5743-10n8f28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1003&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">My Family’s Slave: a portrait of Eudocia Tomas Pulido on the cover of The Atlantic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Atlantic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If this sounds like an exceptional case, research on the conditions for <a href="http://www.kalayaan.org.uk/documents/Kalayaan%20Oxfam%20report.pdf">migrant domestic workers in the UK</a> reveals that the reality of domestic work should make us all uncomfortable.</p>
<h2>Perspectives from the Philippines</h2>
<p>Domestic work is difficult to regulate. Employers often describe workers as “one of the family”, but this often hides unpaid wages, restricted movement and forced overtime. In the Philippines, domestic workers like Pulido are not bought and sold, but they are as effectively indentured as slaves. They work for their food and lodging and receive a small allowance, but this is never enough for them to leave their employer. Most is sent back to their own family.</p>
<p>Migrant domestic workers, in contrast, rarely owe money to their employers directly. They pay brokers, agents, and governments for services, and repay loans to banks, finance companies, loan sharks and relatives instead. Like Eudocia Pulido, to repay these debts they must often forgo a personal life, intimate relationships, raising children and honouring family obligations.</p>
<p>Pulidio’s family still <a href="http://www.rappler.com/rappler-blogs/lian-buan/170462-finding-eudocia-pulido-mayantoc-tarlac">lives in poverty in rural Tarlac</a>. They thought Pulido was living a comfortable life in America. Perhaps she was working to repay the cost of her ticket? Perhaps she had forgotten them? </p>
<p>Pulido only sent money home years after her departure, when Alex Tizon, her employers’ son, gave her a weekly allowance. Following the death of Tizon’s mother, she lived with Alex and his family in the US until her death. Her relatives in Tarlac never saw the money or boxes of goods and gifts they anticipated. Hoping to better their own lives, they intend to migrate for domestic work, too. </p>
<p>As Filipinos debate reparations for Pulido’s family, they are also considering the way they <a href="http://www.rappler.com/thought-leaders/170451-56-years-slave-lola-eudocia-pulido">treat their own domestic workers</a>. Tizon’s story took an unflinching look at the sacrifices middle-class families require from their “help”. Despite the risks, other Filipino women continue to seek similar domestic work situations overseas, and of the potential destinations, the UK is <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=r3HBDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=overseas+filipino+workers+stock+estimate+UK+2015&source=bl&ots=-rv3m3xG08&sig=DG0HxiUvJIGJGC1oiyeqtXVxoVk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiz-u31zIbUAhWsLsAKHdIvB3gQ6AEIVDAH#v=onepage&q=overseas%20filipino%20workers%20stock%20estimate%20UK%202015&f=false">reputed to offer the highest wages</a>. </p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Lian Buan interviews Eudocia Pulido’s family.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Irregular migrants</h2>
<p>In the UK there are limits on jobs in domestic work for migrants from outside the EU. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/domestic-workers-in-a-private-household-visa/overview">Domestic Worker visas</a> allow non-European workers to enter with their employer and stay for only six months. Migrants on this visa often experience non-payment of wages, abuse and exploitation. The six-month limit makes it very difficult for them to change employers. And not all Filipino migrants doing domestic work hold visas. </p>
<p>When I interviewed Filipinos in London between 2009 and 2012, only two of 61 people I met held this visa. Most of my interviewees worked in London’s informal economy for domestic services, but had arrived on student or tourist visas and then disappeared. </p>
<p>An estimated 32,000 Filipinos in the UK have <a href="http://www.kanlungan.org.uk/filipinos-in-the-uk/">irregular immigration status</a>, augmenting <a href="http://www.cfo.gov.ph/downloads/statistics/stock-estimates.html">218,126</a> working visa holders, permanent residents and citizens, and their dependants. Irregular migrants are predominantly women and do in-home, cash-in-hand housekeeping, babysitting, cleaning and caregiving work. Their earnings go towards servicing debts, or to their families to send their children to school, provide medical care, improve their housing, and starting businesses. Some are still repaying debts incurred for previous contract domestic work in Hong Kong or Singapore, or care-giving in Israel. </p>
<p>Their irregular status means they struggle to access healthcare, are often underpaid, rent outside regulatory controls, and live in fear of being stopped, held and quickly deported by the UK Border Agency. Informal landlords, employers, and other migrants manipulate them by threatening to report them to the authorities. Facing low wages and precarious work, they depend on the goodwill of employers to sustain them – a situation that leads to them being exploited.</p>
<p>Irregular migrants can change employers to search for better-paid work and more generous conditions. A few of my interviewees received higher wages than workers in equivalent formal sector jobs, but across the group their situations varied widely. One, a teacher turned nanny-housekeeper, earned over £37,000 a year. Another, an accountant-cum-caregiver, faced destitution after her employer died. Both were servicing large debts to support families they hadn’t seen in years, and if caught would be deported, unable to return to the UK for a decade.</p>
<p>Irregular migrant domestic workers are not quite slaves. Yet their circumstances may be closer to slavery than we’d like to acknowledge. The full life denied to Pulido is something Britain’s irregular migrant workers also forego, because their debts limit their choices. </p>
<p>Working with Filpino NGO <a href="http://www.kanlungan.org.uk/filipinos-in-the-uk/">Kanlungan</a>, our <a href="https://www.curatingdevelopment.com">project team</a> is exploring ways to improve conditions for Filipino migrants. Beginning with community arts workshops, the aim is to increase their financial literacy so they can avoid debt, while showing workers and politicians just how much – and how widely – their debt-fueled migration contributes to national development in the Philippines.</p>
<p>Here in the UK, we need to end systems that tie migrants doing domestic work to their employers so they have freedom to seek better working conditions. Where there is demand for migrant domestic and caregiving work, it should only be under formal, regulated working conditions. After all, post-Brexit the UK may find it needs to rely even more heavily on migrants from outside Europe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78150/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deirdre McKay receives funding from the AHRC for Curating Development. Led by Mark Johnson (Anthropology, Goldsmiths), the project's partners are Kanlungan (London), Enrich (Hong Kong) and the Scalabrini Migration Centre (Manila, Philippines). Her research on Filipinos in London was funded by the Mellon Foundation/Indiana University Press and published as An Archipelago of Care (Indiana, 2016). </span></em></p>With My Family’s Slave, journalist Alex Tizon challenges our complacency over domestic workers. When does domestic work become slavery?Deirdre McKay, Senior Lecturer in Geography, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/763212017-04-18T07:28:22Z2017-04-18T07:28:22ZAustralian government axes 457 work visa: experts react<p>The Turnbull government is <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Work/457-abolition-replacement">axing the 457 visa program</a> and replacing it with a new Temporary Skill Shortage Visa. This comes after a history of problems with the 457 program, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/evidence-of-employers-misusing-457-visas-shows-need-for-reform-41443">uncovered abuse of workers</a>. </p>
<p>The new scheme will be made up of two streams, one short term (issued for two years) and one medium term (issued for up to four years for “more focused occupation lists”). Both of these will be subject to labour market testing including a requirement for two years of work experience, a market salary rate assessment and a new non-discriminatory workforce test.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/457-quarterly-report-30-06-2016.pdf">As of June 30, 2016</a> there were 94,890 primary 457 visa holders in Australia. This means the total number of primary 457 visa holders who are sponsored by an employer is equal to less than 1% of the Australian labour market. This <a href="https://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/br0169-30-june-2016.pdf">proportion rises</a> if international students, backpackers and other temporary migrants are included. </p>
<p>The number of eligible occupations for the new types of visas will be shortened by 216, with 268 available for the two year visa and 167 for the longer four year visa. Applicants will also now have to meet English language requirements and undergo a criminal check.</p>
<p>The changes are in effect immediately and will be fully implemented by 2018.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Previous coverage:</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-real-issues-with-the-457-visa-arent-being-addressed-68970">The real issues with the 457 visa aren’t being addressed</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/business-briefing-breaking-down-the-457-visa-myths-68913">A 457 visa worker is more likely to take the job of a young academic than that of a blue collar worker</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-migrant-workers-are-critical-to-the-future-of-australias-agricultural-industry-66422">How migrant workers are critical to the future of Australia’s agricultural industry</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/election-factcheck-qanda-was-jacqui-lambie-right-about-apprenticeships-and-457-visas-60241">FactCheck Q&A: was Jacqui Lambie right about apprenticeships and 457 visas?</a></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-hear-the-stories-of-exploited-unlawful-migrant-workers-not-just-deport-them-73348">We need to hear the stories of exploited unlawful migrant workers, not just deport them</a></p>
<hr>
<h2>Who is affected?</h2>
<p><strong>Henry Sherrell, Research Officer, Development Policy Centre, ANU</strong></p>
<p>While it is easy to blame immigrants for questions on Australian jobs, when it comes to the 457 visa program, employers are the ones who generate visas. The visa program is closely tied to the strength or weakness of the labour market. </p>
<p>The policy change most likely to reduce the number of temporary skilled migrants is the changes to the list of occupations available to sponsor. By removing certain occupations, employers have a more limited set of job placements for migrants. Over time, this could reduce the temporary skilled migrants working in the labour market overall. </p>
<p>As employers must sponsor migrants, it is employers who drive the trends of how many visas are being granted from year to year. As the economy grows, demand for 457 visas should increase. The same also works in reverse. This is exactly what has happened, as the population of 457 visa holders <a href="https://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/457-quarterly-report-30-06-2016.pdf">has fallen</a> from about 110,000 in 2013 to under 95,000 by June 2016. </p>
<p>We can see this echoed in the state numbers. During the mining boom, Queensland and Western Australia attracted larger numbers of migrants on 457 visas. However this has changed quickly. Western Australia recorded a 27% drop in the number of visas granted in 2015-16 compared to an 11% drop nationally. </p>
<p>The industries that <a href="https://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/statistics/457-quarterly-report-30-06-2016.pdf">stand to be most affected are</a> information technology (the largest sponsor), followed by the <a href="http://abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/8464D4BB38214E7DCA25711F00146E44?opendocument">professional, scientific and technical services</a>, accommodation and food services. However the top three occupations under 457 visas contributed fewer than 15% of all visa grants in 2015-16. </p>
<p>Many people on 457 visas end up gaining a permanent visa, often also sponsored by their employer. In 2015-16, a total of 51,110 people on a 457 visa were granted a permanent visa. </p>
<p>It is unclear what the 457 changes will mean for the transition from temporary to permanent residency although existing visa holders will be grandfathered under the old system, providing a level of certainty at least in the short-term. </p>
<p>Yet the total population of 457 visa holders was already slowly reducing due to the softer labour market. </p>
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<h2>A training fund may not go far enough to address shortages</h2>
<p><strong>Chris F. Wright, Senior Lecturer, University of Sydney</strong></p>
<p>The government’s decision to establish a training fund as part of the replacement package for 457 visas is welcome given unemployment and underemployment is <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022185616634716">relatively high especially among younger workers</a>. The Turnbull government clearly needs to do more to encourage employers to use domestic policy mechanisms – such as structured training and active labour market policy – to increase the supply of skilled labour rather than just looking abroad. </p>
<p>However, more extensive changes to education and training policy are required. Over the past quarter-century there has been a wholesale change in how employers address their skills needs. </p>
<p>There has been a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris_Wright11/publication/309739215_Australia's_shifting_skills_ecosystem_Contemporary_challenges_in_education_training_and_immigration/links/58214ac008aeccc08af69f8e.pdf">significant decline in employer investment in training and developing their workforce</a>. This is partly a consequence of the deregulation of the employee training system by the Keating and Howard governments that led to an erosion of structured training and to a decline in the quality of training. </p>
<p>As a consequence, employers <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris_Wright11/publication/275652498_An_analysis_of_employers%27_use_of_temporary_skilled_visas_in_Australia/links/5542e2cc0cf24107d3948c00/An-analysis-of-employers-use-of-temporary-skilled-visas-in-Australia.pdf">became more inclined to engage ready-trained skilled migrants</a> as a consequence. My research with Dr Andreea Constantin showed employers who use the 457 visa were more than twice as likely to address skilled job vacancies by recruiting workers from abroad as they are to train their existing employees. </p>
<p>These problems have <a href="http://www.flinders.edu.au/sabs/nils/research/projects/skills-shortages-prevalence-causes-remedies-and-consequences-for-australian-businesses.cfm">also been highlighted by other studies</a> and are unlikely to be resolved without greater coordination and investment by employers and government.</p>
<p>It’s unrealistic to expect that any local worker can be trained to be completely adequate for meeting employers’ skills needs. As the Roach Review argued when it first recommended the introduction of the 457 visa in 1995: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A country of Australia’s size cannot expect to be completely self-sufficient at the leading edge of all skills in the area of key business personnel. When world trade in services is based on different countries developing specialised skills in different areas, it is not realistic for Australia to attempt to develop specialised skills in all areas. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Skilled migration therefore needs to continue as a central part of any policy solution for addressing Australia’s skills needs.</p>
<h2>This type of labour market testing doesn’t work</h2>
<p><strong>Joanna Howe, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Adelaide</strong></p>
<p>A deficiency with these changes is that it fails to address a core problem in the regulation of the 457 visa. The two new visa streams will still rely on employer-conducted labour market testing to ascertain which jobs will be available to temporary migrant workers.</p>
<p>Although the occupational shortage list for the two new visa streams is being cut down by one third from over 600 occupations to just shy of 400, employers will still be required to provide evidence to the Department of Immigration of failed recruitment efforts. The problem with this is that it penalises decent employers by increasing the red tape on them. </p>
<p>They will need to complete more paperwork in order to access temporary migrant workers, to meet skill shortages in their workplace. But, at the same time, it does very little to stop unscrupulous employers from exploiting the two new visas to replace local workers with foreign workers. This is because employer-conducted labour market testing is easy to evade and difficult for the Department of Immigration to properly monitor. </p>
<p>Given that there will be upward of 90,000 applicants for the two new visas, it will be extremely challenging and cumbersome for the Department of Immigration to properly ascertain that the jobs for which these visa holders are applying have been first advertised in a genuine and proper manner to the local workforce. </p>
<p>Employer-conducted labour market testing <a href="https://www.oecd.org/migration/mig/43176823.pdf">has been discredited by the OECD</a> and the <a href="https://www.border.gov.au/ReportsandPublications/Documents/reviews-and-inquiries/streamlined-responsive-457-programme.pdf">government’s own independent inquiry into the 457 visa</a> in 2014 which recommended its abolition. A far better approach is independent labour market testing which is used in the UK, Austria and other countries to ascertain which occupations should be eligible for temporary skilled migration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76321/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris F. Wright has in the past received funding from the Australian, UK and Dutch governments, the International Labour Organization, and various industry bodies and trade union organisations. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry Sherrell works for the Australian National University. I am an Associate of the Centre for Policy Development, and a member of the Australian Labor Party. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna Howe receives funding from Australian Research Council and from Vegetables WA.</span></em></p>The Turnbull government is axing the 457 visa program and replacing it with a new Temporary Skill Shortage Visa but it might not have the desired affect on the labour market.Chris F. Wright, Senior Lecturer, University of SydneyHenry Sherrell, Research Officer, Labour Mobility and Migration, Development Policy Centre, Australian National UniversityJoanna Howe, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/744882017-03-30T11:04:25Z2017-03-30T11:04:25ZWhat Britain’s post-Brexit immigration policy could look like<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162656/original/image-20170327-3308-1epj3d5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coming and going. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/@annadziubinska">Anna Dziubinska via unsplash.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Huge questions hang over what Britain’s exit from the European Union will mean for the country’s immigration policy. Free movement of citizens between the UK and EU countries is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2017/feb/26/amber-rudd-brexit-will-end-freedom-of-movement-as-we-know-it-video">coming to an end</a> but there is still little detail about what planned immigration controls will entail. The future immigration system – which the UK government has said will be finalised in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/02/brexit-white-paper-spells-out-need-for-new-immigration-laws">bill</a> before parliament – will depend on the types of trade deals Britain negotiates with the EU, and the rest of the world. </p>
<p>Even before negotiations begin, the government faces a number of imperatives and some conflicting objectives on EU immigration. </p>
<p>Any reforms will need to be practically enforceable. This raises questions as to whether the Home Office has the resources, systems and manpower to implement proposals – despite a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jan/23/inspector-uk-border-agency-backlog">history of mismanagement</a> and the complexity of regulating migration. Reforms will also need to meet labour market demands in low and mid-skilled sectors that have long relied on EU labour. These include <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/mar/11/eu-hospitality-workers-brexit-pret-a-manger-hotels-restaurants">retail and hospitality</a>, the <a href="https://fullfact.org/immigration/immigration-and-nhs-staff/">NHS</a> and <a href="http://www.nhsemployers.org/%7E/media/Employers/Documents/Cavendish%20Coalition%20%20HSC%20inquiry%20FINAL.pdf">social care</a>, <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-economics-rics-idUKKBN16M003">construction</a>, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/7ceb876c-b58d-11e6-961e-a1acd97f622d">agriculture</a> and horticulture, among others. Unless there is an <a href="https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201617/ldselect/ldeucom/121/12107.htm">improvement in pay and work conditions</a> it is hard to see how or why British workers will fill these shortages. </p>
<p>Likewise, if it is to continue with its rhetoric of wanting to “attract the brightest and best” to the UK, the government needs to continue to pull in highly skilled EU migrants – and make sure those already in the country stay. With the current political climate and uncertainty already <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/01/09/universities-may-face-brain-drain-brexit-new-survey-reveals/">driving some EU nationals to leave</a>, the government will have to work hard to continue to make the UK an attractive destination. </p>
<h2>The net migration conundrum</h2>
<p>At the same time, the government is <a href="https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/10/full-text-amber-rudds-conference-speech/">determined to reduce net migration</a> to the tens of thousands. Yet any trade deal with a country outside the EU, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-australia-india-tell-uk-relax-immigration-rules-free-trade-deal-eu-visa-restrictions-a7540036.html">such as Australia</a>, will come with demands to liberalise the visa regimes for citizens of that country – which could push up net migration. And given the complexities facing British citizens now living in the EU, some <a href="https://theconversation.com/british-pensioners-in-spain-worry-brexit-could-force-them-to-return-to-uk-74329">may return</a> to the UK after Brexit – also driving up net migration. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162713/original/image-20170327-3303-fgbnxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/162713/original/image-20170327-3303-fgbnxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162713/original/image-20170327-3303-fgbnxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162713/original/image-20170327-3303-fgbnxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162713/original/image-20170327-3303-fgbnxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162713/original/image-20170327-3303-fgbnxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/162713/original/image-20170327-3303-fgbnxg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Long-Term UK International Migration.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/migrationstatisticsquarterlyreport/feb2017">ONS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s also likely that the end of free movement could see EU citizens in the UK <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/when-dust-settles-migration-policy-after-brexit">shifting to other channels such as student or family</a> visas, and spark a surge in <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2016/07/11/five-problems-with-uk-immigration-control-post-brexit/">irregular migration</a>. All this is unlikely to help <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39178288">achieve any significant reduction</a> in net migration. </p>
<p>Speaking on the BBC’s Question Time in late March, the Brexit secretary David Davis <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39407039">confirmed</a> it was unlikely Britain would seek to cap the number of EU migrants coming to Britain after Brexit. </p>
<p>So how does the government plan to square these circles, and how desirable and achievable are they? There are four principle ways the government could go about it. </p>
<h2>EU preferential system</h2>
<p>The key question is whether the government will establish an entirely new system for EU nationals that gives them preferential access to the labour market, or whether they will simply be subject to the controls that all other non-EU citizens currently face. A preferential system would be a constructive offer to make to other EU countries as the government seeks to negotiate a <a href="http://europesworld.org/2017/03/13/what-are-britains-post-brexit-migration-options/#.WMrErBRallL">positive partnership</a> with the EU after Brexit. </p>
<p>But there is a <a href="http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/reports/labour-immigration-brexit-trade-offs-questions-policy-design/">trade off here</a> between a system tailored to meet labour force demands and a simpler model that applies uniform rules. A tailored approach would allow the government to identify jobs shortages and tie its immigration policy into wider policy objectives. But it would introduce extra complexity into the system, making it harder for employers and employees to navigate and for the government to manage. The current system was introduced under Labour in 2008 precisely to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/272243/6741.pdf">simplify</a> a system that had 80-or-so different legal channels. </p>
<p>If the government doesn’t give preferential access to EU nationals, one possibility could be to finally allow low-skilled workers from around the world to apply for a visa to Britain. The government has never thought it necessary to open up what’s called the <a href="https://www.immigrationdirect.co.uk/uk-visas/uk-tier-visa.jsp#unskilled">Tier 3 visa</a> within Britain’s current point-based immigration system, because EU nationals would fill up these lower-skilled jobs. If the government decides to treat EU nationals the same as all other nationals, this policy could change. </p>
<h2>Five-year working visa</h2>
<p>One possibility touted in a <a href="https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/27/uk_post_brexit_immigration_system/">report</a> in The Sunday Times in late February is the introduction of five-year working visas for EU nationals that would remove their entitlement to benefits, such as child benefit. Under this system, applications for a five-year visa would be granted on condition of a job in a key occupations in key sector. Speculatively, it seems this would be on a quota basis, all of which would be recommended by the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/migration-advisory-committee">Migration Advisory Committee</a>.</p>
<p>This proposal is thin on detail. Job offers are rarely – if ever – given on a five-year basis, raising questions on how this kind of visa could work in practice or how the government can forecast shortages in five years’ time. It’s unclear whether there would be a requirement for salaries to be above or below a certain threshold – which could also complicate matters.</p>
<p>Benefits tourism is widely derided as being an overstated problem, with EU nationals <a href="http://ukandeu.ac.uk/fact-figures/how-many-eu-migrants-claim-benefits-in-the-uk/">making up only 2.2% of total claimants</a> in the UK in 2015. Stripping benefit entitlements is a familiar political sop, and the government knows it would do little to nothing to reduce net migration. </p>
<h2>Sector-specific schemes</h2>
<p>A further option circulating in policy circles is the possibility of introducing sector specific immigration schemes. The UK used to have schemes for different sectors, most notably the seasonal agricultural workers scheme (SAWS), which <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/seasonal-agricultural-workers-scheme-and-the-food-processing-sectors-based-scheme">terminated in December 2013</a>. Long before Brexit was on the cards, representatives from agriculture industries had reported labour shortages <a href="https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=mwp83.pdf&site=252">because of its closure</a>. Brexit has made this a pressing concern.</p>
<p>On the whole, SAWS was on a well-managed scheme. Workers came for less than a year and so <a href="https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201617/ldselect/ldeucom/121/121.pdf">did not technically count</a> in the net migration figures. So the government has little to lose by re-establishing a SAWS scheme, and the insinuation is that the <a href="http://www.nfuonline.com/news/latest-news/comment-immigration-minister-hints-at-post-brexit-saws/">government will do so</a>. But agriculture – a sector with a 50-year history of regulating foreign labour – may be the exception. Other sectors may struggle to manage such schemes. </p>
<h2>Regional migration policy</h2>
<p>Another suggestion – although it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/14/minister-denies-chance-of-cliff-edge-shift-in-migration-policy-post-brexit">seems to have been rejected by the government</a> – would be for the UK to implement a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-economy-sleepwalking-into-a-disaster-unless-we-adopt-a-regional-immigration-policy-a7604631.html">regional immigration policy</a>. The advantage of this would be to recognise regional differences and possibly alleviate any disproportionate impacts of immigration on public services and housing in highly populated areas, in theory dampening public concerns over immigration. </p>
<p>While federal states such as <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/giving-cities-and-regions-voice-immigration-policy-can-national-policies-meet-local-demand">Canada can effectively operate</a> a regional immigration policy, how this would work in the UK remains ambiguous. Migrant workers are often pulled to the UK by the dazzle of London and other metropolitan areas. It would be naïve to assume that migrant workers will be just as willing to take a job in less desirable areas. </p>
<p>Such a proposal would also mean the government will need to reliably measure shortages by region, set appropriate quotas and monitor when these quotas are met – all which will take a lot of resources in an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-british-civil-service-faces-a-great-brexit-challenge-73005">already stretched civil service</a>. </p>
<p>This isn’t to say a regional policy is impossible. London and the devolved states in theory have the democratic structures in place to police it, and Scotland already has <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-k-shortage-occupation-list">a different</a> list of shortage occupations. But if such a dramatic overhaul were to be functional, it really requires a much <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2016/10/how-devolved-immigration-policy-could-work-brexit-britain">wider devolution of education and skills systems. </a></p>
<p>Ultimately, as with all Brexit policy matters, the outcome will depend on whether the government considers the economic damage of immigration reform as incidental to what <a href="https://twitter.com/ProfTimBale/status/829618783593521153">parliamentarians clearly assume is a democratic demand to bring immigration down</a>. If May’s current plans are anything to go by, it seems the economic implications will be secondary.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74488/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erica Consterdine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The options on the table for the UK when it comes to that most contentious of issues.Erica Consterdine, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Immigration Politics & Policy, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.