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rfmcdonaldFrom the PEI CBC website:
Migrant workers will harvest Island crops
WebPosted Jun 20 2003 09:54 AM EDT
CHARLOTTETOWN — Island farmers can look forward to hiring migrant workers from Jamaica and Mexico to help bring in their crops this year.
The federal government has given farmers permission to hire offshore workers for the annual harvest after complaints about a labour shortage on Prince Edward Island..
The new workers, mostly Mexican and Jamaican, will work for $7 minimum wage for a few weeks in August and September.
Farmers say offshore help is the perfect solution to their labour problems, but officials from Human Resources Development warn migrant workers also have added costs.
"They have to pay for the transportation, and they have to ensure that there's certified and inspected housing available. They want to make sure that they can't find local workers because basically, I still have to pay him the same rate that I would pay a guy down the road," says Gary Dunning.
Although farmers face extra challenges with migrant workers, many will still look offshore for hiring if it means they can have dependable workers who show up to work everyday.
"I can't plan for expansion if I can't secure adequate labour to harvest it. And I've heard a number of producers say you know, I had to plough under six acres of this or I left this in the field. Well that's not good for the producer but certainly not good for our economy either," says Dunning.
No Island farmers have applied for migrant workers yet, but Dunning expects that will change once harvesting begins.
This, I predict, will become the start of a trend, despite the Island's low incomes and high unemployment rate. The Prince Edward Island economy as it now exists is well-structured for gastarbeiter to begin doing the jobs locals don't want: Islanders, as the article mentions in passing, are unwilling to do the brute physical labour on farms that immigrants on contract will happily do (or at least be required to do). There is, just as in southern Spain and the Italian Mezzogiorno, a structural space for immigration at the lower end of the wage/status scale owing to the institution of the welfare state, with its unemployment benefits and lax requirements.
The only question to my mind is how long will it be before the Island begins to acquire large Mexican and Jamaican immigrant communities descending from this first experiment. The Island's birth rate is below replacement, and though the population continues to increase more rapidly than elsewhere in Atlantic Canada owing to high in-migration and a relatively high birth rate this isn't sustainable forever. Sooner or later, replacement miugration will beign whether Islanders planned for it or not.
Migrant workers will harvest Island crops
WebPosted Jun 20 2003 09:54 AM EDT
CHARLOTTETOWN — Island farmers can look forward to hiring migrant workers from Jamaica and Mexico to help bring in their crops this year.
The federal government has given farmers permission to hire offshore workers for the annual harvest after complaints about a labour shortage on Prince Edward Island..
The new workers, mostly Mexican and Jamaican, will work for $7 minimum wage for a few weeks in August and September.
Farmers say offshore help is the perfect solution to their labour problems, but officials from Human Resources Development warn migrant workers also have added costs.
"They have to pay for the transportation, and they have to ensure that there's certified and inspected housing available. They want to make sure that they can't find local workers because basically, I still have to pay him the same rate that I would pay a guy down the road," says Gary Dunning.
Although farmers face extra challenges with migrant workers, many will still look offshore for hiring if it means they can have dependable workers who show up to work everyday.
"I can't plan for expansion if I can't secure adequate labour to harvest it. And I've heard a number of producers say you know, I had to plough under six acres of this or I left this in the field. Well that's not good for the producer but certainly not good for our economy either," says Dunning.
No Island farmers have applied for migrant workers yet, but Dunning expects that will change once harvesting begins.
This, I predict, will become the start of a trend, despite the Island's low incomes and high unemployment rate. The Prince Edward Island economy as it now exists is well-structured for gastarbeiter to begin doing the jobs locals don't want: Islanders, as the article mentions in passing, are unwilling to do the brute physical labour on farms that immigrants on contract will happily do (or at least be required to do). There is, just as in southern Spain and the Italian Mezzogiorno, a structural space for immigration at the lower end of the wage/status scale owing to the institution of the welfare state, with its unemployment benefits and lax requirements.
The only question to my mind is how long will it be before the Island begins to acquire large Mexican and Jamaican immigrant communities descending from this first experiment. The Island's birth rate is below replacement, and though the population continues to increase more rapidly than elsewhere in Atlantic Canada owing to high in-migration and a relatively high birth rate this isn't sustainable forever. Sooner or later, replacement miugration will beign whether Islanders planned for it or not.
