Thousands of migrant workers come to Canada every year to help bring in the bounty from fields and greenhouses. They come under Canada’s temporary foreign worker program but don’t always find what they expected or were promised—including safety in the midst of a pandemic.

Low-wage migrant workers are a significant part of Canada’s agricultural workforce—almost half of the agricultural labour that grows the year-long produce that lands in kitchens. Life has become even more uncertain for them as COVID-19 has led to travel bans and border closures. And the decrease in that essential workforce could also mean Canada’s food security is at risk.

The government is allowing seasonal farm workers into the country, including a new 50-million-dollar program to help employers cover the costs of new self-isolation requirements for when the workers arrive in the country. But migrant rights advocates are warning the safety measures won’t work in the crowded living conditions these workers are forced to live in.

In today’s episode of This Matters, Saba Eitizaz talks to the Star’s Work and Wealth reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh about the crisis Canada’s essential migrant workers are facing, and why it took a pandemic to highlight the circumstances of a group that was vulnerable and unprotected, even before a national health crisis.

Listen here or subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts.

Read Sara Mojtehedzadeh’s article here.