Temporary migrant workers represent a large portion of the labour force of Canada's agricultural industry with over 50,000 entering the country each year. Despite well-documented barriers, there have not been standardized and proactive measures to prevent and quickly respond to positive COVID-19 cases among this group who have experienced some of the largest outbreaks outside of long-term care facilities. We conducted research in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia between 2017–2020, with formal and informal support persons of migrant agricultural workers including members of government agencies, non-profits, and community groups. We found that migrant agricultural workers' access to support and services is constrained by a series of socio-political forces that we have termed "Relentless Border Walls". In this paper we define this concept and discuss three key factors that constitute it: onus on workers; paternalism and control; and system-enabled vulnerabilities. Ultimately, these concepts highlight how migrant agricultural workers are made uniquely susceptible to COVID-19 outbreaks, and suggest necessary social and political changes to better address the needs of this population.
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Caxaj et al. (2021) studied this question.