Recognizing the cultural background, motivation, and experience of TN-visa workers in the U.S. swine industry

The U.S. swine industry faces ongoing challenges in hiring and retaining a skilled workforce. Therefore, it heavily relies on foreign workers from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through the TN-visa program. TN-visa workers also experience high turnover rates, which shows a strong need to examine the retention of these workers in greater detail. The objectives of this research were to determine the demographics, motivation, and experience of this critical workforce. Furthermore, it was to determine predictive variables of career advancement and role attainment. A survey was conducted with 261 TN-visa workers. Thirty farms surveyed reported approximately 40% of TN-visa employees within their workforce. In addition, two-thirds of TN-visa holders move to the U.S. in their early to mid-thirties, have high educational attainment (10% earned a master’s degree) and prefer to speak Spanish (80%). They expressed the desire for better salaries, and financially supporting family in Mexico was the primary driver for employment in the U.S. Professional motivations were highly rated as acquiring new skills and experiencing a positive and supportive work environment. Cultural adaptation was the greatest obstacle for resettling workers, particularly navigating language barriers, which hindered their ability to communicate effectively in the workplace and integrate into the local community. The multivariable mixed-effects logistic regression revealed that TN-visa workers with 3–6 years and over 6 years of experience in the TN-visa program demonstrated three-fold (OR = 3.15; P = 0.005) and four-fold (OR = 4.00; P = 0.014) elevated odds of holding managerial positions, respectively, in comparison to those with less experience in the program. Moreover, employees that were aware of promotion opportunities at their workplace had over four-fold higher odds of working in upper management compared to workers that did not (OR = 4.4; P = 0.003). Also, females tended to have two-fold higher odds of holding a management position compared to males (OR = 2.00; P = 0.065). Furthermore, extensive organizational support designed to mitigate the social and linguistic obstacles associated with cross-border professional relocation is crucial for enabling TN-visa professionals to effectively integrate and thrive in their positions. Addressing these systemic issues will be crucial for the U.S. swine industry to stabilize its workforce and fully leverage the expertise of these skilled employees.