HARVESTING FREEDOM The Life of a Migrant Worker in Canada

 

HARVESTING FREEDOM

The Life of a Migrant Worker in Canada

GABRIEL ALLAHDUA with Edward Dunsworth

This is a powerful memoir that exposes the many injustices confronting migrant workers at the sharp end of capitalism.

Born in St Lucia and descending from both enslaved Africans and indentured Indians, Gabriel Allahdua’s family was engaged in agricultural pursuits including growing bananas. After doing well educationally he become a teacher before pursuing an entrepreneurial agricultural path that included beekeeping and a grocery business.

In 2010, thirteen years after the USA had used its clout to disastrously get the World Trade Organisation to end Caribbean countries’ preferential access to European markets for banana exports, St Lucia was battered by Hurricane Tomas that devasted the island and wiped out the banana crop. Amidst a destroyed economy the father of two children, whose mother had died, was forced to seek overseas work.

As a child he had heard good things from his elders about the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Programme, (SAWP) first started in 1966, jointly operated by Canadian and St Lucian governments that allowed St Lucians to work for eight months each year on Canadian farms.

With Canada having also built one of his schools then Allahdua was sure that he would be treated fairly once he got the go ahead to join the 2011-12 SAWP. It did not take more than a few minutes on his arrival in North America to reveal the harsh realities he had signed up to as on leaving Toronto airport he realised that no one had even bothered to inform his group of fellow nationals that it would be extremely cold and they should be dressed appropriately. Everyone endured a horrible first night.

He admits not taking the time to read his contract that meant he could be expected to work unregulated hours and weeks without a day off. There was no right in Ontario to join a trade union or to transfer employers, who are also the landlords of the migrant workers.  There was also no chance of placing down permanent roots. In truth it mattered little whether he, unlike others who’d made the trip north, was literate because of the author’s powerlessness.

What then follows is a description of some of the horrors of working in a greenhouse and the fear of never being quite quick enough to keep up with expected pace of production bringing with it a fear of being summarily deported back home. Amidst these difficulties there is the unexpected pleasure of bonding with his fellow employees from different countries and he also manages to strike up relationships with some local Canadians who are not part of a general distrust towards migrant workers.

The author is inspired enough that when he attends a Justice For Migrant Workers (J4MW) vigil, that was organised following the death of 10 migrant workers and one Canadian trucker and which was supported by some trade unions, he speaks out about the situation facing migrant workers. Despite the obvious dangers of deportation, he continued to voice his concerns. Then, with the backing of his Canadian friends, he obtained legal advice to begin the lengthy permanent residency process that he eventually won to enable him to settle in Canada in March 2016 and finally bring his children, now adults, to live with him in 2019. He is one of the very lucky ones.

The author has not rested on his laurels and has thrown himself into supporting migrant workers, who, unless, as he points out are supported and unionised, will be used to bring down the terms and conditions of all workers.

‘Not having the representation of a union is another human-made layer that makes us invisible, adding to the recipe of exploitation.’

 He lists the 20 injustices facing migrant workers in Canada. They are replicated internationally. Allahdua believes most of these injustices can be fixed by ‘all migrant workers receiving permanent immigration status upon arrival in Canada’ and he and J4HW, backed trade union allies, are campaigning to win such a policy. He has appeared before a parliamentary inquiry into the situation facing migrant workers which was of little value to those exploited so badly. He was given just 3 minutes to speak.