Hundreds of Mexican temporary agricultural workers began arriving in Canada this month to work on grape, tobacco, fruit, flower, and vegetable crops at nearly two thousand farms.
This temporary and orderly migration began in 1974, (under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program, Mexico - Canada), with only 203 workers. That figure tripled in 10 years to nearly five thousand workers in 1994, and doubled a decade later (to 10,708 workers), according to official figures.
Last year, 23,893 temporary workers from almost every state of Mexico arrived in Canada (44 percent more than five years ago) to work in this country for periods ranging from three to eight months.
Oscar Ortiz Serrano, a native of Durango, has traveling to work on grape growing farms at Niagara on the Lake for the past ten years. In the next six months, this Mexican will work an average of 60 hours per week and be paid $11.40 per hour (172.29 pesos).
Ortiz Serrano said his experience had been good: "I have a job, a home, and I'm treated well. I haven't had any problems, but sometimes the heating does not work at home and winter is very cold."
"We're a little sad when we come to Canada but we are eager to work and when we leave we're very happy," he added.
When asked if he would like to stay in Canada, Ortiz Serrano immediately answers no. "I am Mexican, I love my country and my family comes first, there is nothing like Mexico," he said.
Daniel Ramirez Flores, a 59 year old native of Tlaxcala and father of six, has been traveling to work in Canada for the past 26 years. "Necessity forces us to come here so that we can give our families a better life. We are far but there have been benefits for housing and study," he said.
Daniel has worked on tomato, cucumber, apple, and strawberry crops. He works eight to 10 hours a day, depending on the job and the climate. Sometimes he works on Sundays. He gets paid $11.43 an hour.
"The hard part is working in the same position for many hours. However, once you have experience you get less tired," he said. He also stated that the bosses treated them right, and added that "people should be respectful to get respect."
During the months he lives in Canada, Daniel misses Mexico's culture and customs, even though it is now easier for him to find tortillas and chilis in Canada as these are now stores selling these products near the farms populated with Mexicans.
Two flights from Air Canada and Aeromexico arrived in Canada on Tuesday morning with nearly 100 workers, who were received by officers from the Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services (FARMS) and sent in different buses to their farms.
Jorge Mora Hernandez, a worker from Michoacán who has been a part of the PTAT for 10 years, said he was going to work growing wine grapes in the region of Virgil, near Niagara.
One of the advantages of this program, he said, was the paternity pension. He then added that he needed to find out what other benefits the program has. Every month, the PTAT deducts a commission from the workers paycheck so that they can have a pension for life once they reach their retirement age.
Jose de Jesus Martinez Quizazaga, from Veracruz, has spent six seasons working in the cultivation of grapes and has come to Canada to work for seven months. He said that while illegal Mexican workers were living a risky situation in the United States, they were working legally in Canada and had benefits. "We come to work, eat, and sleep," said the young worker. He also said he liked Canada but didn't want to live here, "I like to come and go because I have the freedom to return to Mexico to see my family."
Most seasonal agricultural workers work in farms in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta. Several years ago Mexican women also started coming to Canada. Currently, they represent less than 5.0 percent of the Mexican workforce in Canada.
Source: Notimex