Détails du document

Impression et sauvegarde

Thèse

Workin' on the contract: St. Lucian farmworkers in Ontario. A study of international labour migration

Ce document est controversé

Date

1998

Auteurs

Sherrie Noreen Larkin

Résumé

This dissertation examines the seasonal round of St Lucian contract workers who travel to Ontario every year for temporary employment in the Foreign Agricultural Resources Management Service programme (FARMS). The study's focus is divided among Ontario growers as employers, St Lucian agricultural workers as employees, residents of a rural town in Southwestern Ontario, and governmental departments that influence the FARMS programme in Canada and in St Lucia. The main argument of the dissertation is that labour migration has been an integral part of St Lucian history since emancipation on the island. It is both an economic strategy and a symbol of the freedom emancipation promised. While factors external to the island, such as the need for agricultural labour in Ontario and a long history of connections between Canada and the British West Indies influence where St Lucians travel, the propensity of these men and women to leave the island and return can only be explained in terms of St Lucia's history as a British colony. Within this history, labour migration emerges in conjunction with other strategies of enduring yet resisting the plantation economy that characterized the island for centuries. Although "workin' on the contract" in Canada is used by St Lucians for individual social and economic goals, it derives its meaning from the shared cultural beliefs and values of the island's society.

Number of pages

308

Université

McMaster University (Canada)

Département académique

Anthropology

Niveau

Ph.D.

Lieu de publication

Hamilton

Fichiers joints

Liens

Secteurs économiques

Agriculture and horticulture workers

Types de contenu

Policy analysis

Groupes cibles

Chercheurs

Domaines de réglementation

Droit de changer d’employeur, Droit de choisir son lieu de résidence, Droit de se syndiquer, Normes du travail, Santé et sécurité au travail et Réunification des familles

Pertinence géographique

Ontario et Other Caribbean States

Sphères d’activité

Socioligie

Langues

Anglais