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“It’s like We’re Still in Slavery”: Stress as Distress and Discourse among Jamaican Farm Workers in Ontario, Canada

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  • Stephanie Mayell

    (Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 2S2, Canada
    Department of Anthropology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8, Canada)

Abstract

For more than fifty years, Jamaican farm workers have been seasonally employed in Canada under the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). In Canada, these workers live and work in conditions that make them vulnerable to various health issues, including poor mental health. This ethnographic study investigated Jamaican SAWP workers’ mental health experiences in Southern Ontario. Several common factors that engender psychological distress among Jamaican workers, ranging from mild to extreme suffering, were uncovered and organised into five themes: (1) family, (2) work environments and SAWP relations, (3) living conditions and isolation, (4) racism and social exclusion, and (5) illness and injury. I found that Jamaican workers predominantly use the term ‘stress’ to articulate distress, and they associate experiences of suffering with historic plantation slavery. Analysis of workers’ stress discourses revealed their experiences of psychological distress are structured by the conditions of the SAWP and their social marginalisation in Ontario. This article presents and discusses these findings in the context of SAWP power dynamics and concludes with policy recommendations aimed at improving the mental health of all SAWP workers. In foregrounding the experiences of Jamaican workers, this study addresses the dearth of research on the health and wellbeing of Caribbean SAWP workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephanie Mayell, 2023. "“It’s like We’re Still in Slavery”: Stress as Distress and Discourse among Jamaican Farm Workers in Ontario, Canada," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-20, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:13:y:2023:i:1:p:16-:d:1307108
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Leah F. Vosko & Tanya Basok & Cynthia Spring & Guillermo Candiz & Glynis George, 2022. "Understanding Migrant Farmworkers’ Health and Well-Being during the Global COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada: Toward a Transnational Conceptualization of Employment Strain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-19, July.
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