Challenging a “Cycle of Neglect”: Health and Safety Among Transnational Agricultural Workers in Canada and the UK

Migrants—and especially those working in sectors such as agriculture—are considered to be at particular risk of exposure to a range of adverse occupational health and safety (OHS) conditions that impact on their health and well-being. This chapter highlights the ‘cycle of neglect’ which characterizes OHS issues in relation to transnational agricultural workers (TAWs) and identifies potential stressors that impact on their well-being. Located in predominantly rural areas in the global North, TAWs are affected by neoliberalisation, intensification of agricultural production, deregulated labour markets, and precarious and flexible employment conditions, all of which result in the erosion of rights with consequent negative impacts on their well-being. Operating within transnational contexts challenges prevailing differences in work safety regulations and traditional paradigms of public health research and delivery located as they are in specific disciplinary, national and spatial contexts. In order to address migrant well-being and their health, occupational health research needs to give more attention to the transnational economic, political, spatial and social contexts within which migrant agricultural workers are embedded by drawing on a range of disciplines.