THE MIGRANT WORKER CANADA / UNITED STATES OVERSEAS EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMMES
US AGRICULTURAL PROGRAMME (H-2A)
After World War II, sugar cane growers in Florida entered into contractual arrangements to facilitate the employment of Jamaicans and other West Indians for the purpose of harvesting sugar cane. This led to the development of the seasonal farm work programme, where a large number of West Indians were employed on a seasonal basis in Florida, initially to reap sugar cane. From 1960 – 1976, the number of West Indian workers who participated in the programme peaked. An average of 12,865 workers travelled to several states, including: Florida, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia. However, Florida accounted for more than 75% of this total annually.
Jamaica always had the largest number of workers participating in the programme, accounting for more than 70% of the migrant West Indian workers. From the 1950s through the 1970s, 7000 – 10,000 Jamaicans travelled each year. However, due to a reduction in the cultivation of sugar cane in the major sugar producing States of Florida and Louisiana, the number of workers declined during the ensuing years.
Today, Jamaican workers are dispatched by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, under the agricultural programme to take up employment opportunities in States such as Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Virginia, Washington D.C.
US HOSPITALITY PROGRAMME (H-2B)
Under the H-2B Programme foreign workers travel to the United States on a temporary basis to perform nonagricultural jobs, for which American workers are not available. Employers must be certified by their State Labour Department and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). They must also demonstrate that the job is seasonal, peak load or intermittent and that the job is temporary.
The first set of Jamaican workers on this component of the programme travelled to the US in 1968. Jamaican hospitality workers are primarily employed in Michigan, Florida North and South Carolina, Georgia, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, in occupations such as chefs, servers, front desk personnel, bartenders, housekeepers, laundry attendants, landscapers and maintenance workers.
CANADIAN SEASONAL AGRICULTURAL WORKERS PROGRAMME (SAWP)
The Seasonal Agricultural Workers Programme (SAWP) started in 1966 with the recruitment of 264 Jamaican workers to work in Georgian Bay, Ontario. This came shortly after an agreement between the Governments of Jamaica and Canada to supply agricultural workers to the Canadian Agricultural sector, as a response to a critical shortage of labour in the Canadian Agricultural Sector at that time. This first set of workers were contracted to 14 employers and worked mainly in Ontario on fruit and tobacco farms.
Based on the quality of work by the Jamaicans, as well as their reliability, other employers became interested in utilizing this avenue to source well needed labour and so the programme was expanded in 1967 with the addition of two other Caribbean Countries, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. The areas of engagement for workers from the Caribbean were expanded to include vegetable farms, nurseries and factories. In 1976 the programme was further expanded by Canada to include the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and Mexico, as well as other Provinces such as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Vancouver and Manitoba.
BENEFITS OF THE OVERSEAS EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMMES
The programmes provide enormous benefits to Canada and the United States. Overseas employers have come to rely on the annual movement between Regional supply countries for a stable workforce and have demonstrated a high level of confidence in the productivity of the workers, which has resulted in a high proportion of returning workers each year.
During the 2016/2017 fiscal year, more than 7000 workers travelled to the United States to fill positions in the agricultural and hospitality sectors. The current season of the Canadian Programme marks the 52nd Anniversary since the beginning of the programme in 1966, which currently provides stable employment for approximately 9000 Jamaican workers each year. There is no doubt that the programmes have made a significant contribution to the development of the Jamaican economy.