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Comment by lebuffon | Hacker News Reader

Fascinating different approach taken by Canada for workers from Mexico and Jamaica. Workers are flown in during the farming season, legally, under laws created for the purpose in cooperation with the governments of Mexico and Jamaica.

The migrant workers don't want to stay in Canada for most part. They just want to work, for $15 CAD/hr, remit money and go home for Christmas.

It's not perfect, as some employers treat them poorly, but that is not the norm. The farmers/country need and appreciate these people.

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The US took a similar approach to farm labor with the Braceros program.

https://guides.loc.gov/latinx-civil-rights/bracero-program

What we now call Silicon Valley used to be filled with those workers picking and packing fruit during harvest season. It worked pretty well, but was terminated in 1964.

What if I told you that those same workers were being hired by Tim Horton's?

https://www.macleans.ca/economy/business/a-growing-problem-f...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/headlines/who-s-look...

People would work Tim Horton's jobs for $30 USD an hour.

The vast majority of Americans and Canadians wouldn't do farm work for $30 USD an hour.

My point was that the TFW program was being abused to bring in workers cheaper than local labour for things the program was not intended for, distorting labour markets (and resulting in the mistreatment of workers).

then pay $100 an hour and let the market work properly without being distorted by abusive labor practices. Food prices wouldn't even increase, Big Ag would just lose some of their profit margin

long term it would lead to tech improvements like robotics to do more of the manual work and everybody's life would improve

Those damn Brazilians.

Farms have used the very same thing in the US for a very long time.

https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/training/migrantfarmworker...

This is just slavery without the upkeep.

Uh… how?

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